Make everything available online

If you are already planning on publishing a website then you probably have some idea of what you want it to contain. You may have existing printed material that could form the basis of your website. If you've got a printed brochure, it might be tempting to simply copy the brochure layout and content and put it on your web. In practice this may neither practical nor desirable, it will depend on the style of your brochure. In any event you may be able to do a lot more with your website than you can do in a brochure.

Brochure pages, with the exception of fold-outs and centre spreads, are all the same size. Web pages are all the same width but can be any length. Brochures are designed to be read from front to back. Web pages can be arranged in any order. In a brochure you can have large background pictures, on a website this may not be practical (see Photographs). If you click on the 'photographs' link it takes you straight to the relevant page. This eliminates the need for repetition of text that is so often necessary in printed material. So in designing web pages you can provide the visitor with instant access to any part of your site. The 'Back' arrow at the top of the browser always provides a way back again.

Websites, unlike printed material, are easy and inexpensive to update – there's no reprinting involved. You can afford to include all sorts of things on your website that you wouldn't normally send in a mailing. Manuals, instructions, data sheets, parts lists, spreadsheets, databases. If anything changes, any pages affected can be updated instantly at any time of the day or night. Your website can reflect every aspect of your business. If you provide a customer support service you can even incorporate a live questions and answers facility. An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page could also be useful. You should incorporate anything that will make life easier for your existing customers or potential new customers.

Some customers may prefer to have your material in hard copy. No problem. Your website can provide facilities for copies of printed material to be downloaded onto their computer so that it can be output on their printer. Alternatively you can incorporate a brochure request form where the visitor can fill in their name and address and select the desired publication. The request can be sent to you by e-mail at the click of a button, or added to a file or database on the web server that you, and only you, can access at any time.

If you've got the budget then you can go several steps further than all this. Animation gives you the opportunity to include graphic demonstrations on your site. You can illustrate how a product works or how a service is carried out using formal graphics or cartoons as appropriate to the style of your organisation. If that doesn't cover every requirement how about video clips? Video clips can have a duration of 20 seconds or more.

If you sell and dispatch products you will ultimately have the opportunity to take orders live on your site (see e-commerce).