Compete using technology - includes related articles on Web site usage and nontechnical business strategies - Industry Trend or Event - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1997 by Francy Blackwood, John Moore, Bernard Yee

If you're often on the go, leave vital business information on your outgoing voice-mail message. Let customers know anything pertinent--from your fax and pager numbers and availability of services to when you'll return to the office. If they can't talk to you directly, they should still be able to get some questions answered. And by all means, include your pager, fax, and toll-free numbers, Web site, and e-mail addresses on business cards and marketing materials.

Pick up fax messages on the fly with Concord's Fax Mailbox service for retrieving fax and toll-free voice messages (800-792-0329; $9.95 monthly for voice retrieval, and another $9.95 for fax retrieval, plus 50 cents per-page for the first 10 fax pages; 45 cents for pages 11 through 50; 35 cents per page thereafter). It's like having voice mail for your faxes: Clients just dial your company-supplied toll-free number, send their documents, and faxes are stored in your Fax Mailbox until you're ready to retrieve them. Or with HotFax MessageCenter software loaded on your system, you can route incoming faxes to, say, your hotel room. Here's yet another option: Subscribe to your phone carrier's fax-retrieval service. US West's Fax Mail Plus, for instance, allows you to access stored faxes back at the office from wherever you are and whenever you want for about $15.95, plus 21 cents per page a month.

Use pagers, software, and cell phones to send and/or receive e-mail and voice mail. So far, Motorola's PageWriter (due to ship in early 1997; 800-548-9954; $399) is the only pager that will let you do all of the above, but others will follow. If you already have a beeper, check out E:Page (found on our Web site at www.small office.com). It's shareware that dials your ISP anytime you want, downloads your e-mail, and sends it to a pager, even an alphanumeric unit. If you already have such telephony software as HotFax or Small Business Assistant (Telephony Experts, 800-838-8642; Win; $395), use the pager-notification feature to instruct your PC to alert you via modem when messages are left with your voice mail. Last, if you're in the market for a cell phone, hold off until Motorola and Mitsubishi release their newest models. With these wireless wonders, you can retrieve e-mail messages without a PC when you're away from the office.

Advertise Aggressively

To better position your business against rivals, here's how to look like a class act in the classifieds.

Even if you don' t have your own Web page, you can gain a presence in cyberspace by placing a classified ad on a site that your prospects frequent. Online ads run from $50 and up, depending on the number of views received, impressions, and other variables. Or for no cost, you can go to message boards on sites that allow company postings. What's more, you can use AOL and CompuServe's free message boards to tout your business to technical-savvy prospects.

When it comes to placing your ads, the yellow pages is still the best way to go. And bigger is better, according to guerrilla marketer Levinson. Large ads get better placement and are near the front of the listing. If your business logically fits into more than one yellow pages category, it's better to have a large ad in a small category than a small ad in a large, crowded one. Like all your marketing materials, add eye-catching elements--photographs, illustrations, your logo, or clip art--using such programs as MyProfessionalMarketingMaterials 3.0 (MySoftware, 800-3253508; Win 95, Win; $79.95). But be careful: Don't pack in so much that your ad becomes too cluttered to read. Finally, if you advertise in a trade publication, go for a full-page ad--even if it means you have to reduce the frequency of your advertising. "Readers of trade magazines don't bother checking less than fullpage ads," claims marketing expert Bob Adams.