A few days back, one of my friends asked me to help him figure out, how he could send emails to his customers using an address like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Even I was not aware of how to do such a thing, when I joined this company 10 months back. Thanks to working on NGR Technosys, I was able to help my friend. He was relieved to find that establishing such an email address was very easy and cheap. And he could maintain it on his own.

Further, he wanted to send a marketing email to his customers every month and ensure that it gets delivered. His eyes lit up when I told him, that he could not only track, if the email got delivered, but also track which link (if any) were clicked by the users. This statistics could help him gauge the interest of his customers and help him do better marketing.

As his interest grew, I realized that many businesses have similar desires and difficulties, when it comes to creating an online presence. Hence, I am listing here, an overview to take your company online, the way NGR did (with some improvements).

1. Get A Domain Name

You can buy a domain name for your company like yourcompany.com or yourcompany.co.in at a domain registrar's website like http://www.namecheap.com, http://www.godaddy.com, etc. You have to pay yearly charges to maintain your domain's registration. The pricing starts at about $2 for the least popular top-level domains (TLD - eg. .co.in, .in, .info) and increases with popularity (eg. .com, .net)

2. Create A Google Apps Account (Free - For Upto 10 Users)

Go to http://www.google.com/a/, click on Solutions and select Google Apps (Free) and get started.

While registering for Google Apps, you will need to specify the domain name that you own. Google will ask you to create one or more DNS resource records in your domain registrar's DNS management system.

A DNS resource record is essentially a record which tells your browser, to go to a specified server when you type www.your_company.com in the browser's address bar.

It will then try to verify if the domain is actually owned by you. Here is the help on how to get your domain be successfully verified: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60216 The easiest option is to add a TXT record in your DNS management system.

You can find detailed help on getting started with google apps, here: http://support.google.com/a/

3. Use An Email Marketing Tool To Send Newsletters

Tools like http://ngrtech.com/ngrinteract, etc. let you easily create beautiful newsletters to send to your customers. They provide analytics like number of opened emails, links clicked, number of bounced emails etc. Full list of features and pricing can be found on their websites. Since they are whitelisted on many popular ISP’s and email providers, there is a low probability of getting your emails sent to the spam folder, unless the user explicitly marks your mail as spam (which can also be tracked).

In summary, a highly effective marketing tool.

4. Website

One can start with a basic website containing four pages. A home page, an about us page, a contact us page and a products page / features page.

Initially, your contact us page can mention an email address, which can be used to contact you. Now a days, people expect a clearly mentioned pricing scheme on the website, if it is possible.

You will need to build a website and buy web hosting to host this website. There are plenty of hosting providers which have competitive pricing and minimal downtime.

NGR's next generation customer experience and content management system the NGRPulse, if used to build your website, let you easily maintain your websites yourselves, if you think that your website will need frequent changes. It allows you to create your own standard website and blog without any hassles of hiring a web developer or buying any hosting space.

5. Social Networking

Using twitter.com, you can post short news, anecdotes and links to keep your customers updated. (At least those who follow you on twitter).

However, nothing beats content. Writing blog posts which help spread knowledge and awareness or the ongoings in the company can lead to popularity among your customers. Most search engines improve your rankings based on how authentic your content is and how relevant or recent it is.

6. Web Based Business Management

The biggest advantage of taking your company online is the accessibility and the flexibility you get in return.

Using Google Docs, you can collaborate and create documents on the go, without worrying about installing any software.

You can setup an e-commerce / webshop to make it easy for your customers to buy your products / services. It also boosts sales and lowers cost.

Web based solutions to perform accounting, manage projects, inventory, sales and purchase make it very easy to keep your data updated on a daily basis. NGRPulse, NGRbON and NGRERP are some of such products among many available.