Traditional thought for most companies with an Internet presence is that you must develop a Web site strategy that incorporates e-commerce. Well, just like bigger is not always better and winning is not the only thing that matters, every business does not need to use its Web site as a cash register in order for the site to succeed. While handling business transactions over the Internet can increase sales, expand your company’s appeal to customers, and offset the cost of building and maintaining a site, don’t think that you have to justify every monthly Web expenditure with a corresponding sales report.

For many small to medium-size businesses, using the Web primarily as an extension of their marketing efforts will pay off in the long run. Since a good Web site will be more than just a digital version of your company’s corporate catalog, brochure, or annual report, your site can offer existing and new information on your company, its products, services, and staff, and be a highly effective way to reach your customer base and prospects. Web sites are first and foremost communication vehicles that allow you to present your company in a multitude of ways to an audience that is available 24-7.

In some ways your company’s Web site is like a trade show that never closes, a sales presentation that never ends, and a marketing brochure that is mailed 365 days a year. While you certainly don’t want to stop exhibiting at trade shows, fire your sales force and cancel all direct mail efforts, your Web site is a valuable extension of your current sales and marketing efforts, and should be thought of in the same way that you would evaluate traditional marketing efforts.

Most purchasing decisions are based on a number of factors and not one specific incident. People don’t simply see an advertisement, speak to a salesperson, receive a brochure, or stop by a trade show booth and instantly decide to buy. Purchasing decisions are influenced by sales and marketing efforts, and each facet has some impact on the ultimate decision to buy your product or service instead of someone else’s.

Your company’s Web site can reinforce your existing sales and marketing efforts, and offer many added dimensions. While selling a bath bench or a package of adult diapers online may seem like a viable way to justify the cost associated with building and maintaining a quality site there is one other area of interest that, in some ways, is even more valuable than e-commerce.

Using your site as a way to reach out to and attract referral sources, end users of home care, and family caregivers is worth its weight in gold. HME providers depend on referral sources for new business, and it is impossible to succeed in today’s consumer-driven marketplace without bringing your business directly to end users and family caregivers.

Sales representatives for HME providers are instrumental in gaining referrals from health care professionals and there can be no substitute for meeting one on one. However, promoting your site to local health care professionals can help maintain and increase referrals from your existing business contacts, and introduce your company to a host of new referral sources that your sales force has not had time to call on.

As for the end users of home care products and services, the home health care industry still suffers from the “you’re the best kept secret” phenomenon. Until home care becomes as well known among the general population as hospital or nursing home care, HME providers need to keep promoting their industry among end users and family caregivers. Networking your company’s site with local health care-related sites and specific sites that appeal to end users and family caregivers is a great way to bring foot traffic into your store. Using your site as a way to build the referral and retail side of your business should be at the top of the list when building and growing a Web site.

So don’t be discouraged if your site isn’t generating enough revenue to buy a latte and a low-fat muffin at Starbucks. According to an article in the September 18 issue of Business Week, many well-known and high-end retailers are struggling with e-commerce as well and are being forced to rethink their Web strategy. My advice: Relax and stop watching your site’s sales volume so closely. Web sites are great marketing tools and should be treated as such.