Q I am an entrepreneur with a new website for caregivers and seniors in long-term care. Our business is two-pronged. We offer a free medication and appointment management technology plus other tools, resources, and a supportive community. Yet we also license and customize our technology to long-term care companies and employers offering employee assistance health programs. Do I need to create and invest in a different website for the business-to-business side of the company?

SUSAN BAIDA

WWW.ECAREDIARY.COM

A Yes, I suggest a second website for the business-to-business side.

Even though the information "product" is the same, the channel or "place" for the two are very different.

The eCareDiary is a free, open system. Anyone can access it and use individual features or not for an indeterminate length of time. The business model is to attract a sufficient number of similar users who will appeal to advertisers of senior-care related products. Your target is seniors and senior caregivers.

The license side of the business has a different target: long-term care companies and employers offering employee assistance health programs. They are coming to you to utilize your technology to further differentiate their product. Although they will benefit from the product development experience you have built from eCareDiary, their decision to use your services and the capabilities they will ask from you are sufficiently different to warrant a second site. Using a different business model, the license side will benefit from a simple welcome page and statement that quickly takes visitors to a registration and sales lead follow-up.

While the sites should be different, they can work together; eCareDiary is a potential advertising vehicle for long-term care companies and other service providers. Links for employer benefits providers and long-term care companies to the license side of your business will allow you to build on the presence and awareness created by eCareDiary while maintaining the distance the license side needs from the consumer side.

JONATHAN SELTZER

INSTRUCTOR OF MARKETING,

UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

OPUS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS