Let’s have a brutally honest chat today about your local business website…

Your website looks great, everyone tells you it is great. Employees, friends, family. Even you’re convinced. “Yep, my website looks great, how can prospects and clients NOT be impressed?”

But guess what?

It’s Sucks!

Yep, in reality, it’s little more than a static electronic brochure with a couple nice pictures, a bunch of boring boiler-plate product/service junk, directions to your office, or the lame “Call for a Free Consultation”.

You see, very few-probably less that 1% of small businesses- get this…

The Internet is a dynamic, interactive media

You have with a website a powerful communication tool. Most Local Business Pros sense this, yet struggle with tapping into this power. Mostly, it’s because graphic designers and website builders- those folks you no doubt hired to build your site- don’t have a clue about marketing and the sales process.

With the Internet, information can flow back and forth. You can share tons of information about you and your business with your prospects…

* Pictures
* Audio
* Video
* Free download reports
* e-mail
* e-mail courses
* and more…

And, get this, your prospects can easily tell you what they want.

All of this information – tons of information – is rather inexpensive compared to print.

And, you can automate and put the sharing of this information on auto-pilot.

You’re able to segment, target, and attract visitors via searches, keywords, links, and pay-per-click campaigns.

And with Web 2.0 tactics… such as blogs, social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, videos at sites such as YouTube and Google Video… with a bit of time and effort, you can position yourself as THE Expert in your market… and ATTRACT targeted Ideal Prospects to you.

And, here’s the biggie: you can track, and test everything quickly and inexpensively.

All in all, the Internet is a marketing dream come true media, but it is over-hyped, confusing, and mis-understood.

And here’s the secret to tapping into the power of the Internet.

The key in using the Internet is not tactics, tricks, or tweaks.

It’s a major shift in your thinking

Stop using the Internet to market your products and services.

Use the Internet to market information about problems that your prospects and clients have that you are uniquely qualified to solve.

How’s Your Local Business Website Working Out?

Is it a Lead-Generation machine?

Does it help you automatically deliver information and help you build relationships with prospects and clients?

What questions or challenges do you have in making your website work?

Flickr Photo Credit: The Nothing Corporation

Related articles on Local Business Websites:

• How your business can use blogging (socialpress.co.za)
• AWR Expands Social Networking Presence to Include LinkedIn (eon.businesswire.com)
• Intro to Social Networking (slideshare.net)
• 2 plans to integrate your Social Web presence (socialmedia.biz)

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