In the first post in this series I discussed one of the reasons your site may not be bringing you clients, aiming your content at the wrong market. The number two reason also has to do with your content.

Once we’ve reviewed the site and looked at the content to determine who is being targeted, our next step is to see if they are talking to them or at them.

Sadly, the majority of businesses talk at their target market. What do I mean?

They give them a sales pitch, explaining what they do, why they’re good at it and try to impress potential clients with their education, experience, awards and testimonials. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for those things, and I’ll go into that another time, but it shouldn’t be the main focus of your site.

It’s not really their fault, traditional marketing was all about making an impression, talking big and tooting your own horn. Thankfully, marketing is changing. Widespread use of the Internet and social media is changing how people search for services and products.

Potential clients are no longer searching for the provider with the most impressive list of achievements but one that shows they understand their needs.

So what should you be doing?

You should be talking to your visitors and letting them know you understand what their needs may be. Realize that you might not know everything they need and ask them to let you know what their problems are. Encourage them to interact with you.

Instead of thinking about what your readers need to know about you, think about what they need to know that you know.

Today take a hard look at that content again and make sure you’re not talking at your audience but actually talking to them and with them.

I’m not getting any clients from my website/blog.

It’s the complaint I hear from business people most often.
It’s a frustrating situation, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time and money on a website and/or writing content for your blog.  The fact is, ‘if you build it, they will come’ only applies to the field of dreams.  Simply building your website or adding content to a blog and waiting for your e-mail inbox to fill up with contact form requests is like waiting for Shoeless Joe Jackson to show up at your little league field.  It’s highly unlikely to happen.

So what do I do when a client asks me why their website isn’t generating business?  I take a look at their website.

What I’ve found is that their problem usually lies within 6 common areas.

Rather than just touch on each problem area briefly in one post, I’m going to do a daily series of posts next week.  Monday through Saturday I’ll list each problem area along with tips on how to determine if that’s your problem and if so how to fix it.

And since this is such a common complaint, I’m also going to offer the series in the form of a newsletter, delivered right to your inbox, so if you don’t feel you’ll remember to check each day’s post next week, make sure you sign up for the newsletter so that you don’t miss anything.  Of course, you can also subscribe via RSS so that you don’t miss any posts at all.