Brainstorm with me - how to sell a website to a local business?

To build on direct mail...

Take a screen shot of their current (crappy) site print it out and send it to them.. with a message along the lines of "I had a great idea on how to make your site bring in more customers, call me at xxxxx when you're ready to hear it!"

If you charge enough you could offer 1 month free SEO or until they're on the front page.

Call them up and ask them how their site is doing.. when they say they don't really know or whatever else.. tell them you'd love to install Google Analytics into their site free of charge, so they can see what their site is really doing and you will follow up with them in a month.. this should make it an easier close as they will see their site is most likely doing nothing, also they will feel since you've done something free for them they will be more indebted to you.

Do screen cast videos analyzing their current website and the flaws it may have for converting leads. Call them and get their best e-mail to send the video to. Follow-up with them to ensure they've got it/seen it. Embed a bit.ly link in the link to the video you provide in the e-mail to track if they have in fact checked it out.

Do pre-builds and rank them.. then rent them out for monthly/yearly fees. (I know this is kind of straying from your original idea.)

So far it looks like you've got a pretty good list. Let us know how you do!

Thanks,

James

To be honest i think you're targeting a though crowd, if a business owner and you still doesn't have a website changes are that he or she is not going to buy one from you. you really need to educate these people and you have to hit them multiple times with offers and show them and convince them they do need a website.

But it is going to be a hard way to sell your service, maybe you're better of searching for businesses with crappy sites but that do advertise online... they understand the importance of the internet, create a review video of their site and show them how you can improve it and therefor improve their business.


Dave

Yeah what Dave said pretty much. Target people already spending moola and getting bad results.

But if you did wanna chase them, expand off your point - Show their competitors sites. Really drive home how their competitors have used the internet to become successful and let them know you can do the same (this can involve a bit more than a website, their sales process probably sucks and they need traffic also).

Call them up, ask what their website is.

We don't have one.

How do you get customers?

Word of mouth

Are you happy with the amount of customers you are getting?

We could always use more

Are you aware of how X competitor has dominated your market the past 3 years....and so on.

If you're confident that the potential client will be seeing significant results within a few months, you can offer to set up an opt-in list, and a site on hosting you control, and give them 3 months or so to decide if they want to pay. If you're bringing them additional sales every month, they'll pay you. Obviously this will only work if there's a way for the client to track what sales are generated by the website, like with printable coupons, etc...

You can always create the opportunity for them. It gets easier if you already have some sort of connection with them tho. Have you got some local background, or are you planning to just try to sell stuff to people that never saw you or heard your name? There is a big difference between the 2 approaches.

Edit:

Go edit your OP, then choose Go Advanced. Et voilá!!

I think the personal contact might be useful in such situations. Contacting someone per phone, although cheap and fast, may not be as efficient as establighing a meeting where you can use the ideas mentioned above.
contacting such companies (without a website) per email is a pretty disastrous idea, considering that probably such companies don´t know a lot about the online world.

Best Regards,

Hisocial

I have used this recently, and it worked a few times:
1 - I offer to create/design a simple one page website
2 - Then I upsell them on domain names/ SEO / hosting / additional pages / maintenance / CMS / and few other things...

I do a direct email before and it seems to work just fine. You can offer a free basic analysis on potential clients before you offer another services.

I am a very firm believer in targeting the 90% of business' that do not have sites vs being one of the many that go after the 10% that do. Separating yourself in a very congested marketspace IMO is a very smart choice.

So you are basically asking what can someone do to break the ice and start onboarding new clients. Recently I started doing something rather simple. I became a "Google Local Guide". I know what your thinking "Oh that's genius you freakin moron!" but hear me out.

Once you become a guide.. head down any street USA that has business' lined up. You will find very few if any small business' actually have map listings. build up your rank, by answering questions and taking pictures etc of the business' already listed. Once you become comfortable with the process you can actually start listing locations.

So here is what I do. I create a listing I take photos and I then get to the answering questions part. I walk into the business and ask to speak to the owner or manager. I explain I am not directly affiliated to Google, but I am a "local Google guide" and I am adding their business to Google Maps. If they have a moment there are some basic questions about their business I would like to ask. ( From experience at this point using a tablet vs using a phone is a real plus given the display size )

With the assistance of the business owner / manager you fill in some of the information. You hand them a card ( YOUR card ) explain that the process takes a week or 2 before they are listed and if they don't mind you would like to stop back and see how things are going.

I have a 50% call rate before I can swing back around for a return visit. The fact that their business information is appearing on Google maps is mind blowing to them. This is the trip wire that opens up the conversation for the development of a Google my business page. This is the trip wire that opens up developing a Bing business page. This is the same trip wire that opens up the need for a webpage.

And the best part... 50% of the time they are calling me.

I can generally hit about 10 business' in 2 hours time... and within a week or 2 5 of those 10 are calling me wanting to do business.

Why does this work? You have obviously affiliated yourself to Google. They can see the results of your actions ( their business is now listed on google maps ) You have asserted the notion that you are an expert in getting a listing on Google. Basically speaking you have increase 10 fold the ability for that business owner to TRUST you.

But what about the other 50% that dont call you ask? Stop back in as you said you would.. Show them their listing.. ask if they have noticed a change in traffic to their store / place of business. 50% of that 50% ( 2.5 out of 10 ) I have found to be closable.

Having the ability to spent 2 hours of time talking to 10 business' and closing 75% of those you create a listing for.. its like taking candy from a baby.

5 year old thread. OP hasn't been back for 2 years...

Worth it for savidge4's contribution.

Far better than reading a $7 ebook and assuming that all local business owners are idiots desperate to write big checks because you said 'front page of Google' and a few buzzwords.