The title sounds like a great API course or a presentation by NAA but it’s simply reality.

I have to give thanks to Greg Swanson from ItzPublishing for the title which came up in a strategic session about our new Marketplace sales strategy.

This is the statement we should use in every single sales call when discussing the web and especially the opportunities our great audience  can provide.

How many times have you walked into a potential clients office and have them tell you ” I already have a website.” In a lot of these cases their cousin or uncle built the site for them and left them with the impression that they were now ‘Web Ready’, when in all actuality nothing changed from before they built the site.  In Des Moines, when we were launching Cars.com, we called that frame of thinking- “Buying a billboard on a hard to find dirt road or a corn field.” Just a note- We did have a really popular feature back in 2000 where we allowed the public to watch corn grow from a web cam.

In a recent post on Screenwerk it was mentioned that the DYIers ( Do it Yourself) are prime targets for SEO and SEM sales teams because they can help take them from a website owner to a plan to grow business. If newspapers aren’t working with a firm like OrangeSoda, WebVisible, Metrix4Media or ReachLocal they need to start. These companies can provide insight on SEO that you don’t currently have and will provide a simple resource to take the small advertiser into the big world of search.

If we train our sales reps to develop sound web strategies for their clients the local newspaper can quickly become the local advertising agency,  offering a 1-stop shop for all local advertising needs. The website is simply car to drive you down the information super highway. Our reps should be able to look at Google search results and discuss the need for SEO. They should be able to discuss the needs of the local plumber and create a package that delivers leads and provides brand awareness. They should also have enough knowledge and understanding to recommend competitors when our products don’t or can’t deliver the necessary results.

On the other hand, the small to mid-size business owner needs to educate themselves enough to have this strategic conversation. Even in 2008, a high percentage of small businesses don’t know where their business is coming from or have a plan to go after new consumers. We can step into that void and provide simple and on-going training for these businesses.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be as simple as reviewing monthly reports with them, showing them emerging technologies, critiquing their website and giving tips to make it better.

Tell your sales team to tell advertisers to forget about building their website for now and focus on how they are going to build traffic and what they want a website to do. The web strategy may lead to a custom developed website but I really doubt it. With all the tools available through IYP and newspaper Marketplace sites today, 9 out of 10 small businesses can invest their website building money into targeting new consumers.

All I’m saying is that with so much opportunity at our fingertips we should be developing a plan to capture the ‘longtail’. That plan has to start with connecting the business community to potential consumers coming from every direction, grouping the consumers and businesses into Facebook like communities and promoting your website as the destination for consumers trying to make a decision.

This post was a general introduction to a very important topic. I will continue to touch on the specifics of this area and the Market Leader Strategy over the next few months.