Too many people view their Web site as a digital brochure or, even worse, as a virtual business card—a place to slap up contact info and forget about it. Although that’s better than nothing, it’s not enough.

A site that only tells about your company is fine if someone already knows about you and simply wants to learn more. But that doesn’t do much to increase sales. Like Ben said in his post yesterday, your site should be like a salesperson working around the clock to boost your business.

How do you turn your site into your company’s biggest promoter? Through content. Whether the content on your site takes the form of blogs, white papers, online articles, or videos, it can’t just be a collection of words thrown up there. Like any effective salesperson, it has to be good, and requires a strong strategy behind it. For your site to function as a top salesman, like any person in sales, it needs to do these three things.

Share a valuable message that makes people want to listen.

When a salesperson doesn’t have anything valuable to say—when he/she doesn’t share info that affects us personally—we tune him/her out. It’s the same with a site. Just like a good sales rep, your site needs valuable content to back it up. If it’s good, people will stick around to read some more. They’ll probably even come back. If it doesn’t offer any value, they’ll tune it out. Fluff doesn’t cut it. You have to provide meaty, valuable information that grabs people’s attention and enhances their lives.

Attract people to your company.

Like a salesperson, a good Web site draws people to your company. Your salesperson may cold call, send out e-mail blasts, or network. Your site doesn’t literally attract people to your company like that, but when your site is filled with content, its links are spread throughout the Web. People will follow those links and come to you through search engines. If you have a blog, when others link to your posts on their blogs, those inbound links function like your salesperson’s network recommending your company to others.

Offer knowledge that reflects what your company knows and instills trust in your company.

Your site, just like your salespeople, is a reflection of your company. You wouldn’t expect a top sales rep to attend client meetings with just cursory knowledge of what your company does. He or she needs in-depth info on how to solve your clients’ problems. The same it true with your site. If your site shares helpful industry knowledge with your audience, people will be more likely to trust your company—first with their time, then with their buyer loyalty.

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