Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I got the page to load and it does look classy. (No lectures yet about the use of Flash ...)

The problem with the approach is that the goal is to generate some hot leads, and that is going to cost money. People need to find the site before they can understand the positioning benefit and take the appropriate action.

Try this: Figure out how much a new lead is worth. What should your friend be willing to pay for a new lead? Then go through the Google Adwords calculation of what it might cost to generate clicks and what the conversion rate might be. See if the average cost per conversion looks like it's in line with the value of a new customer.

If not, then maybe promoting the website isn't the best way to market his services. If it is, then run a local Google Adwords campaign and see if your rough estimates are close.

The whole process shouldn't take more than a few months, and then you'll know if that dog will hunt or not. Otherwise, we'll be sitting here a year from now asking the same questions. Sometime the best way to deal with a marketing issue is to try it and see if it works -- especially if the out-of-pocket cost is reasonable/affordable.