On a recent Sunday morning I had the unique pleasure of touring my home city of Austin, Texas on a Segway motorized vehicle with my visiting father and some other tourists. Besides the fun of riding this new machine which I have for years wanted to try, participating in the tour reminded me of the uniqueness of the city of Austin and why it is not quite like anyplace else.

As an Internet marketer, I could not help but link certain aspects of this new-found appreciation for my city with what I believe are some key insights about how my clients can better connect with customers online:

Insight #1: Project your own style:

Austin represents an eclectic mix of conservative Texas tradition, successful young professionals, and a postmodern hippy culture of artists and bohemians. If you look closely, you will see on every 50th car or so bumper stickers that say “Keep Austin Weird,” representing a quiet rallying cry of support for Austin’s unique brand of quirkiness. Similarly, your Web site needs to project who and what you are. Your goal should NOT be to attract hordes of prospects to your site. Your goal should be to attract a steady stream of prospects who have a high probability of converting into paying customers.

Insight #2: Shake things up once in a while:

A visit to many parts of downtown Austin indicates that the city is currently in the throes of change. Huge construction projects are underway to build the necessary residential and business infrastructure to accommodate shifting demographics. The city planners have clearly decided to be proactive about just how they grow. The alternative, of course, is stagnation. In the world of Web traffic, this insight calls for you to revisit your site on a regular basis. Add some RSS feeds. Change your skins. Start a blog and update it regularly

Insight #3: Be innovative:

On my tour I learned that the city of Austin employs am innovative car share program whose goal is to reduce downtown traffic and pollution while assisting residents to get around. The program has a number of designated parking spaces around the city for a handful of cars that can be rented by the hour. If a downtown resident has a doctor’s appointment or other transportation need, they just show up to the car at the right time and off they go. Very cool! So (you guessed it), your Web site needs to be similarly innovative. Being innovative does not mean reinventing the (mouse) wheel: it just means doing something that you have not tried before that could make a positive difference in the lives of your visitors.

Insight #4: Proactively drive traffic to your site:

As neat a city as Austin is, in the early ’90s the city’s tourism board was smart enough to know that they needed to get the word out about Austin. So, in 1991 they invented the slogan “The Live Music Capital of the World” to boast that they actually had more live music venues per capita than even New York City or Nashville. By the same token, your Web site can be the best site in the world, but if you do not actively try to drive traffic to your site you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Avoid succumbing to the “Build it and they will come” myth.

Insight #5: Know your audience:

Austin has a clear vision of itself in 10 or 20 years from now. There are numerous projects underway to attract successful, young professionals to the city with innovative developments that put an emphasis on walking and accessibility rather than on automobiles. Similarly, everything you do to drive traffic to your Web site needs to have your target audience in mind. How do they think? What is important to them? Know this and you will attract the customers you need.