I own and operate an old fashioned telephone answering service. I've been in that business for 20 years. 2 years ago we added live chat answering to our menu. I have a handful of clients, all who love the service and swear that it has increased business, but I can't figure out why it's not selling. I've been working on this project for 2 years and the backbone is beyond solid. I think our site looks good, but I also think it's not working. Any ideas on how to market this would be appreciated.

Well about 90% of the sites that have live chat that you find online either the chat is never on, or it takes forever to load, and talk to them so to me it has left a bad stain.
You could have your live chat guys while they are not busy look for sites who have live chat that fits the description above, and then market directly to them.
Let them know why your feature is better.

Whatever you have as a header to the page, get rid of it because it does not load. Forget about fancy flash headers. Too distracting. Put a couple of small gifs depicting the transition of the telephone Answer Service to message centers.

Ther is a 2inch wide column white space on the left. Is something supposed to be there or is it blank because you like your text to appear in the middle of the page?

THE LAST ANSWERING SERVICE YOU WILL EVER NEED!866-561-4459
THE LAST ANSWERING SERVICE YOU WILL EVER NEED!
<Center>866-561-4459 </Center>

Miami, FL Harrisonburg, VA - I suppose this is where you are located. Could'nt you have made this a bit more obvious?

Advertising - Local papers, Late Night TV(Cheaper rates) pamphlets in letter boxes, Maybe you could hire a couple of door to door sales people to canvass businesses. A bit like market research but make sure they leave a business card and a brochure, even if they can't get an appointment with the secretary.

You may want to consider using javascript to load the flash, and a noscript tag with an alternate accessibility menu. Also, when i click on the live chat, it to a very long time to load. But to be quite honest, i do not quite fully understand your problem description, so my advice is a little limited. Also, you should not use all capital letters in your title, and in the heading under the menu. Also, you need a space between the heading's exclamation point and the phone number that comes after it.

"THE LAST ANSWERING SERVICE YOU WILL EVER NEED!"

This statement is obtuse. I personally wouldn't use it. Only Marketing Companies would use that term. It doesn't make you friendly. Perhaps
<Center>Friendly staff will ensure your calls are kept Private and Confidential. (Newline) Call Angela or Tony to arrange an appointment: 866 561 4459 </Center>


I'll add more later (hehehe)

Just a marketing idea. How about you "burn" your website onto a CD. Distribute the CD to all potential business. Include a brochure as well. The brochure doesn't have to be fancy. maybe just a cover letter introducing youself and a brief summary of the CD contents. Don't forget the letterhead.

Target businesses like self-employed people. I used to be self-employed (Sales and Marketing) and I actually used an Answer Service for about a year in 1994.

There are Guilds that govern skilled trade workers
The Guild of Master Plumbers (UK)
http://www.theguildofmasterplumbers.co.uk/
Florida -
http://www.buildingtradesdir.com/gui...tractors_.html


The Guild of Master Craftsmen is a trade association representing many different trades such as Chimney Sweeps, Carpenters, Electricians, Furniture-makers, Gardeners etc ...
http://www.thegmcgroup.com/theguild/

Also, don't limit your service to locals. Try to advertise your business as far as you can. I am in Australia but when I call Optus Help service, the help service is in India. Actually, 99% of Sales and Marketing and Help services is based in India.

That should keep you busy for a while.