By Gerry Black
MarketingWriter.ca

As a professional copywriter and marketing consultant, I continually see two huge mistakes business owners make when creating their marketing materials.

First, they seem willing to plunk down a ton of dough for a website that isn’t going to
generate sales leads. Second, they use a brochure copy style instead of a prospect-focused, direct response copywriting approach.
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I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees?”
Well, in my humble opinion, many business owners can’t see their marketing forest because the ‘trees’ – all the stuff that comes at them between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. – blinds them to opportunity that is right there in front of them.

Why else would anyone else work 12-14 hours days in an effort to grow their business instead of sitting down for a couple of hours and putting together a simple marketing plan to let their existing customers know how other products and services they have can help them?
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Last week I wrote about about some insider moves on how to use LinkedIn to build your business. The insider who provided the insights was LinkedIN expert Jan Vermeiren who was a guest on Charlie Cook’s Social Media Marketing teleseminar.
Here’s the follow up I promised on how to leverage the tremendous power of LinkedIN as a business building tool by creating a compelling profile.

Your LinkedIn Profile is very important because it’s what anyone who refers you will use as an introduction starting point.

If it sucks, they won’t want to send anyone in their network to it.

Here’s what Jan recommends:
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Include Relevant and Useful Content

1) INCLUDE USEFUL INFORMATION - Create helpful information and content on your website, adding new content regularly. Google, MSN and Yahoo, and most other search engines, use keyword phrases to perform their searches. Find out which keyword phrases are most relevant to your site and use them wisely. Include your keyword phrase sparingly throughout the body of content, especially in headings, and near the end of your page. The first sentence should also contain your major keyword, for maximum impact.
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If you’re doing business locally, you should make your website easy to find by people searching for your product or service in your local area.

1 – Make Your Website Easy to Find

Include on every web page in your website, your business name and cities where you do business. This must be in ‘text’ form (search engines will not read an image or logo graphic). The best places to include your city location and business name is at the top and bottom of every page.
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Answering these questions will help you clarify your marketing message.

1) WHO is your target customer? (Describe your ideal customer.)

2) WHAT are your customers’ problems?

3) WHO are you, and what is your unique solution to your customer’s problems?

4) HOW can you prove that your solution works? (Success stories, Testimonials)

5) WHAT is your irresistible offer? (Money Back Guarantee, Limited Time Special Offer)