Most marketers should revisit their web copy with a big red pen. Some of the largest brands and well-respected companies make a common mistake in their website messaging: they use the word “We” far too often. “We have the largest group of certified experts”…“We won 20 awards last year for our amazing work,”…”We, We, We…” It’s the number one word that copywriters, business bloggers and marketers need to redline from your content whenever possible. And it’s so easy to fix! Instead of talking about “We,” think about editing your content into customer-focused copy. How can you edit a simple sentence into a statement that identifies your customer’s problem and addresses their needs. Web marketers need to be particularly aware of this because if your online copy doesn’t speak to your customers, potential customers will bounce right off your website and on right on to your competitor’s. Here’s how to rethink “We” focused marketing content: Evaluate your current web copy. It’s always humbling to take constructive criticism, but it’s well worth the exercise. Future Now’s “We We Text” calculator is a great resource that will score your copywriting for customer-focused content vs. sentences that are focused on you and your company. Replace “We” with “You.” Customer-focused content discusses a problem and how a product or service will fill a customer’s need. Rather than filling a web page with information on the features of what you provide, starting thinking about your customer’s problems and what benefits you can offer. Try to edit as many sentences as possible by getting rid of “we do this” and replacing it with more sentences that contain the word “you” or “your” with a message the truly speaks to the customer’s interests. Know your customer. To write truly customer-focused web content, explore the concept of buyer personas and persuasion architecture. “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark” by Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg is an excellent tutorial on understanding the various modes of behaviors your web visitors are in when they’re making buying decisions. The way you address their unique needs with online content will help move them through your sales funnel. To learn more about buying personas and customer-focused copy, check out Mahoney Internet Marketing’s blog on Internet Marketing best practices or the FutureNow Resource Center. Need help wielding that big red pen? Contact me to discuss your copyediting or online marketing best practices.

Of the social networking tools available, there is one that professional services firms shouldn’t overlook: LinkedIn. Sure, there are plenty of other important Internet marketing players: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Yelp are widely known and have a great deal of marketing value. I have used all of these sites to varying degrees. But for professionals who need to maximize their time spent on social media marketing, LinkedIn shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s true that a LinkedIn profile is organized a bit like a resume, but LinkedIn goes far beyond jobseeking or recruiting purposes. I think of it as a multi-pronged tool that offers numerous benefits. Here are my top 3 reasons why I encourage clients to have an active LinkedIn presence: Build top-of-mind awareness for your brand. It’s great to create a LinkedIn profile, but actively using LinkedIn means that you’re sharing some content via status updates, sharing articles or promoting your own hosted events. All of this content keeps your name front and center in your network’s news feed. And when you’re sharing useful information that’s relevant to your expertise, you get the benefit of frequency and branding rolled into action. [Tips: Everything in moderation. Don’t publish useless information or annoying “here’s what’s on my task list today” updates. LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. Be relevant, helpful and informative. Strive for weekly updates.] Improve search engine rankings. I would love to give credit to whoever coined the phrase “Google Juice.” I can’t take credit, but it’s true that LinkedIn profiles have amazing search engine optimization value. Try searching your own name in Google or any other search engine. If you have a LinkedIn profile already, that profile is very likely to be the top result. This is great news if you are using your LinkedIn profile to the fullest. Visitors can check out your profile, and immediately learn about you, your services and understand what makes you unique. They can also quickly identify how to visit your website and click through from the profile. This is why it’s critical to at least put some thought into the summary, headline, and skills portions of your profile. [Tips: Think about how humans search for information online. Your official title may be “Principal” but that could be true for many industries. Make it clear in your headline and summary who you are and what you do. And don’t forget a photo! Put a face to your name. A LinkedIn profile without a photo looks unfinished.] Form new relationships. A LinkedIn “connection” may be a colleague you know well or someone you’ve never met who is a peer in your industry. As you build your network of connections, find ways to turn some of those connections into relationships. Social networking shouldn’t be completely online. It’s an online tool that opens the door to new working relationships, so use the online introduction as a mechanism for taking that relationship offline with a face-to-face meeting. Use LinkedIn’s email message box to send follow-up thank you emails or invite key connections to events. [Tips: Quality over quantity. Be strategic about your network. Don’t use the default LinkedIn language for requesting a connection. Edit it to something personal. If you’ve never met them, explain why you want to connect. “I’m a marketing consultant looking to connect with other graphic designers in the Portland area. Do you mind joining my network?”] Social media has changed the way we do business. But it hasn’t replaced the value of face-to-face relationships. Clients won’t buy your services based upon your LinkedIn profile alone, but it’s an excellent tool for building familiarity, credibility and initiating an in-person meeting. In a future blog post, I’ll cover LinkedIn profiles in more detail. By comparing and contrasting a good profile from the bad, you’ll see how a little extra thought and effort can pay big dividends. Learn more about Internet Marketing and how to use social media tools like LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website.

What good is a compelling message if doesn’t reach the right audience? Many businesses and organizations make two common mistakes when trying to determine their target audience. The first mistake: believing that the target audience is everyone. It’s unrealistic to assume that anyone and everyone will benefit from your products, services or initiatives. The second: assuming that your target audience is just like you. When you are immersed in one industry, or have been loyal to your brand for a long period, it can be tempting to use your own personal experiences or beliefs about your audience that are possibly misguided. Your target audience may be narrower than you assume. Or, it may be very broad, but contain diverse segments that all share a common interest, attitudes or opinions. In either case, your branding, re-branding or communications strategy hinges upon a solid understanding of your audience. Begin identifying your target audience by asking these 5 key questions: Who is it that you want to reach with your message? Who are they today versus a decade or two ago? Who do you want to help? How can you be their hero; their advocate? Who do you want to educate, influence and motivate? What are the demographics? Where do they live? How old are they? Where or when do they have friction in their lives? How do they receive daily information? Where are they engaging online or in their communities? How does your message benefit them? What motivates them to action? Getting your story across to a broad, segmented audience means tailoring the message to the specific attitudes, interests, worries and opinions of your audience segments. It also allows you to find multiple ways to reach them and a variety of ways to frame your brand messages. The more narrowly and precisely you can identify your target audience, the better you’ll be able to identify compelling messages and deliver them through the right mix of communication channels. Learn more about how to build an integrated communications campaign here.

“Content is King.” We’ve been hearing this phrase since 1996 when Bill Gates first predicted that success on the Internet would be in the form of sharing information and entertainment. This one motto has been a driving force behind the growth of blogging, social media sharing and search marketing. Maybe it’s time to refresh the mantra. How about “Content Marketing is King?” One tiny problem is that many businesses – and even some marketers – aren’t exactly sure how Content Marketing fits into the larger Internet Marketing picture. In fact, some businesses may be confused by the terminology and how Content Marketing and SEO differ. Here’s a quick glossary of Internet Marketing terms: Content Marketing: A marketing strategy where businesses publish web content for the purposes of building their brand, generating inbound leads and nurturing client relationships. This Mashable article features three businesses that are kings of content marketing. The idea behind Content Marketing is to apply solid copywriting and credible sources to online content to inform and educate the reader. This CopyBlogger post is an excellent reminder that great content should be written for the human reader first, search engines second. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of optimizing a web site so that search engines will find it, recognize it as being an authority on a particular subject and display it prominently in its search results for certain keyword phrases. SEO can have negative connotations, thanks to unethical search marketing practices known as “Black Hat SEO.” If an SEO vendor is selling dirt cheap articles and “guaranteed” page rankings within a matter of weeks, they’re most likely using techniques like keyword stuffing, invisible words, and fake web pages in an attempt to trick the search engines to earn higher rankings. These tactics may earn short-term gains, but the search engines will eventually recognize the site as spammy and penalize it. How can you make Content Marketing & SEO work together? The simple answer is that SEO and Content Marketing inherently work together because SEO should be all about great content. Your responsibility is to create the Content Marketing strategy and the long-term SEO benefits will follow. If your marketing goal is to gain brand recognition or generate more inbound leads through your website, your Content Marketing strategy should map out which online channels you’ll use to publish your content with a plan for building links back to your website and to other credible sources. You’ll be giving your readers valuable information to help them solve their problem and giving search engines links to follow. A Content Marketing Hypothetical: You’re a financial institution selling mortgages and want to target first-time homebuyers. You already have written content and even a couple of videos on your website. Content Marketing involves the entire network of online channels you’ll use to publish your content: your website plus your blog, Twitter, Facebook page, YouTube, LinkedIn profiles, etc. Your Content Marketing strategy maps out a plan for what type of content you’ll publish (weekly blogging with posts on real estate trends that interest first-time homebuyers? Articles on relevant mortgage or home buying tips published via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Webinars and videos published on YouTube with links back to your website?) You get the idea. The beauty of Content Marketing is that all of your thematic content is written/produced with SEO best practices, including inbound and external links and strategic keywords to help search engines identify your site as an authority on mortgages in your region. Ready to create “Content Marketing that’s King?” Contact me to learn more about how to reach your marketing goals with a creative Content Marketing plan.