Task 1 for this coming week is to rewrite my website. Yep…my entire website.

A big task in my mind…I’ve been mulling over it for weeks.

The thought of updating who I am, what I do, how I do it, why people should use my services…and making it all unbelievably interesting has been doing my head in. I do suffer from a certain amount of creative tension, however, this was getting ridiculous.

Then came the lightning bolt. That epiphany that you hear others talk about but that you never have. A little voice gave me these two bits of advice:

1. People aren’t interested in anything but what’s in it for them.
2. People have short attention spans…long copy is dead copy.

Phew! I breathed a long sigh of relief. A huge weight had lift off my shoulders.

So, when I embark on rewriting my website starting tomorrow I am going to spend all my energies telling you in a short, sharp way how I can make your business irresistible (‘case that’s what I’m good at)…and that’s it. Benefit-driven copy that’s all about how I can help your business…and if you want to find out about me…then you can simply check me out on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter or Skype me (TheIdeasGuy). Job done!

What do you think about this approach…too simplistic or spot on?

This is a story about a small business getting it terribly wrong…and how you can avoid the same mistake.

My local Chamber Of Commerce recently distributed a brochure on behalf of one of it’s members. The brochure asked…“Does Google ignore you?” It then went on for 6 pages explaining how they could ensure this didn’t happen for your business. Fair enough…they made some good points…they appeared to be a local SEO company good at what they did. They even offered a ‘free Google website ranking check’.

At this point I’m thinking, I like the sound of these guys…they tell me they know their stuff, they have a core focus and are offering a nice little free entry level product. And they’re asking a question in ‘Does Google ignore me?’ which is clearly a question many business owners ask themselves.

So…before I call them I figure I’ll just check that they’re walking their talk. So, into Google I key in their business name…and back they come, front and center. Then I key in typical search terms that one would use to find them…I key in the most obvious…’SEO experts in (insert my suburb)’…NOTHING! I try four more obvious search phrases…NOTHING!

At this point they’ve lost me and a potential new client…instead I decided to blog about the experience.

Guys…if you make a claim in your business…BACK IT UP WITH REAL LIFE EXAMPLES. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Oh…and just to make things worse here’s a few more things they got wrong and that we all can learn from:

• There was no URL in their call to action…just an address and phone number…Really!
• They had no social media involvement listed either…fundamental for an SEO business I would have thought.
• And when I did go to their website..they had an outdated blog (last entry May 2008!).

OK…enough bagging these poor guys. The lesson? Back up every offer you make with a claim..a case study…a testimonial.

In fact, live by the below saying and you’ll be well and truly on the right track:

“Don’t tell me you’re funny…tell me a joke!”

What do you think? Do you agree?

So I ran a webinar on Twitter and Business today….Click here to view it.

It goes for 30 minutes (plus 15 minutes of questions) and you can view it below.

Why’s it worth watching? Mmmm…well it shares with you some key concepts that, if you spend a moment understanding them, will enable you to develop a mindset around Twitter that will allow you to make your tweeting work hard as an effective sales channel for your business. That’s all!

I also give you practical HOW TO’s on ensuring your tweeting looks right and stays on brief. Enjoy…and please feel free to share the love and RT this link.

Here’s the webinar link again.

In my Marketing workshops for small business owners I talk a lot about how important it is to get your message right before you worry about where to put it. I call this simply – The Message VS The Medium.

In my experience working with 100s of SMEs over the years they too quickly race to deciding that they need a website, or a brochure or a telemarketing campaign or an ad…You get the idea. The problem is they don’t give the necessary thought in to deciding what to say. And I think I know why…IT’S HARD! Most of us are not born copy writers…many of us don’t think we’re creative.

So we find ourselves writing copy for our precious business’s marketing material that often misses the mark because it’s either long-winded, feature driven, poorly constructed and so on.

So, what to do? Well, whilst I’m no professional writer myself, experience has shown me a few tips and tricks that will go along way to making your marketing copy sing. In no particular order they are:

1. Write as if you were writing to an old friend, telling them about your business.
2. Employ an expert…You’ll find many willing copy writers at www.elance.com
3. Turn every point in your existing copy in to a benefit. So, if your product comes in 52 different colours then change this to there’s a colour to suit every decor.
4. Write your copy so an eight year old can understand it.
5. Write what you believe to be the ideal copy to sell your business offer and then work backwards removing every single word that is not required…Less is definitely more.
6. Write in point form…we tend to consume bulleted information better anyway. Big, chunky paragraphs can often look way too scary!
7. Inject your personality in to the copy…Avoid being formal and uptight. Have some fun with it.
8. Write with this in mind…People don’t care about my business. What I hear you say. Well, that’s the harsh reality…we’re al bombarded with advertising and marketing messages all day long. Why should people care more about mine than the next one? Write great copy and you’ll find out.

Once you’ve got compelling copy that really does sell your business then worry bout where to put it. Remember…MESSAGE comes before MEDIUM.

What do you think? What do you do to ensure your marketing copy jumps off the page?

A brand is best defined as an emotional attachment.

Newsletters, brochures, websites, advertisements and even blogs are all mediums of communication that aim reach out to your target market and create that attachment. A major part of any of these mediums is the copy…the other part of course being the visuals.

Without effective copy, your market may be oblivious to your message, and it’s one reason why so many attempts at attracting more customers simply fail. Knowing who your prospects are is just the first step in reaching out to your new customers, but learning about how to stir their desire and motivation in order to find you appealing is the necessary element to marketing success. Whether it’s in sales collateral, a newsletter, or a blog post, marketing with emotion needs to be a major part of your plan.

The first step in choosing your message involves identifying what they really want. Is it status? Vanity? Relief from fear? Increased security? Understanding the basic desires of your customers may require a brainstorming session or two, but the more you can fine-tune your message to appeal to the basic human emotions, the easier it will be to capture their attention. Fear and greed are the most common emotion-stirrers, and are also the themes we see time and time again in mass marketing today…There’s a lot to be learnt from the way the big marketers go about it. Take a look around and see for yourself which ads stick out from the crowd—in almost all cases, they are presenting a message that is designed to appeal to our most basic desires.

Build an emotional attachment between your business and your target audience and you’re well on the way to getting your business booming.

You can find many more ideas to get your business booming right here.