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Informative Articles

Avoid The Big Advertising Mistakes
Is your advertising copy getting the results you want? If not, look at your current marketing to see if you're making one of the major copywriting mistakes: Selling features instead of benefits. Telling your customer that your "fabulous new...

Calls-To-Action: Making Them Fit Makes All the Difference
by Karon Thackston © 2004 http://www.learn-copywriting.com It was going so well, so what happened? Many copywriters get off to a wonderful start: The headline is compelling, the body copy is benefit-filled, but then comes the call-to-action and...

How To Find Freelance Copywriting Jobs
Your goal is to land a few nice, secure freelance copywriting jobs, but how do you get them? The most important factor in finding these jobs is that you pursue the job you are looking for with all of your ducks in a row, so to speak. Here are a...

No More Estate Agent Fees
Follow a few simple guidelines, and marketing your own home can be easy. And it will save you thousands. The recent property boom has a lot of people thinking of selling. Unfortunately, the costs of selling can really eat into your profit....

SEO Copywriting Makeover: Good Rankings but No Sales Part 2 of 2
by Karon Thackston © 2004-2005 http://www.copywritingcourse.com In Part 1 of this article series, we looked at a local home security site that had fairly good rankings but whose conversion rate was lacking. (You can see the original copy here:...

 
What Is Your Trail of Bread Crumbs?



A few years ago I was asked to teach a class on marketing strategies for a group of unemployed job seekers. As I thought of how I could best help this group of highly qualified, but very depressed executive level people, I came up with the following strategy that will also help you market your business.

The first question I posed to the group was this: "What problems are you VERY good at solving?"

This is a tough question and it took the individuals in my class a lot of hard thinking to come up with a thorough answer. What I was trying to get them to do was to look at their job skills in terms of problem solving, rather than experience. Anyone who is skilled at a job has mastered a set of problems he or she is very good at solving.

The same thing applies to your company. Really, really put your mind to coming up with a focused list of specific problems your business is VERY good at solving for your customers. I want you to think of some poor manager's list of performance goals his boss has handed him to accomplish, or else. Don't stop thinking until you can define these problems in almost the same kind of wording that will appear on this poor manager's performance evaluation next quarter.

This process will force you to look at what your business does from the inside out. Not from the view of an insider looking out at all the possible customers out there, but as an outsider who has a problem and is looking for some outfit that can hand them a solution on a silver platter.

Once you have reduced everything you and your team do to a very short list of problems you are very good at solving, then your marketing merely becomes a matter of helping that problem-plagued manager


Stopping The 'Brain Drain' Of The U.S. Economy
Recent surveys show that a large percentage of graduates from the nation's top schools are taking jobs in consulting or finance. But students at some top schools have begun protesting recruitment drives by financial firms in an effort to steer students away from the financial sector.

El-Arian On Economic Uncertainty
PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian says the economic future is still uncertain because of the euro zone crisis, China's slowing economy and worrisome U.S. structural components. He talks to NPR's Guy Raz about his Foreign Policy piece "The World On A Knife's Edge."


(and others like hime) find you.

Yes, I really did say, "merely" and I was totally serious. Here's why. When anyone has a significant problem that causes pain, loss of sleep, stress and all kinds of other unpleasantness, THAT PERSON IS LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION.

For example, I am very good at ghost writing articles for the business person who cannot, or is too busy, to write them for herself. Oh, she knows she could really enhance her reputation and marketability if she could write and publish a number of articles related to her fields.

But since these this individual cannot write these articles for herself, she is looking for a solution to this problem. I am the solution and she is looking for me.

In your business, it is important to understand that there are people out there in your marketplace looking for you right now. They don't know your name or phone number, but they are looking for the solutions you can deliver to them.

So all your marketing efforts from now on, must be directed toward helping these people find you. Lay your trail of bread crumbs with every marketing step you take and make sure the trail leads right to your front door. They will find you.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2005, Charles Brown

About the author:

Do you need to turn the written word into profits? Charles Brown is a freelance commercial writer located in Dallas-Fort Worth area, who is available to help write professional web content, organizational newsletters, direct marketing material and other copywriting projects for business and non-profits. Put Mr. Brown on your team today. Visit him at www.bizwriterstudio.blogspot.com or you may contact him at 817.715.3852 or charbrow@gmail.com.