A Professional Profile could build your business - or even change your life!
Few people realise the significance of having a professionally written profile. Whether it is that vitally important Business profile, the often underestimated LinkedIn profile, or the ‘Professional profile’ portion of your CV, your business could greatly benefit from, or your livelihood even depend on it!
A LinkedIn profile is essential, for SMEs in particular, to connect with other businesses and potential clients. LinkedIn is still by the far the largest online business platform and potentially an excellent source of new business.
It is also the place where Recruitment specialists head hunt for candidates to present to top level businesses, so a well written LinkedIn profile - and the Professional profile portion of your CV - could get you that long awaited position that could literally change your life! For this reason, as they are obviously linked, I will deal with them as one, in a future article.
The Business profile
A well written Business profile can give you that ‘foot in the door’ to a client who could give your business the lift it needs. This article gives some useful advice on why it is important and what it should consist of…
A good Business profile is inextricably linked (or at least should be) to your website content. Because much of what is in the Business profile will appear almost verbatim in many sections of the website, it is more cost effective and hence a good idea to create, or refresh, them at the same time.
The importance of having this professionally written cannot be stressed enough. Your business profile and website are the front face of your business. They are your ‘mouthpiece’ and your top ‘Salesperson’ rolled into one. The importance of saying the right things, in the right way, should be obvious and not left to someone who does not understand the composition and style of an effective Business profile.
How is it constructed?
The Business profile is usually (not always) just more concise than the website content, but the elements are the same. A good business profile will open, or be sprinkled here and there with a few strong banner headlines telling potential customers how you help them, similar to the homepage on the website. It should continue with a brief description of who you are and who you serve (extending to what sectors of business) and then a basic look at the services you provide.
Like the Website, the Business profile should continue to espouse something along the lines of the ‘about us’ of the website, giving the business some credibility through the people behind it – their qualifications and experience.
This should be followed with a few ‘Why us?’ bullet points – What are your USPs? Why should people use you as opposed to someone else? On the website this is sometimes used on the homepage as well if it is the one pager ‘Scrolling’ type site.
Your services are then listed and the extent of how detailed this is, is up to the business owner. A word of advice – rather make the website services page more detailed and keep the Business profile shorter and more concise.
The final portion (or ‘Footer’ as it is known on the website) will possibly point to a few testimonials and give contact and social media details. Here there may also be some affiliations and existing client logos etc.
Get them to engage with you
A good tip is - don’t try to give every bit of information regarding everything in the content of the Business profile. Remember it is an overview and an invitation for potential clients to contact you for more detailed information. This may lead them to your website, but even there leave some information available to clients which is only available through direct contact with you!
The writing of articles and short posts is also designed at driving people to your website or engaging with you directly, but that is another subject altogether for another article.
To have your profiles written professionally, correctly, creatively and with flair, contact me directly at bernie@andromob.com - I look forward to it!
