The internet is great for so many things, and making yourself look good is one of them.

If you run a business or offer your services, a potential customer’s first reaction might be “Who is this person?”. They’ll jump on your website and click over to your About page to find out. (Check into your page analytics to see for yourself.) Or, they’ll try to find you on LinkedIn, Facebook, or other platforms.

A strong bio on multiple platforms brings you one step closer to securing business. But many bios have problems, the most common I’ve seen are:

• Too vague. A skimpy or questionable background isn’t going to attract anyone.
• Too long or rambling. Most viewers give a page about six seconds to impress them before they click away. If your bio is a snoozer, they’re not going to get past the first few lines.
• All over the map. Nobody wants to eat at the pizza place that also serves Chinese food. Your bio should be focused: you do one thing, and do it well.
• Typos or grammatical mistakes. If you make careless errors when discussing your own background, you aren’t convincing anyone of the quality of your work.

It’s difficult to write a strong, compelling bio. You need to list your credentials, without going overboard, or being too modest. You need to sound sincere, but you don’t want to come across like a salesperson. And you need to share some of your personality, without going off in a personal tangent.

That’s a tall order, but if done correctly, you’ve got a nice marketing tool out there working for you, 24/7.

Do you envy the business owner of the 1960s? If a hardware store owner wanted to promote a great new paint that just arrived, he might pay for an ad in the paper, or buy a spot on the local radio or TV channel. Once that was set up, he’d put marketing out of his head for a while.

Fast forward to today, and that same store owner has a bit more work to get the message out. First, he needs to update his web site content to showcase this great paint. He needs to blog about why he decided to add that paint to his product line. He needs to post some updates on Twitter or Facebook to make sure customers see this new information. He may also post some pictures; vivid colors and cool combinations to give his viewers some ideas for their own home. But he’s not done yet: he needs to be sure to answer any questions.

It may be more work, but if done correctly, today’s owner has a better payoff for his efforts. He doesn’t have to wait days for his ad to run; he can generate interest before the first shipment arrives, even take pre-orders. And in the process of all this, he’s sharing his passion about his business and the quality of his products, something that will last beyond the current promotion.

Building customer trust and keeping the lines of communication open takes a little more effort, but it can be a better marketing strategy than the one-time ad or commercial.