The kitchen sink test.
Everything but the kitchen sink?
When it comes to writing your Services page on your website, think of the kitchen sink.
You know the expression: everything but the kitchen sink?
This is the test you must put your Services page on your website through.
Because the truth is, your Services page is a curated collection of offerings.
It’s not a full-on catalogued inventory of every way you’ve every worked with a client.
The thing about curation is that it involves choices. Like hanging a painting, you choose what’s going to go in the spotlight. And what pieces you are going to group together, to tell the story you want to tell.
In practical terms, it’s listing 3 packages you offer.
Giving them names that are benefit-driven.
And being able to articulate who each program is for—and what it does for them.
Some distinctions here:
- Is where you recommend new clients start?
- Is it an intensive, for people who want quick results?
- Is it more of an ongoing program, with accountability + support?
- Is it for beginners?
- Is it the most affordable program you offer?
Write a couple lines of copy with your answers to the above, throw in some bullet points about what your clients will learn or get from that program, and add a “call to action”—what you want them to do next if they are interested in learning more. And you’re done.
The thing about choice is that a few are good, and too many are confusing.
At a certain stage of building your business, you don’t need sales pages for every program you offer. You just need a succinct overview. So that people coming to your website get a sense of how you can help them.
And at this stage, it’s not going to be the way you write your web copy that wins them over. It’s going to be the relationship you have, and how well you can communicate (usually verbally) what you are able to help a potential client do, be, or achieve.
Want more tips and AHAs about writing your website? Join Stella for a no-cost training call “Clear as a Bell: 3 Simple Steps to Writing a Homepage That Makes Your Cash Register Sing” on February 22nd at 8pm EST. For more information and to register, go to: http://tinyurl.com/7zyrlnb.
Mighty thanks to Nelson Minar Flickr Photostream for the sink.
Quelling skepticism with your About page.
Quit hiding out behind a boring bio
We are entering a golden age of opportunity.
There’s opportunity aplenty, when you know how to look at things.
See, there are a lot of people out there who are skeptical about anyone who is selling anything on the interwebs.
You may even be dealing with 3 layers of skepticism:
Layer #1: They are skeptical about anyone who’s selling.
Layer #2: They are even more skeptical about anyone who’s selling things online.
Layer #3: They are SUPER hardcore skeptical about something being sold online , because they actually bought something from someone else, and it didn’t work out so well for them.
Because at the end of the day, a website is just a pile of words + pictures. And you can’t really “see” who’s behind that at all.
This is what you are up against when you want to build an online presence.
How do you begin to swashbuckle your way out of this corner you’ve been painted into?
You’ve got to have a super valuable service, one.
You’ve got to have your integrity intact, two.
And, three, you might as well have an About page that doesn’t suck.
By this I mean, quit hiding out behind a boring bio. Quit trying to “look professional.” And actually tell the nice people why you do the work you do.
This goes double for service professionals. Because there are plenty of people who may offer a suite of services (or results) similar to yours, but there really is only one you.
One of the best ways I’ve found to really impress upon your potential clients that you geek out on what you do more than anyone else they’ve met is to “uncork your personality” when you write your About page on your website.
And to do that, you need to know your Powerful Story.
This is the story of how you came to do the work you do now.
And we’re going to follow Aristotle on this one—it needs a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is where you started out, the middle includes your lowest point (or your AHA moment when you started your business), and the end sums up why your experience (and training) to date has prepared you exquisitely to help [your target market] do [what you help them do] so they can [benefits + outcomes].
This kind of writing is a whole other genre than you may be used to. Most people don’t learn dramatic storytelling structure in school. And they don’t teach you how to write copy that moves people to action, either.
So be patient with yourself. And as you travel in cyberspace, note whose About pages on their websites draw you in… and which ones put you to sleep.
There’s more storytelling to writing copy + marketing than you might first think.
Mighty thanks to cjggbella’s Flickr Photostream for the woman hiding.
Want a clear homepage? Step 1: think.
Take the cork off your truth
So, last week we talked about the great translation problem.
And the brass tacks difference between FEATURES and BENNIES.
Or benefits, for those of you in the peanut gallery.
So, you want your homepage to speak in terms of the benefits, results, and outcomes you help your client get. Become. Or achieve.
Now, say you’re clear on the top 3 results you help your clients get. Say you’ve already brainstormed a list of 30 ways you help people improve, heal, or enrich their lives.
And if you haven’t made this “top 30 list” in awhile—or ever—here’s your invitation: please do this before you write your homepage. Or talk to anyone. Or write anything. This is ground zero for getting clear.
Can you go do that right after you read this?
And then, to make sure you’re not writing in language that just you and your invisible twin (who grew up next to you in the closet of your head) understand… show that list to someone else. Preferably someone who geeks out on marketing. And then ask them to put a check next to any results that people are willing to pay for.
Then look back over everything with checks, and pick the top 3 results you help people get.
If you don’t have someone like that in your life, pretend. And think about joining one of my upcoming production labs to get some support.
Now, a simple way to turn your results into snazzy, hot copy is to turn ‘em into a “pull question.” The basic formula here is: “Want XYZ?” or “Ready to ABC?”
And then, you can turn that question a “headline.”
I put these in quotes, because when you roll with Stella, you’re going to learn the lingo. There are no wallflowers in Stella’s neighborhood. We’re all Recovering Perfectionists here. And we’re all taking what we learn and putting it into action.
For an example of a “pull question” that’s ALSO a “headline,” see my homepage.
Want more clients, referrals, and joy?
See how that “pulls” a certain kind of potential client? The results I help my clients get are client-based (and therefore, money-based)… but I also promise more joy (and therefore, fun + play + simplicity), too.
Notice, too, that there’s a “pull question”… followed with my take on how to get it:
Quit Marketing and Learn to Tell the Truth.
In classroom teaching, we call this the “hook.” You’ve got to get people’s attention. Questions can work. Bold, simple statements can work. Flying in the face of expectations can work, too.
In this example, most people think that if you want more clients + referrals, you need to market more.
So I’m messing with expectations on this one.
Because my message is: marketing won’t save your butt.
(In fact, if I see one more business owner following the “marketing coloring book” without putting any of their heart or true voice into it, I may put my eye out with my mechanical pencil).
Taking the cork off your truth—and studying how to express it in a way that makes other people care + want to get more of it—WILL save your butt. And more.
But back to the lesson at hand. If you’re working on your homepage right now, tinker with the results you get in a “pull question” style headline. Then answer it with YOUR distinction. Something that YOU say all the time… or THINK all the time… that flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
If you wanna play, post the headline of your homepage here in comments, and let the workshopping begin. Or, if you’re a bluebird, fly on over to http://twitter.com/stellaorange and post it there.
Many thanks to Brent Schneeman for the Flickr Photostream of Things That Pop.
The great translation problem
You’ve got to give nice people what they want
There’s something that every business owner has.
A translation problem.
You speak, think, and dream in FEATURES.
And your clients are on the hunt for the BENNIES.
That’s benefits, for those of you in the sky box seats.
Benefits are what your work DOES for your ideal clients.
Makes ‘em richer.
Thinner.
Clearer.
Smarter about their finances.
Able to live out a dream they’ve always had.
Now, the features of your program or service are important, too.
But telling your audience about ‘em BEFORE you tell ‘em why they should care is a big, fat, common, heart-breaking mistake.
It’s like telling people the recipe to your chocolate chip cookies, while you hold the plate out in front of them.
They really just want the cookies.
“…and then I add the dark chocolate and macadamia nuts…”
So if you want to really nail your message, you’ve got to give the nice people what they want.
Side bar note if you like woo or are a coach: mind your language. Though you may be in the business of transformation, helping women connect with their true selves, or teaching executives how to thrive as leaders… this is not hot marketing lingo.
If you’re having trouble attracting clients (especially the kind that pay you gladly without questioning your rates), chances are that you aren’t translating into language that means much to the rest of us.
Now, I know that marketing and sales might seem gross to you right now. But do you really think that the coaches and teachers YOU admire don’t know how to market or sell? There is a way to do it without being selfish and manipulative.
Well, without being selfish, anyway.
But the truth is, another word for manipulation is influence. Leaders and teachers and masters manipulate us all the time. Because they understand how translating works. They get that to connect with your listeners, you can’t be focused on your ego. You must work to speak in words that connect, that move, and that convince.
Are you doing that in your marketing? How do you know?
Mighty thanks to olya for the Flickr Photostream cookies.
One of my favorite writing tips of all time
Write your marketing like you are writing a letter
This ain’t your first rodeo, is it honey?
You’re no spring chicken.
You’ve bought the home study kits. You’ve been “on the line” for all those marketing training calls.
Maybe you’ve even been in a program or two.
Heck, you might even have a big kahuna business or marketing coach, right here, right now!
That doesn’t mean Stella’s Laboratory isn’t here for you, too.
I’m all for marketing and business coaches. Many of them are fantastic, and worth every penny. Others, not so much.
But they aren’t your friendly neighborhood wordsmith. They aren’t working on the front lines of things like “message” and “point of view” and “finding your voice.”
No matter. Stella’s got your back.
And you know how you do something, without even realizing you’re doing it?
And then—you have this FLASH of insight. And then you peer deeper into what it is?
Man, dontcha just LOVE that?
So I was giving a talk last week on how to write a charming homepage. One of the things I teach my students in production labs is that you need to pick ONE person in your target market, and write to HER.
The effect is that she feels like you + she are having a conversation.
When you do it right, it’s this beautiful, intimate thing. You’re not in the same room. But that’s not what it FEELS like. It FEELS like you are whispering right to her.
Or even better: you’re in her head.
I realize I’m running the risk of sounding kind of creepy, aren’t I?
I’ll risk it.
The point is, that’s the way you want to write your newsletters, blogs, emails, and blog posts. All your marketing, really.
Not like you’ve got a bullhorn. And you’re screaming at the kind people.
But like you’ve taken the time to write them a letter.
That’s today’s tip. And it’s one of my favorites. Truly.
Write your marketing like you are writing a letter.
On your homepage, write a letter. (See my homepage, here. Feel free to use it as a template, in fact. I’d be flattered.)
In your free gift to encourage people to subscribe to your house mailing list, write a letter.
On your blog, write a letter.
In your next newsletter, before you announce news or promote an offer, write a letter.
This will protect you from the BULLHORN MARKETING VOICE. And, best of all, it will put you in the right frame of mind for making a real connection with your future clients.
Mighty thanks to avrdreamer for the flickr Photostream of the sign.
