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Episode 66: 5 Tips for Writing Website Copy Quickly
274 Plays5 years ago
Copywriter, Jess Jordana, is back for another episode of the Brands that Book podcast! We are continuing our mini-series on branding and website design with tips about writing copy quickly. She was on episode 42, where she shared with us on moving beyond a client profile. I highly recommend going back and listening if you are getting ready to tackle your website copy. We cover quite a few tips about website copy, but we also have an interesting discussion on the about page. Jess shares some great advice on how to decide if something belongs on that page.
One note about this episode: this is the first time we tried recording a live episode. So if the audio quality doesn’t sound like it normally does, it’s because I haven’t quite figured out this whole live recording thing out. But, I am working on it!
For the show notes, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-jessica-jordana-episode-66
Recommended
Transcript
Avoiding Redirection on Services Pages
00:00:05
Speaker
on a sales page, which a services page essentially is a sales page, you want to be careful sending people away from that unless they're going to book you. So like you said before, giving people too many options like the latest blog post or the gallery or whatever, instead of here's what I do, here's how I do it, and here's how you can book me, just kind of muddles everything.
Introduction to Brands That Book Show
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative, service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
Fast Track Website Copywriting with Jess Jordana
00:00:46
Speaker
Copywriter Jess Jordana is back for another episode of the brand set book podcast and we're continuing our brand and website design mini series by chatting about tips for writing website copy quickly. You may remember Jess from episode 42 where she shared with us about moving beyond a client profile. That'd be a good episode to go back to if you're getting ready to tackle your website copy. We cover quite a few tips for tackling your website copy, but we also have an interesting conversation about
00:01:15
Speaker
the about page, and Jess shares what I think is some great advice for how to decide if something belongs on that page. One note about this episode, it's the first time we tried recording a live episode, so if the audio quality doesn't sound as good as it usually does, it's because I haven't quite figured this whole live recording thing out, but I'm working on it.
Engagement and Feedback Requests
00:01:39
Speaker
Before we get to the episode, I have a request. If you've enjoyed the Branchette Book Podcast, would you take a minute to rate and review the podcast on iTunes? Doing so will help this podcast get more visibility. Be sure to check out the show notes at DavyandChrista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode. And like I said, we want to hear from you. Let me know what kind of content you'd like to see on the Branchette Book Podcast as we move forward. You can send us a message on Facebook or a DM on Instagram at DavyandChrista. Now on to the episode.
Live Streaming and Audience Interaction
00:02:10
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the Brands That Book Show. Jess, thanks for joining us again. You joined us not too long ago, you were on episode 42. So we're in the 60s now. Welcome back.
00:02:22
Speaker
Thanks, I feel like it is a huge compliment to be asked back to a podcast. So I'm very grateful. I really enjoyed your episode. I really enjoyed getting to know you in the meantime. And so we worked in with each other in a couple different contexts in between. And this is exciting, not only were you asked back, but you're asked to test out this new episode. So if you're listening to this episode on iTunes, nothing should be really all that different for you. However, we are recording this episode live. So we're streaming live to our Facebook group as sort of a test
00:02:50
Speaker
you know, recording live episode. So I asked Jess what I asked yesterday. Yeah. And then I figured out how I was going to do this tentatively, like five minutes ago.
00:03:01
Speaker
So I appreciate you. It's working so far. We think. I mean, we won't know if it's actually working until I get the recording at the end. True. But I really appreciate you being willing to test this out with me. And like I said, just to give people a little bit of background, one of the reasons that I want to do this is because I do think that there is some fun banter before and after an episode with a guest, certainly with a guest like Jess.
00:03:28
Speaker
just what does that mean? No, I just enjoy chatting with we were just chatting about cycling a little bit. But the point being is that people miss that and I cut that out for a reason, right? Because I do want to get to the content I do think that's an important part of this podcast. And so we're going to get there. But the point being is your if you're interested in a live brands that book recording,
00:03:48
Speaker
Well, let me know because I'll probably start streaming this to our business Facebook page so that anybody who wants to could interact with it while it's live. And again, ask questions as they come up throughout the interview. Cool? Cool. Anyways, let's get to it. If you don't know Jess, Jess is a copywriter. She's a very talented copywriter. So Jess, in a nutshell, just kind of give us some background on
Jess Jordana's Copywriting Journey
00:04:12
Speaker
you. If you want to hear the full story though, go to episode 42.
00:04:16
Speaker
because we've recorded another full episode with Jess and she gives us her whole entrepreneurial journey. So in a nutshell, who are you? In a nutshell, I am a high school English teacher turned copywriter, which again is something we have in common. And I love helping people take their passion and turn it into words that people actually get. I think entrepreneurs
00:04:40
Speaker
struggle with not realizing that riding is part of the job whenever you go into it and so I really like helping people navigate that. I live in northern New Mexico with my husband and my really cute puppy. His name is Joey Tribbiani.
00:04:56
Speaker
And we like to do lots of stuff outdoors and obviously watch friends and other things like that too. Obviously. Obviously watch friends. Obviously. Clearly it's an obsession. Yeah. Yeah. So I hesitate to say this on a show, but I do think it's one of the most overrated shows.
00:05:12
Speaker
ever on television. Don't leave before the episode is over. I'm just saying big Seinfeld fan. Anyways, we're getting to the content.
Quick Website Copywriting Tips
00:05:24
Speaker
We've had it. Seinfeld is good. It may be one of the best sitcoms ever did to be on TV, but not the point. The point is website copy. That's what we're talking about today. Really five tips for writing website copy quickly. And one of the reasons that I asked Jess back was because we're going into the winter and for whatever reason,
00:05:40
Speaker
I would say from around the holidays until early mid-spring, a lot of people like to work on their website and brand. And what we've noticed as website designers is that one of the biggest
00:05:52
Speaker
areas that people get kind of stalled out on is writing website copy. And I think that there's this perception that when you're working with a web designer, they can just kind of like create the website and then you can go in and plug the copy in. And that's more true with a template, right? Because you're kind of buying the skeleton of a website. So it's not that it's not impossible. But I think a well-designed website is designed with the copy in mind as well.
00:06:19
Speaker
Really wanted to bring you back on to talk about how we can go about writing effective website copy. You've also just developed your own copy templates called promptlets to help people to this end. Can you share a little bit about what that is? Yeah, absolutely. The promptlets actually
00:06:40
Speaker
Then templates in the writing process in general as an English teacher I came into the classroom and all my students knew were formulas or really step by step how to write something they didn't understand how to cultivate their own ideas and so
00:06:59
Speaker
I was working against the five paragraph essay in the English classroom, but in the entrepreneurial world, I'm working against people either starting from a blank page completely or just filling in the blanks on their template and really nothing is in between.
00:07:17
Speaker
I had a lot of colleagues tell me, hey, you should create templates. And I would always say, heck no, because that's not going to get people the kind of copy that is going to really represent their brand and really represent the value that they provide in a way that sells. And so instead, I started talking through, well,
00:07:37
Speaker
If I could help people through getting the right ideas on paper and really developing those ideas first and then teach them how to use a template as a tool instead of a crutch, then that would be something that I could get behind. So that was how the Promptlets were born. So a Promptlet itself is a digital product and you can type inside of it and it starts out with giving you a series of prompts to get those ideas out of your head
00:08:04
Speaker
onto paper and really refine them and then it talks you through choosing a template or a format or a formula that you can kind of plug those ideas into so that it converts according to your goals.
00:08:17
Speaker
I love it. And I can get behind that because I think that this is a great solution for people who maybe don't have the budget for a copywriter or a really talented copywriter like yourself or somebody who's maybe just getting started and they got a website template and now they need some assistance with the copy. I think this is great. And so again, one of the reasons that I wanted to have you back on to chat about that. But for people who
00:08:40
Speaker
want to try their hand at writing really good website copy. That's who we're going to be speaking to today. So, why? And you kind of started to mention this. Where should people start? Yeah, so that's a good question. I guess I should back up because you have promptlets for the homepage, about page, services page. Yeah. Which I think are really the three problem pages.
00:09:03
Speaker
But for people approaching other pages or different projects, kind of you know, I'd love to just cover sort of a framework for getting started. So where should people start? I'll start with actually where people typically do start and why that's kind of problematic. So like I said, typically, people in the industry are either starting with a totally blank Google Doc, or they're starting within the platform that they're trying to write.
00:09:32
Speaker
And the blank Google doc is problematic because it's intimidating and people think that they have to do it in one sitting and they're like, Oh my gosh, I have to create this.
00:09:43
Speaker
super valuable content that's going to sell what I do. What do I actually do? I'm not really sure. And then they just kind of get into this identity crisis in front of the blank page. The second one, writing within your platform is problematic because you take kind of a fill in the blank approach and you end up with copy that is filling space instead of copy that is connecting with your reader and cultivating them to
00:10:08
Speaker
the conversion to taking action. And so you kind of get that like, okay, I have words in there, but there's not a full strategy that's tying all of it together. So the in between would be to piece out the process. So I really suggest starting your blank page if you're going to write from a blank page
00:10:29
Speaker
with bullet points of what you need to get on the page. So if you have your template, you have like a hero section that tells what you do, you have like a little about me section, just literally bullet point out those phrases, however you think of them, it doesn't have to be perfect. And then walk away from the bullet points. And then
00:10:51
Speaker
Come back to it. Take a look at the bullet points and say which of these are the most important are like the core pieces that everybody's going to see. And I would say to write those first and then walk away again.
00:11:03
Speaker
and then come back to it and fill in the pieces to move them down the page, to get them to take action, all of that kind of stuff that can be a little more straightforward. And I think even just that three-step process, whether it's an email, whether it's another page on your website, whatever you're writing is really helpful so that the process itself isn't overwhelming and you don't just walk away from it altogether.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, I really like how you break it down into different parts. And it is really difficult whether you're writing a blog post or anything else just to start with the blank page, you know, and so even when I'm writing blog posts, usually I'll go through and outline the questions that I'm going to answer and start filling in those questions. And then I'll go back and add things like transitions and it makes it easier to write that blog post. As far as not writing inside of the website platform, why do you recommend that? I think
00:11:55
Speaker
Again, it keeps you too focused on the blanks that you're filling in instead of the journey that you want your people to move through. And you can totally argue with me on this. I don't know if this is technically right, but just because you have a section that your template shows as you're like about me section, if that doesn't work for your strategy, then you can change that. You can put a different image in there and you can have a different piece of copy in there.
00:12:24
Speaker
So I think a lot of times with templates, people feel really bound to the content the way that it is. And I think if you're writing outside of the platform, it keeps you focused on your goals and your business, and you can figure out how those different blocks or canvases or whatever you call them in your website platform can work toward the goal that you're trying to accomplish.
00:12:47
Speaker
No, I don't disagree with that at all. I think that's good advice, especially when it comes to working within a template. But even beyond that, again, as you go into a website design process, not letting the design necessarily dictate the copy.
00:13:05
Speaker
I think both the copy and the images, both the copy and the creative, that goes into a website that makes for a good design, right? So I think when we think about website design, we think about simply in terms of maybe images and structure and less about the copy. But I do think that the copy is very much a driving factor in the design of a website and just how things work, right? So I can 100% get behind that point.
00:13:32
Speaker
Do you have a certain approach that you take with each page on a website? And I ask in part because I assume that there's going to be differences from page to page. And one thing that you mentioned in the hero spot was just the importance
Website Clarity and Navigation
00:13:46
Speaker
of clarity and telling people what you do. And that's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately because we want to have a value proposition. So for instance, ours is we help creative service-based businesses build a brand that books through website design and brand design or brand and website design rather.
00:14:01
Speaker
But at the same time, we want to make sure that right away when somebody hits our website, they understand that we do brand and website design. And sometimes I feel like we get a little bit too cutesy with value proposition statements or just those statements that we put in the hero spot that don't very clearly convey what we do. So thoughts around that and again, kind of what approach you take to either different pages on a website or different sections of a website.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. So I think it all stems from the goal of the particular page. So your homepage, for example, the goal is to show people what you do and send them to where they need to go, essentially. So if we think about like Caitlin James's website, because everybody knows Caitlin James, she has really her name is front and center because it's very recognizable, but then very quickly she has
00:14:56
Speaker
weddings and photographers and so when you land on her website you know who she is what she does and then you say okay I'm a photographer I'm gonna go here so that that copy on that page is speaking to you particularly and same thing of weddings so I think if you have a business where you speak to very clear buckets of people like for you Brandon website design
00:15:20
Speaker
then you want to make sure that they very clearly are sent there because they might be landing on your website to go there. And so I think from
00:15:30
Speaker
the standpoint of the copy that is in the hero image or whatever attract people through what you do and how you do it. So if you say we do brand and website design so that your brand can book that shows that you are going to help people elevate their brand so that they're booking more of the right clients. But it also possibly repels people who are primarily e-commerce or
00:15:59
Speaker
primarily a shop or something like that because you use the word books and so that implies that you're working with people who you provide services that kind of thing so even that like very simple language is doing the job of attracting and repelling because it's clear to people what you guys do.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah. And that's a struggle for me because I love kind of the e-commerce side of the business. And we are very much an e-commerce business ourselves because we do sell a pretty significant amount of templates. And I love sharing that part of the business with people. And so I would love to help more shop owners build their shops. And we do. Often, though, it's in the context of a photographer or a planner or whoever, a service-based business who also has an e-commerce portion of their business.
00:16:43
Speaker
So you get to work on both. But it can be a struggle, I think. All that to say, I think it can be a struggle to say, who am I speaking to? I know I struggle with this. Just that means I am going to repel certain people. Or maybe I'm not speaking quite as strongly to e-commerce people as I am service-based people. And you just have to make that decision, I think, on your website. Because if you do try to speak to everybody, then all of a sudden, you're speaking to nobody.
00:17:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm for sure. Yeah, I think it's it might be kind of a silly point to make but just because you're repelling somebody Doesn't mean that they're like gonna leave your website and hate you or anything like that Like it really is just making sure that the people who are being attracted are being attracted more strongly Because they're like this is definitely the place for me 100% So yeah
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, I 100% agree. And I think that it can change over time. So I don't think it's anything that's set in stone. But I do think that just this practice of cutting things out of your business that are unnecessary is just good practice in general. And so I think this is one of the values of if you feel like things are a mess, this is where I think sometimes brand and website design help to a certain extent, or at least something that we hear from our clients is that it does help them get clarity with their business, because we force them to get super specific with
00:18:01
Speaker
you know, who they're speaking to and who this website is for. I really like that. And I'm guessing that that's how you know you've written good copy. Yeah, I think how you know you've written good copy is that people are taking the action that you want them to take. But the tricky thing with that and sometimes the right people so you can kind of start to notice am I getting inquiries? Okay, cool. My copy is telling them what to do. Am I getting the right inquiries?
00:18:30
Speaker
that's another metric that you can measure. So for me, I write copy primarily for websites for
00:18:39
Speaker
sales pages launch copy, things like that that are more, there's a difference between copy and content. And so for me, if the primary inquiries that I was getting were for social media captions, then I probably would be doing something wrong with my copy in attracting those people, if that makes sense. So I mean, I still get people that ask me that just because
00:19:02
Speaker
they want somebody to write their social media captions, but my inquiries primarily are for website and launch copies. So I think you can kind of be able to tell twofold, but also you have to know what action you want people to take. And I think that's hard for people sometimes because it's easy to think that a website is just
00:19:26
Speaker
common knowledge that people just land on a website and if they want what you have, they'll know what to do. But that is so not the case and websites are so vastly different that we need to on each page have like, okay, I want them to go from this page to my services page, from this page to signing up for my email list or sending me an inquiry form.
00:19:51
Speaker
And those goals are things that you can track in Google Analytics or Hotjar or things like that.
00:19:58
Speaker
super measurable goals are necessary in addition to kind of the more, I guess it would be qualitative goals, which one's story based? Yeah, qualitative. And I think that makes total sense. And one of the things I see on websites occasionally are either trying to lead people everywhere, you know, from a given page. So it's like on every single page, obviously, on the top level of navigation, you can always go back to the top level of navigation to get to a different page. But as you scroll down a page,
00:20:24
Speaker
if you're linking to a hundred different places, you're not really giving somebody clear direction on where they should go next. That's not to say I don't think in certain cases, but like on the homepage, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can only link to one other place because you might have a section that brings people to the about page, especially for those people who are new to your website who just don't know anything about you. It might be likely that they're going to end up there anyways just to learn a little bit more about the face behind the business.
00:20:48
Speaker
But one thing as well, what we found, especially as we transitioned to be more e-commerce-centric, was that we had to go back and revisit that on our homepage. When we launched the latest version of our website, it went from leading people very much to custom design and branding, which is something that we still do a lot of. And of course, we still want to do a lot of.
00:21:10
Speaker
But as the e-commerce portion of the business made up more of the business itself, now our homepage, if you go to our homepage, it's a little bit more centered around the Palm Shop, which is where we sell these templates. So I do think that, as you mentioned, going to Google Analytics and understanding where people are going to anyways, and some of these top visited pages, and making some decisions based on that. So we noticed more and more people going to the Palm Shop, so we made that easier. And of course, we have no problem with that, right? Because that will hopefully lead to a conversion.
00:21:39
Speaker
But we wanted to make it easier to get there straight from the homepage. So we made that adjustment. But you might go to your analytics and realize that there is a page on your website that for whatever reason people are visiting but it's not really like a high converting page. And maybe think through why they're doing that. One of those things to think through.
00:21:58
Speaker
the most recent blog posts on a homepage. I'd love to hear what you think about something like that. To me, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, especially if these are blog posts that generally lead to people taking the action you want them to take. Maybe it's reaching out. For us, it would be inquiring about website design or branding design or purchasing something from the palm shop. In general, I feel like the latest post, you don't have much control. It's not like you're choosing what's there. It's just whatever the latest post is. I almost feel like it's leading people backwards
00:22:28
Speaker
Through the process things like that same thing with like really highlighting anyways like links to social media channels You know, I'm hoping that people go through my social media channels land on my website Not necessarily the other way around not that I want to hide that anyways I'm rambling here a little bit But I'd love to hear what you think about that kind of thing and how we should lead people across a website
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think it all depends on your strategy. So if, for example, you have for every single blog post, you have a very specific strategy and maybe you have like five really great lead magnets that you offer as an opt-in or content upgrade for every single blog post that you create, then that would be an example of that latest blog post being used to your advantage.
00:23:14
Speaker
But I sometimes also think of like with photographers or like wedding professionals in general having on your services page a link out to the gallery instead of a gallery expanding on the page. And this is getting a little more into design but is sometimes problematic if your gallery then isn't optimized to get them back to the inquiry because
00:23:38
Speaker
on a sales page, which a services page essentially is a sales page, you want to be careful sending people away from that unless they're going to book you. So like you said before, giving people too many options like the latest blog post or the gallery or whatever instead of here's what I do, here's how I do it, and here's how you can book me just kind of muddles everything.
00:24:02
Speaker
I think that's a great example, especially about the gallery, if a gallery is off the website. And so I know, I mean, any website we design for a photographer, all the galleries are going to be on that page, you know, so it's easy, you can collapse the gallery and you go back to that page. I think that is a great example of what we're talking about here. And just giving people, you know, making sure that you're not sending people to 1000 different places.
00:24:24
Speaker
The other point that you made that I think is an important point, the services page basically being a sales page, right? And I think one of the distinctions between the two is that typically on a sales page, you can purchase the product from the page, right? Whereas with a services page, you have that in-between step of actually inquiring, but each one has a clear conversion, right? Like the services page, the conversion goal is typically an inquiry. A sales page, typically a sale.
00:24:50
Speaker
But I think we can learn a ton from an effective sales page when we're designing our services page. And I want to go one more step, and I just want to hear what you think about this as a copywriter.
Crafting Relatable About Pages
00:25:00
Speaker
I think that to a certain extent, an about page is sort of like a sales page as well.
00:25:08
Speaker
That's a point that I try to make to people. I also think it's one of the things you should tread lightly. When it comes to about page, I think in a simple about page can do the trick. But I do think that people typically make it about themselves. Not typically, but the mistake that I typically see is that people make it about themselves. And it's not. And you're still trying to sell your service or even your product or whatever it might be, depending on what kind of business you are.
00:25:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think a key in an about page that converts, which they can, they can definitely contribute to conversion, you have to
00:25:45
Speaker
craft your story in a way that people can see themselves in your story. So whether they see themselves as a character in your story, if you've always been the expert, which chances are you haven't, but then they see themselves as somebody who's being brought along by you, or you have been exactly where they are and you've come to the other side of it and you want to help them do the same, that's a way to help them see themselves on the page, even on the about page.
00:26:15
Speaker
And you can also phrase things about you in a way that is helpful to who they need. So like Till, for example, we were talking about how you guys don't have a profile picture on your little Instagram.
00:26:31
Speaker
We don't, you know, so till is my Facebook ads agency that I run with Jesse Marcheccio and Ryan Akins. So till that agency if you're interested in checking that out. But just was giving me a hard time because we have not touched our social media accounts. I will say that we have exceeded
00:26:50
Speaker
the goals that we've laid out for ourselves over the course of the last year. I'm not going to go into this too much, but Jess is giving me a hard time about how we are not utilizing our Instagram account. So go ahead, proceed. But on your about page.
00:27:03
Speaker
you have something about how you guys play settlers. Yes. And like who's winning that. And I just have to say that that tidbit shows the level of nerd of the agency. And I really want like mega level nerds running my ads. That's just like a fact. So that's a tidbit about you guys and your lives and like how you relate to each other. But that lens
00:27:30
Speaker
authority, it lends dimension to the fact that you guys are experts in
00:27:36
Speaker
tech and just processes and things that you have to get into the nitty-gritty about. I don't know how much authority it lends us, but I think dimension is a good way to put that because the about page is one of those things because it can easily go the other way. First of all, the settlers a Catan piece of that page is towards the bottom because for us, it's a less prioritized piece. That's not something that when you land on our about page, you're seeing settlers a Catan stuff.
00:28:04
Speaker
So I think that's one important thing to note. And I do think that could go the other way too. I think we implement it well on our site. But sometimes I see a list of stuff that people like. And what's interesting about that is one, you might be different than your brand, right? And so sometimes we
00:28:21
Speaker
I think when we're writing about page, we kind of forget that, okay, if we're sharing about us, then we're really sharing about our brand. So just because I like sitting around in my sweats on a rainy Sunday afternoon with waffles, and, you know, just vegging all day, right? Like, I would never put that on the about page for Dave and Krista, right? They look at it and be like, like, it just doesn't build my brand, right? So I think that's like,
00:28:47
Speaker
You want to give yourself dimension, but you want to do it in a way that you should be asking yourself, does this build my brand? Yeah, I think a good way to kind of frame it too is does this help people imagine me doing what I do so like.
00:29:03
Speaker
For me iced coffee is a huge part of my brand and for better or worse that's what everybody knows me for but it's also easy to picture me in my office hunkering down and riding with iced coffee all the time and my. Best friend lindsay she's a photographer her obsession.
00:29:21
Speaker
is like pumpkin candles or pumpkin anything and she's a wedding photographer and she always has a candle on whenever she's editing and so that's like she loves a lot of other things but she strategically talks about the things that help people picture who she is as a brand and like you said it adds that dimension because we're kind of one dimensional people when it comes to an online brand and so we have to do our best to be able to expand
00:29:50
Speaker
people's view of us so that they understand us as a real person and a human brand and so I think those things help contribute to that. I really like that I think that's one of the best summaries of or best ways to put that concept of like including aspects of our personality can it help somebody envision me doing what I'm saying I'm going to do because again going back to my example I use this example because it's getting cold out you know and so I find myself gravitating towards Chris the jokes that I hibernate in the winter right
00:30:17
Speaker
So, it was cold and rainy on Sunday and so I just sat on the couch all day, right? But like you said, I mean, would a picture of me doing that or just me saying that I like to do that, would that help somebody imagine me helping them with Facebook ads or with their brand or website design? Probably not. So, I think that is just an excellent lens to examine the about page through. So, I'm really glad that we just took this sort of detour into – Yeah, that was a little bit of a tangent but I think it was helpful.
00:30:43
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And I think really when it comes down to it, the about page is maybe one of, it's just, I think people will find it easy enough to write about what they do. That's probably not even true. I think that people just find it hard to write. Sometimes. But I think it's even harder for people to write about themselves.
00:30:59
Speaker
or just kind of tackle the about page. So I really like the approach of making it as much about the other person on the about page as possible. And it really helps because then you don't have to write about yourself. But there is definitely on the about page do you do, I think, want to talk? You do want to integrate some social proof. So testimonials or badges from places that you've been featured or awards you've won, things like that. That help proof or help show that you can do whatever it is that you're telling people that you can do.
00:31:28
Speaker
So anyways, what's next? Or maybe we should recap here. Alright, because we did go over a few things and you had an outline. And I've sort of asked you questions about what I know was in your outline that you wanted to share. So maybe we can just kind of recap that real quick, fill in the gaps if there are any, and go from there. So number one, and correct me if I'm wrong, it was to not start with a blank page. Yes.
00:31:55
Speaker
Don't start with a blank page. So basically you were saying outline the different pieces of that page, step away from it, then come back and tackle it. Yep. Break it up as much as possible. Break it up as much as possible. Don't do this inside the website platform. And or keep the bullet points for the next time that you go and do that thing. So depending on what piece it is, whether it's like an email marketing broadcast or whatever, you can keep that
00:32:25
Speaker
list or formula as a template. And then the next time that you do it, you're already at step two, instead of having to start from the blank page. Love it. Love it. Point two, you wanted to make remind me what it was point number two was to set a goal for your page. So understand what you want people to it needs to be an action that's measurable.
00:32:50
Speaker
Absolutely. So action that's measurable, set a goal for your page. Each page is going to have a little bit of a different goal. The goal might not be an inquiry. So if that's your overall goal, the goal of the homepage might not be, oh, send it to the contact page. It's probably get them to the about page or the services page, right? You get them deeper into your site. From the services page, though, it makes total sense for the goal of that page to be an inquiry.
00:33:14
Speaker
Would you agree? Yes, I totally agree. Every single blog post to try to have a goal of what that content is going to accomplish because I think we get on the hamster wheel of writing content and we think, oh, I'm just going to put this out there so I can have my weekly blog post, but if that doesn't have an intention of getting somebody to
00:33:36
Speaker
your email list or getting people to have a conversation in the comments section which I'm not sure totally happens anymore or getting them to an inquiry or your wait list or whatever then that I would venture to say that
00:33:51
Speaker
Maybe you should wait until you have an intention to post something, especially something as labor intensive as a blog post. Sure. Sure. Again, I do think blogging is one of the most valuable things you can do to establish yourself as an expert, but it's like social media. It's like anywhere else you show up. Just because you show up there doesn't mean that you're helping the cause. I agree with that. Moving on to your next point, and I think that this is an important one. We did mention it, but I want to emphasize it here. Good copy.
00:34:20
Speaker
And correct me if you think I'm wrong, good copy means that you've either attracted somebody or repelled somebody. But there shouldn't be much middle ground. Right. Yeah. I think people who are really, truly attracted to what we're doing and how we do it will stay on the website, which you can interpret from session time. Yeah, session duration. Yes. So you're talking Google Analytics.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just trying to kind of conceptualize how you can tell if you're doing this. Sure. So people will stay on your website, they'll binge read your content, they'll bounce from different pages to different pages, or they'll inquire with you or get on your email list, something that should be measurable like that. You can tell if you're repelling people by the quality of your inquiries. So by the
00:35:10
Speaker
Level of dream clients that you're getting if you're getting somebody who doesn't really understand what you do at all and just kind of wants to reach out then that can be a good thing sometimes for brand recognition but it doesn't always translate directly to booking a client.
00:35:28
Speaker
So, getting those inquiries where people understand what you do and definitely want you to do it for them, that shows that you have been very clear on your website. Yeah. And Vanessa Kynes, who joins me on the podcast pretty frequently, keeps on encouraging me to do an episode on Google Analytics. And I think it's needed because I do think that we tell people to go to Google Analytics and it's hard to understand what people should be looking at.
00:35:48
Speaker
And you brought up a couple really good points about maybe things that people should be paying attention to. One thing I do want to warn people about when they go to Google Analytics, you know, let's say that, especially for a service-based business like a wedding photographer, who's, let's say, you're kind of in the middle of the market at least, so you're not cheap, but you're not necessarily $30,000 a wedding either.
00:36:08
Speaker
Let's say 100 people go to your website a month, and 10 people inquire. The TVA might sound like, oh, that's not that many people on my website or that's not that many inquiries, but let's say you book two of those inquiries in a month. That probably puts you in a pretty good position if you're doing that month over month. Again, it's going to vary by business. If you are a photography studio that has a bunch of associates and volume is really important to you, then obviously you want more than 10 inquiries per month.
00:36:34
Speaker
But if you are the sole preneer, and maybe you have a goal of shooting, you know, 15 weddings a year, like those numbers might not be so bad. So I think that's one of the I just want to say that for people go to Google Analytics, because I think sometimes people get in there and they think like, they should be seeing like just 10s of 1000s of people on their website, and then they get really disappointed with the numbers. And then they just leave and never come back because it's too depressing to go to. Yeah, so that's my my little my caveat there.
00:37:02
Speaker
Something important to understand about business in general is that numbers don't have inherent meaning. You have to assign meaning to numbers. So, if you have, I mean, 10 out of 100 people who are inquiring for $5,000 service, that's fantastic. If you have that many people inquiring for
00:37:26
Speaker
ten dollar product yeah that's not as great so it really just you have to understand what you're looking at and look at it through that one so i think that's a really good point good good so we talked about right now you know if you're writing good copy of whether you're attracting or repelling people if people if everybody showing up to your your website and the general consensus is meh
00:37:46
Speaker
you know, like probably not writing copy that's clear enough. Like Jess said that, you know, one way to sort of figure that out is through Google Analytics and other ways to figure that out is through the types of inquiries you're getting. Or if you're not getting inquiries at all, then, you know, that might be the case as well. The one thing that I want to wrap up with is brand voice. When we do a branding project with somebody, we're tackling mostly or pretty much exclusively their visual brand.
00:38:14
Speaker
What if you were the copyright or a copyright is going to help you come up with the what your brand voice right do you have any tips for people tackling their brand voice and really just understanding what a brand voice is and going back to a point that we made earlier in the episode you and your brand.
00:38:32
Speaker
are different. Your brand might have a different voice, a different personality, attract a different kind of person than maybe you do as a friend.
Authentic Brand Voice
00:38:41
Speaker
I forget who I was listening to as a conference, but they were up on stage and they were talking about how they weren't their own ideal client. They would never pay as much as they charge for whatever service it was. I just thought it was an interesting example that made that point. How should people develop their brand voice?
00:39:00
Speaker
I think your brand voice is where who you are meets exactly who your audience needs in that moment. So it is important to understand that you are not your brand, but especially for a brand voice, I encourage people not to go too far from who they are because if you're trying to construct something
00:39:22
Speaker
that is like way outside of what you would actually say you're not gonna show up because you're gonna it's gonna feel intimidating or it won't feel like you and people can sense in authenticity and.
00:39:37
Speaker
I think it's really important to actually sound like yourself as much as possible with that said, and I'll come back to that in a second. But with that said, I think it's important to understand where your people are and who they need to get to where they want to go. So for.
00:39:55
Speaker
a wedding photographer, your specific bride might need somebody who is very organized and has like experience with a wedding day and is just like boom, boom, boom, knows how to work with people, all of that kind of stuff. So you're going to want to project that personality.
00:40:15
Speaker
more so than you're sitting on the couch needing waffles personality, right? So for me, people really gravitate toward my teacher personality and the fact that I can not only teach them how to do something, but I can reframe how they think about something. So I try to really tap into that. So your brand voice is not just what you say, it's how you say it in the way that is going to give your people what they need.
00:40:46
Speaker
So are there certain exercises that you encourage people to go through in order to figure out their brand voice? I'm really hoping that you have like a downloadable that I can put on the show notes. Oh, yes. And we didn't even rehearse this people we did it. This is not a I didn't put that in the outline. I'm going to ask you about your downloadable but with such such a downloadable exists. So tell us a little bit about it. How does it help you figure out your brand voice?
00:41:11
Speaker
So it's called the uncover your true brand voice guide and not your fake brand voice guide. Just kidding. But it really helps you make sure that you are listening to yourself. So the primary activity, you are authentic, whether it is
00:41:26
Speaker
text messages to your best friend or your mom, a Marco Polo or like Voxer is really good because you can hear yourself actually. You can hear inflections and you can hear colloquialisms and like all of the different teeny tiny words that you say. And so that is really helpful because if you were to go to a piece of paper and say, I'm going to write down my brand voice, it would not translate. And this came through in a website copy audit that I did just two days ago.
00:41:57
Speaker
My client had written a piece of copy to explain her services and it just was, I mean, it made sense if you take time to make it make sense, but it just wasn't really coming through easily, especially if I were a client who was skimming on a webpage.
00:42:14
Speaker
And so I just asked her to explain it to me and I recorded it on Zoom. And then I told her, okay, I'm going to drop this recording in our folder and you go back and listen to it and literally transcribe what you wrote because that made so much sense.
00:42:30
Speaker
and it was super simple and so I think we get really academic sometimes or try to be too creative with our words when really if we were just sitting down with a best friend to coffee and explaining it to somebody then it would make so much more sense to the actual people who we want to get inside of our business.
00:42:52
Speaker
I like that and I like the point about being too creative. You know who Andy Stanley is? He's a pastor. Okay, awesome. I feel like most people do but just in case. I was listening to something that he said and he was talking about leadership in particular and he said that people say – this might not be a direct quote. I don't have it in front of me but it was something along the lines of people say they want character.
00:43:13
Speaker
but they always follow clarity. And I think in the context of a website or writing copy, a similar saying could be said, right? People say they want creativity, but they always follow clarity, you know? And so I think clarity and he said this, you know, it's funny, he goes on to say that clarity can cover a multitude of sins.
00:43:32
Speaker
And he's speaking in the context of leadership and politics and things like that. But I think the same is true for a website. A clear website, it's going to cover a multitude of mistakes, other mistakes that you might be making. I think people really value clarity. So anyways,
00:43:48
Speaker
I'm pretty sure we could chat for another hour, but I think I've sufficiently tortured you enough by yesterday basically being like, hey, you want to try this new thing out where we broadcast this episode live? And like I said, if you're interested in live episodes, let me know. It's a little bit more work to do it. So I just want to hear from people that this is something that they might be interested in. We're going to turn this recording off, but before we do, tell us where we can find you and tell us again about the
00:44:15
Speaker
Yep, so you can find me on Instagram at jessjordana and my website is jessicajordana.com. I'm on Instagram mostly every day and I love hanging out with people on there so I'd love to connect. And then the Pramplet shop
00:44:30
Speaker
can be found on my website. It is a shop of digital products that are going to help you DIY your website copy. So we have home page, about page, services page, or you can combine it all together for a slight discount for the website bundle and just get your whole site written or give it a makeover if you already have website copy that you're not totally happy with. So yeah.
00:44:53
Speaker
Highly recommend checking that out, especially if you're taking on a website project and you want to level up your copy a little bit, or just have a little bit more direction in what you need to write. So thanks again for joining me, Jess, for a second episode of Brands at Book, and we will definitely have to have you on again. Awesome. Thanks for having me.
00:45:14
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.