Focusing Your Sales Story on Your Customers
A new client requested a consultation with me. Her email was like so many I receive: "I'm struggling with messaging and website content for my business. I'm all over the place with thoughts and ideas. I need help with a compelling message."
This problem is all too common with small business owners for a couple of reasons:
We know everything about what we do, why we do it, and HOW we do it. And we want to share all this information with everyone who's considering hiring us. Sure, the details matter. But mostly to you. Your potential customers want to know that you can solve their problems. So talk about that! Save the details for later conversations, and only if you're asked. Many of us fall victim to oversharing.
Most people have never been trained how to talk about their business. It's true. And when we don't know where to start or what to say, we default to what we know best, talking about ourselves. And this is the WORST place you can begin. Your potential clients care more about themselves and their problem, and not how long you've been in business. They will begin to tune you out before you finish your second sentence.
We think we need to be deep and philosophical to be seen as credible. And this couldn't be further from the truth. Deep and philosophical often translates to confusing. When you use big words, you limit the people that can understand you, and the more complex you make things, the more people you will lose. Simple and to the point wins every time.
Here's what I love about the email I received – she knows her website copy and marketing materials are missing the mark. Her website isn't keeping visitors interested, and her marketing materials aren't converting leads to paying customers. And a sneak peek at her website shows an easy opportunity to improve her copy. Quickly!
Pages titled "About Me" and "Work with Me" are about her. Not her clients. And instead of where a Call to Action button should be placed to bring potential clients into her sales funnel is a button titled "About Me."
These mistakes are all too common because creating compelling sales materials that convert isn't her job. Her expertise lies in a completely different space. But like so many small business owners starting, they build their websites themselves (which is hard!) and write all the copy (ugh – feels like homework.)
And so many business owners are in a rush to get it done as quickly as possible because it's painful and isn't how they want to spend our day/s; they want to get back to the work they love. And before they know it, five years have passed and they still have the same crappy website with the same unengaging content that fails to inspire their website visitors to act.
Here are three easy changes you can make to your website today that will make a BIG difference:
1. Avoid using the words "me" and "I" in your homepage copy. As soon as you use the words "me" and "I," the story is now about you. Your homepage shouldn't be about you. It should be all about your customer and solving their problem. Rewrite your copy without these words and you change the focus.
2. Ensure you have a powerful and CLEAR heading as soon as visitors land on your homepage. The heading should tell website visitors what problem you solve and how you make your ideal customer's life better. You have 3 – 5 seconds to let visitors know they’re on the right website. Don't waste those precious moments.
3. Remove paragraphs of content and replace with bullet points of information. Because we’re inundated with so many messages each day, we have a very short amount of time to make our point. Create website copy that is scannable and easy to comprehend. My goal for copy that converts is to say enough to pique interest, so visitors click that Call to Action button.
Creating good sales copy that turns potential customers into paying customers starts with focusing on them and their problems. They need to know you understand who they are and what are their challenges before they're willing to know, like, and trust you. Which ultimately leads to sales.
