My word on theatre, business, and all things word related.
 More than pretty, your website needs to function smoothly for your clients. My website still wasn’t quite right.
After I’d completed a web-audit and identified the areas where I could improve my website homepage, I started doing a bit of tweaking in some other areas like my products. I needed to tell people what I did in neatly packaged products (I still have to add some, like blog-writing, because obviously I’m great at that!) and direct them towards finding out more information, contacting me and finally--purchasing my high-quality services. I was excited about how much I’d changed my website and asked a friend and mentor to have a look at it and tell me what she thought. Both being freelancers, we have a bi-monthly meeting where we talk about our businesses and anything else we want to. It’s awesome. After a short discussion about my website the takeaway message was that while my website sounded awesome (just like me), it actually didn’t look like me. My friend (bless her) said that it was grey and that I was bright colours (I love her). As soon as we nutted out that this was the problem it seemed so obvious that I don’t know why I hadn’t spotted it before. Of course it is just natural that I would be so focused on the words that the pictures were an afterthought. Armed with this new information, I was just itching to go and inject my website with the bright colours of my personality so that it looked and sounded just like me. Now, my website is not only functional, full of keywords, and welcoming but it also looks and sounds like me--I love her. Along the way I updated all of the rest of the pages on my website. Here’s what I did to improve my website and what you can do to make sure your website is welcoming people to your services properly. Branding on Point Firstly, my logo was not big enough.I couldn’t enlarge it in the template on the web platform I was using so I had to make a workaround. If you read the blog before this one you’ll know that I sorted that out on my homepage by getting rid of the logo box and inserted it as a picture instead. However, removing the logo from my template meant that it disappeared from all my other pages too. So, I’ve put my logo on every, single page so that whenever someone is reading my content, they’ll also be seeing my brand--front and centre. I Got Social I want people to be able to contact me or find out more about me from every single page on my website. So, I added the social icons to every page. Now my clients can access my Facebook business page, my Instagram, my LinkedIn and my email from whichever part of the journey they’re on through my website. All About Me I streamlined my about page. I highlighted three reasons why people would want to choose me to write good content for them. I think I made a compelling argument for why I might just be the best copywriter for the job. I added a button with ‘contact me’ on it that will take them straight to my email address so that I can strike while the iron is hot! I’ve just convinced them that I’m the best person for the job and now the next thing to do is to CONTACT ME. Making Communication Easy My contact page got the same sleek treatment, although I did remove some things and add others. I made my content more inviting and offered multiple avenues with which to contact me. My clients can call, email, text, message me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram or fill in my contact form. So, my clients can contact me via whichever method makes them feel most comfortable. I added my products to my contact page so that if I ever want to simply market the contact page of my website, then my products list will be right there too displaying all of my packaged services. The Same but Different When it came to the wedding vows page on my website I knew I was pretty happy with the words as they were, but it looked like too much writing. So I split up the writing to create more white space, and made sure each paragraph started with a bolded sentence that could be skim-read. I don’t know about you but I like to skim read before I commit to a whole-page worth of reading. I also added the relevant products (wedding vows and speech-writing) to the end of the page so that clients won’t have to go back to my services page and scroll through it to find the product they’re after. My strengths are in creating compelling words in all the right places to help your (and my) clients easily find what they’re looking for on your website. I’m not a web-designer by any stretch of the imagination. I have given my website good functional features to help my clients find out more about me, my services and how to contact me. I’ve also created pages that would be useful for marketing purposes--none of them are lazing around uselessly. Those things are really important. You’ve have to entice your clients to want to interact with your website, and that’s where a few choice words can be magic. If you’d like a free web-audit or a discussion about your web-content needs, you can contact me any way you like. Here’s a link to my contact page with all my details. See what I did there?
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 This is how people look when they are 'super content' with their web content. I’ve been working away on a few things on my website to make it oh so much more appealing and effective Okay, so, I’m not a web developer and these things can take a lot of intense eye squinting and expert movements of the tongue. But, if you read my last blog where we did an audit on my website homepage (cos we’re taking projects on in small bite-sized pieces here) you will know that two things that I said I’d start with were:
Well, I did it! Here is the new look:  Larger logo and a 'value proposition' Look I could spend hours trying to get a better design look on this but actually I just need my logo and service to stand out because that is what people are looking for. Might I add that it’s the words that count and good direction from your website. Your website should be saying “Hello, my name is **** and you’ve come to the right place. What would you like today, let me show you how to get there” So let’s move on to the next tasks which were to:
So I’ve changed the tone to match my brand voice and now my homepage sounds just like me. I love her! Lol! I do think that I’ve made it appeal to my ‘best customers’ because I’ve targeted the sorts of things that they may think/feel/want. I’ve written the copy to reach out to the kind of people who I want to work with. They don’t want to write their own web content and they know what kind of person I am--cool, easy-going, a genius, I could go on...Honestly, why wouldn’t you choose me? And, I’ve reduced the writing on the screen to offer a ‘value proposition’. The next task is:
And there it is. Clickable links in bold with clear next steps will usher my clients from reading to enquiring or buying. Look:  Just click on this picture to go straight to my website homepage and see it in all its glory. See how instead of having a whole blurb about my Web Content writing on my homepage I have just used this powerful statement: I can make your web content talk effectively to your target market so that you don't accidentally give a poor impression to your customers. Click here to talk about how I can help you to be 'super' content with your website. My link redirects to a new spot for my Web Content information where the rest of the blurb, and a clear next step is available. What sort of next step? I have a buy now option that allows people to click and purchase my packaged items. Packaged items? That’s right remember my next task:
How will people know what you’re selling if you don’t tell them? This is a lot simpler with product-based businesses because you can show and tell, but with service-based businesses such as You Have My Word it can be a bit tricky. When people ask me what I do I say ‘I write stuff’. That doesn’t really tell people much and they say ‘what kind of stuff?’ and I say ‘anything’. It’s not very helpful really and doesn’t do the job of ‘converting’ an innocent person into a customer. So, I’ve packaged my services into products. I’m going to let a picture speak a thousand words here:  Click image to go to this page Now that I have packaged my services I have a place to usher people from my homepage to where they want to be. Trust me, they do want to be there. When they click on the product they are interested in they get the full compelling blurb that used to be on my homepage. Also, I can use the URL of the product to advertise my services on Facebook or any social media platform and when people click on it it will come right back to the product on my website. This will allow me to make Facebook Ads from them when I want to market my business services (more on this in later blogs, stay tuned).
What do you think? Has my website homepage and web content improved overall? This is just the beginning of a long journey into the world of effective websites and additional platforms which usher your clients towards conversion (that’s a fancy word for ‘buying things’). If you’d like me to audit your website and whip-up some web content to delight your clients then you know what to do--contact me here if you want to work with someone cool (See what I did there? I just linked you to my web content product package--boom). |
AuthorI talk and think a lot, here I share the love and the words and the thoughts. Take it or leave it... Archives
March 2021
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