Website copy is tricky for most business owners.
When you’re first starting out in business, you’re trying to figure out what to write, what to convey about yourself, and how you help others. (Hell, even some established biz owners struggle with this.)
As you gain experience in working with clients or customers, you start to think about your personal brand and how to sharpen it.
For many people, this can result with endless tinkering of their website, editing their own copy forever, and getting no where.
Often, the root cause of your site making you want to vomit, is that you’re too focused on yourself and not focused enough on serving your clients or customers. That’s where “predatory marketing” tactics start to slip in.
In my case, early in my business, I shuffled through about 10 or 15 different website and brands (haha). I had different URLs, different business names, and random services that didn’t fit together. I spent most of my time editing and revising all these different web pages and sales pages… without talking to a single person about what they actually needed help with.
Nothing was coherent or clear until AFTER I’d worked with many clients… and eventually I hammered it all under one brand, based on what my top, repeat clients were paying the most money for:
“The Anti-Marketing Manifesto.”
Soon everything began to click… but only after years of work.
Note the order of events: I worked with many clients for years… THEN I figured out my brand and website.
Most people get stuck because they reverse that order. They get obsessed over trying to figure out their brand (and website) first, before they’re even serving a meaningful number of paying clients.
Part of my “endless website tinkering” came from me not knowing what to call my business. I didn’t know what my brand was about. I didn’t know what my purpose was in business. I wasn’t confident in my ability to deliver any real value to clients. I simply viewed everything from the lens of “I’m a writer/editor.”
(Notice the “I” in there. It’s not actually about you.)
My answers didn’t come until after I worked with many clients.
Experimenting with various sites and URLs served as a distraction from me doing real, meaningful, paying work with clients. My shuffling of websites reflected almost a “lottery mentality” where I lacked the entrepreneurial mindset needed to serve people and grow my business. I thought the perfect website was the key to everything… uhhhh, no.
Although a website is important (every business needs one in the 21st century), it’s not as important as rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty, and doing some actual work to serve paying clients/customers.
You do need a website — one that’s clear, succinct, engaging, and eventually well-designed.
But spend more time serving clients than tinkering with your site. You’ll gain insights on what to put on your site.
Paid work — sales — transactions — is how you learn the most in business. Serving clients is where you get better at serving clients. Your website is secondary to all of that.
(To learn more about this, read my book, The Anti-Marketing Manifesto.)
Meagan B., a fan, wrote to tell me that she, too, was struggling with her website copy:
“Hi Michelle, I just wanted to reach out! I finished your book (in 2 days!! Lol) and absolutely LOVED it! Shane Ellison is a friend of my husband’s and highly recommended it when we were asking him for some business advice.”
I asked Meagan what kind of biz she has…
“We’re just starting out with a holistic weight loss program and currently looking to restructure to more holistic health & wellness… with weight loss being one of our services/products.”
After reading The Anti-Marketing Manifesto, Meagan gained some awareness on how she was previously marketing herself and knew it had to change:
“I have a lot of work to do on my website and brand after reading your book — moving away from my former predatory marketing tactics ??♀️. (I would tell you to check out our website, but you’d probably vomit as it has everything you say not to do! Hahaha),” she admitted.
“I’ll be working tirelessly on my site this week. After I do the work, I’d love the opportunity to have you look at my site and see if working together could be a good fit. Thank you for writing such an amazing book!”
You’re welcome, Meagan… and thank you for the positive feedback!
Just remember… make sure you’re prioritizing sales and serving clients, above tinkering with your website.
(She also left an Amazon review!)
If I were in Meagan’s shoes, I’d keep her site super simple and focus on serving paying clients above all else.
I’d also avoid these 3 common website problems:
3 common website copy problems:
1. Not having yourself or “who’s behind the business” anywhere on your site. –> This breeds lack of accountability, anonymity, and lack of genuine human connection.
2. Being too focused on yourself –> instead of MEI’ing (motivating, educating, and inspiring) and serving your customers.
3. Cramming too much info and inundating people with drama — like “Lou,” the broke fisherman from Chapter 12 of my book.
These are a few of the top, common website copy problems…. and anti-marketing (aka selling without being a sellout) will fix most, if not all of these issues.
Michelle
Author, The Anti-Marketing Manifesto
P.S. If you need further support, you can request an edit on your website. I’ll personally provide feedback and edits… based on my 14+ years’ experience in helping business owners sell millions of dollars’ worth of products and services by writing as their true self and MEI’ng their audiences.
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 