Your website copy is key to bringing in leads and more income to your business. Ashlyn Carter shares her secret to powerful copywriting.

Are you a photographer having issues with writing your copy? Not only coming up with a copy, but having a compelling copy? With Ashlyn Carter, an incredible copywriter, we’re going to cover how to create your brand voice that converts into sales. This means how to copy-write in a way that gears towards your dream clients,  conversion copywriting for your marketing strategy and content, and how to create a compelling copy. 

About Ashlyn Carter

Ashlyn lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been in business for six and a half years. She studied journalism in college, worked in corporate marketing, and did wedding calligraphy on the side. 

Then she would meet up with creative entrepreneurs and notice that many didn’t know how to respond to an inquiry or up their prices, a few $1000. That’s when she realized there was a bit of a gap in that niche. That’s when she pivoted her business to help that. Her business Ashlyn Writes, also has a copywriting agency side, and they have a template shop side because not knowing what to say should not be the thing that’s holding you back from making sales.

Finding and writing in your brand voice

Picture a Venn diagram; two circles overlap. What you need to do to your copy needs to be a combination of your voice and your persona. It must come together with what your clients and customers say in their language and verbiage. That’s the part where many people forget. 

There’s an obsession with voice, and people forget that there’s a level of research and listening that needs to be mirrored back like a mirror to your client so they can see that you have understood their feelings. That you consider what they’re weighing in their heads.

You have to be aligned with your brand. Don’t look at other photographers or wedding industries. Look outside of your industry and outside the box.

Marketing that attracts dream client

Your conversation rate always comes back to your numbers, they tell the true story in your marketing. You know whether it’s working or not based on how many leads are coming in and how many are converting. How many people are visiting your website and taking the action you want them to take?

It might feel like you have to have a degree in Google Analytics even to understand what it is. But you can learn the basics and understand that the game drives people. It’s a volume and numbers game. Whether you’re launching your service, whether you’re launching a new set of presets, or your fall session spots, it comes down to how many eyeballs are seeing it. How many will say yes to the offer? 

When you look at it like this, it is easy to understand marketing. You then see where you need to step back and see what you can do to fix it to make that, so it’s like a game. It’s a good reminder to circle it back and know that the algorithm is nothing personal. 

The difference in copywriting styles

They are cousins like content marketing and the bottom line towards marketing your business. Content writing and marketing are a little bit higher up in the funnel. Copy is in communication words and verbiage. Whatever term you want to throw in is attracting and pulling people into that top part. It’s awareness yet drawing and pulling them in. 

Conversion is getting an action to happen. Getting them to open the email, click on the link to press it, hit reply to fill out the application, and submit their credit card details. Conversion copywriting is pushing for that action. Content marketing is where you tell a story about whomever you’re photographing. You’re educating them on your process.

The strategy for anyone wanting to be a copywriter

Two things can help you stand out. Number one, why do you do what you do differently or better than somebody that does the same thing? Especially if they charge less and especially if they’re in your market? You have to be able to tell yourself that. You need your specific aim on why you’re different and what you have to offer. That could be your onboarding process and your unique point.

With photographers, it can come down to your artistic style and the eye that you bring to it. Your background influences a lot.  Did you go to school for this or did you work in a commercial product for years? Own your story, only you have your story, and nobody else does. You have a monopoly over your story. 

The last thing is your process from an intellectual property type standpoint, for lack of a better word. For example, your six-step wedding day process that you execute with all your wedding clients. Or it could be another reason. 

Leaning into your story with your copy

Many people err on the side of forgetting to share their origin story. They feel like everybody knows them, so they create content without their story. You need to have an attention-getting headline with your copy. You need to reassure the person, ‘hey, your search is over; you’re in the right spot.’ And you do that by having a moment where you should empathize with their problems.  

You go, ‘hey, you’re in the right spot, my name is Tim, and this is exactly the problem I saw. That’s a fixable problem. Here’s how I do it.’ You can go into your track record and your story and then step into your office. What does it look like? In your studio, it comes secondary to earning their approval.  Approach them with your search is over. That helps you write your copy.

Your client is approaching your page from , “I care about you through my lens of me.” The $5000 to $10000, whatever budget they have for the project, also cares about spending their money for your story. 

Come up with something and tie it back to your story, why, and brand promise.  So if you’re the hardest person to write for, gather your brand voice, get it on paper, and you can get good at listening and hearing what they want to say. Have those things sitting in front of you before you write your about page, or whatever it is your client sees first. Don’t start blinking the cursor on a random page. Start with a ton of raw material in front of you. It gets easier that way.

Coming up with your own ‘isms’

Look at your text messages and meme accounts you follow because what people think is funny tells a lot about what their isms could be. The shows you’re watching, what accounts do you follow? What podcasts do you like listening to? What’s in your emails back and forth with your clients that struck up a good rapport with?  

 If you could clone a client because you felt they were so good, go back and look at your email chain.  What did you say and what did you joke about? What kind of banter did you have with them? Because you probably stay professional, but you also let your personality come out a little bit.  

Those are the places you should start looking for ‘isms.’ If you have a client, listen to podcasts that they’ve been on, lives that they’ve done, videos they’ve done. A lot of times, they’ll say things that it translates beautifully to the record, and you see their, ‘isms.’

A quote says writing is not written; it’s assembled. Start approaching your writing instead of thinking, ” Oh my gosh, I got this pulled out of mid-air,’ know you’re assembling pieces of a puzzle that you’ve already had. You just haven’t put them together and that conglomeration before.

Final Advice

Play the long game. You’re working on a lot of messaging or figuring out your value prop, brand promise, and getting your offer dialed in. Those are the non-sexy parts of the business. That sometimes takes a little bit more brain juice. 

You think about it all the time; this is your job. So whenever you get stuck, consider that you’re playing the long game, there’s a lot of noise and messages out there telling you to do this or that, or you’re going to miss the boat if you don’t start doing this in your business. Just calm down and play the long game.

You can learn more about Ashlyn and what she has to offer here.