Struggling to know what to say on your website brings in dream clients? Elise Hodge shares how to write your own copy that converts.

Writing your own copy is more possible than you would think! We often get stuck on what we should write that will convert, but you don’t need to hire a copywriter to have great copy. You can do it yourself and Elise Hodge shares exactly how to do that. 

Elise Hodge helps entrepreneurs become the no. 1 choice for their dream clients using personality-packed copy. She is the host of the Expert Status Show and creator of The Copywriting Academy, where she teaches entrepreneurs how to write their website copy in less than 30 days without sounding generic, stuffy, or cheesy. Elise will help explain copywriting foundations to kickstart your own website copy process. 

How to Prepare for Writing Your Own Copy

You can’t just sit down and start writing your own copy! It takes prepwork to write the most successful copy, so it’s important to take the time to sit down and work through what you want to say. Here is the 3 step process that Elise recommends when writing your own copy!

First of all, it’s time to do your research. You have to sit down and identify who your dream clients are. Go and talk to them, not just observe them. You need to get to know who they are, and what they think. To do this, you’ll need to schedule a phone call or zoom call to actually speak with them. 

Next, you need to figure out your brand messaging. So what makes you different? What makes you unique? What words do you use and how can your personality come out? This needs to be something that you should already have an idea of, but take the time to really think this through. 

The final step would be actually writing your copy. But you can’t do this until you have your research done and have figured out your brand messaging!

What to Ask Your Dream Clients

So when you’re in the research step of the process, you need to be talking to your dream client. But what do you ask them? Elise shared taht it is more about listening, and although you can have some question ideas, you really should listen to what they have to say and form questions based off of that. 

For example, you can start with “What do you struggle with when it comes to blogging?” Then pay attention to how they answer. If they say they struggle with finding keywords then ask, “What about finding keywords do you struggle with?” “What would it look like if you could do this easier?” Just repeat back what they say, and then encourage them to tell you more about it. This will get them talking and give you ideas of what your dream client is looking for. 

Writing Your About Me Page

Elise shares that an about me page is a marriage of about you and about your dream client. You can share a story about yourself, but it’s important for it to tie in to your dream client and their pain points. 

Start out by introducing yourself and share how you help people. The statement that shares what you do and how you might be able to help them. Then, you can go into your story that’s relevant to a client. You can also share how you got started and the “a-ha” moment you experienced. If you’re wanting to share some of your expertise, you can do this but be sure that it is peppered in subtly, rather than a list of all your accomplishments. 

Share with your readers how what you experienced led to you creating a system that helped you, has helped others, and can also help you. Always bring it back to them and how you can help them! You should always have a call to action very obviously on the page as well, since they need to have a next step they can take after learning more about you. So be sure to have at least one, but even more if possible to get those dream clients wanting to find out more!

A Mistake by Photographers

One mistake Elise has noticed that photographers specifically tend to make on  their website, is there is just not enough copy on the website to actually share who they are and what they do. They often display their amazing photos, and although that can be enough to bring in those dream clients, it’s best to have more. Lay out the information for your clients: how does the process work? How do they contact you? What’s your process? What makes you stand out? 

Be sure to make it nice and easy for the client to find out exactly what you are offering them and who you are. 

Action Steps to Take Now

First of all, you should be clear on one person that you serve. Who is that dream client? What are they needing help with? What is the best way to help them? 

Then start making a list of all those dream clients and who you would LOVE to work with! Then try to get on the phone with them and find out exactly what they are looking for and what you can offer to them. 

Once you review these calls and learn what your dream clients are needing, the language will start to come to you naturally and writing your website copy, as well as social media copy, will come easily!