What it really takes to write a high-converting website
Behind the scenes of the 5 month, 1000 hour process that turns your business into a better conversion machine
It was time to build a better conversion machine
Picture this: You find yourself the owner of a plane.
You're pretty happy with this plane. It gets you from point A to point B on a route that works for you.
But...
...at the same time, if you could build your dream plane, you know how you'd build it. Maybe it'd be solar-powered. Maybe it'd fly really fast. And maybe there'd be a little seat in the back for your cat.
In March this year, I decided I wanted to build that second plane--the "plane" here being my business.
Don't get me wrong--I liked the plane that I had. I'd been able to support fantastic clients, I'd found a groove in my marketing I could more or less stick to, and I'd gotten comfortable on sales calls. The plane flew OK.
But I knew I could build a better plane.
So I stopped flying the plane I had, took apart all the pieces, and looked closely at each one. Slowly, over five months (!), I put the plane back together piece by piece, making sure each one was as close to perfection as possible.
The best way I can think of describing my business before and after I rebuilt the plane is this--before, my focus was on attracting the next client. My goal was more immediate.
But while I was rebuilding my plane, I realized what I was doing was long-term--I was building the conversion machine of my business. And I wanted to give it a foundation solid enough to last not just the immediate future but five, ten, and fifty years down the line.
Below, I'm taking you through the whole process I went through to build that second plane--from the moment I stopped flying the first one to the moment I got I the second ready to fly again.
The overview
In broad strokes, the work I did to rebuild my plane consists of the following steps—each one builds on the one before it:
Step 1: Research
What kind of plane do folks need?
Research is crucial to giving the machine of your business the foundation it needs for long-term success. That's why the first section below on research is the longest. Your business exists to solve your clients' problems and to understand what they are and how your clients see them--so you must do your research. There's no way around this step.
Step 2: Offer creation
Where does this plane go?
With my research in place, I was able to craft offers that fulfill a need for my ideal clients and that I like. (Btw, note the second part of that sentence. You can have offers you feel "meh" about but for me it was important to like them.)
Step 3: Messaging (& Positioning)
How do we talk about this plane?
After landing on my offers, I took the time to lay out for myself how to talk about them (my messaging), as well as how I was different from others in my field (my positioning). Having these points in place guided me through the next step of writing my web copy.
Step 4: Web Copy
Giving the plane its shiny new finish
It alllll culminated here--I translated all the work of the previous steps into copy as I rewrote my website to feature the problem I solve, whom I solve it for, and how I solve it.
Let's dive in!
But wait--first, some context...
Actually--before we dive in, I want to tell you upfront that this whole process, from research to offer creation to messaging to web copy, was really hard.
And it was hard even with all the skills I'd previously honed. So you that have an idea of everything I had going into the project, here’s a bit about my background:
Before I decided to rebuild the "plane," I supported coaches and creative service providers with web copy and messaging. I landed here after ten years at UC Berkeley and NYU, where I taught writing, published my research, and earned prestigious grants that acknowledged the caliber of my work.
Graduation day at Berkeley, many moons ago
On top of that, when I decided to be a conversion copywriter, I took trainings specifically on copywriting from powerhouse Jo Wiebe, the original conversion copywriter herself and founder of Copyhackers.
And when I decided to rebuild the plane, I worked with Betsy Muse, founder of Rocket Fuel Strategy and a copywriting powerhouse in her own right.
Now that I've completed the process, I actually still support coaches and creative service providers with web copy and messaging. (I just do it with a lot more insight around my skills and my business.)
So even with my university-level experience in writing, expert copywriting training from Jo, and 1:1 coaching from Betsy--I can say that this whole process, which culminated with crafting web copy, is really hard.
As you read, if you start thinking that this is a lot of work, keep in mind that it is.
Tackling web copy--the kind that you hear converts--isn't for the faint-hearted.
Step 1: Research
What kind of plane do folks need?
Timeline: Six weeks
Objective: Understand ideal client problems to craft solutions to them (aka, my offers)
Remember when I said above that each step in this process builds off the one before?
To get to Step 2 (crafting offers), I had to do my ideal client research first because an offer is essentially something they need that I’m happy to do.
In the end, I have to say my offers are not actually that different from before--but what was invaluable in this step is how much more insight I gained into my ideal clients and where I stand in my field.
Even if you, like me, have an idea about your ideal clients through experience, this research step is still crucial. Firstly, it takes the heavy lifting of all the other steps of your plate--all the decisions you make in business should be based on customer research (otherwise, you're just guessing).
Secondly, even if certain decisions seem obvious or if everyone else in your field is doing a certain thing--the research tells you why (OR, it could very well show you that no one else has done their research and you don't want to blindly follow along after all!).
The customer research I did included these four steps:
A) Ideal client profile research
B) Surveys
C) Interviews
D) Competitive analysis
A) Ideal client profile research
We've all seen those ideal client worksheets before--but that's not what I'm talking about here.
While the worksheets have you fill out questions off the top of your head (as though the ideal client exists in your mind), what I did to research my ideal clients was look at their profiles in real life. In a spreadsheet, I documented a dozen or so folks and noted:
who they are
what their business is
what their website tells me about them
what improvements I thought could be made to their site
One KEY thing to note: my ultimate goal in stalking checking out these folks was not to work with them. Not necessarily. It'd be great if that happens--but my real goal was to understand the kind of profile I wanted in my audience. It was to understand the kinds of factors to look out for that would make someone an ideal client for me.
I found this exercise to be very revealing--I realized I have fewer ideal clients in my pre-existing audience than I thought, especially as I took into account factors like:
the kinds of offers they had (lower priced? higher priced? 1:1? group program?)
whether they were a professional service provider or creative service provider (I'm more suited to creative service providers--think photographers, branding, web design--since they're in the online business world that my other primary audience of coaches are too)
the language they use for their business (this may seem silly, but I hadn't ever decided to only work with folks who whose copy is in English. I know there are fantastic coaches and service providers who work in other languages, but I'm really only a fantastic copywriter in English, so...)
B) Competitive Analysis
With my ideal client profile in mind, I was able to look at folks who solve the same problem that I solve for that audience.
(Btw--this may be called a "Competitive Analysis" but it's not really about competing. Because the way the universe works is that you can exist in the same space as someone else and you both get to be abundant. No zero-sum mentality here. We left that sh*t behind in our old careers.)
OK, so back to the Comp Analysis. By looking at folks that solve the same problem that I do, I was first determining whether I'm competitive with them--or, if not, what I had to do or learn to be competitive. Some specific things I was looking out for:
In the range of offers out there, where do my offers fit?
Am I overpriced or underpriced? Are they?
Is there something universal everyone else does that I should do too?
Actively looking for this info gives you more insight as you create offers and price them.
The second thing I was looking out for in my Comp Analysis is the gap in the market.
Let's unpack this: As you know, every business does things well--a business may even have its own specialties. But the flip side is also true. Every business has a gap--the space that they aren't doing quiiite so well in.
If you find enough business with the same gap, you could potentially fill that gap in the market.
Here's a concrete example of this: Remember my mentor Betsy Muse of Rocket Fuel Strategy? After years of keeping her eyes open for gaps in the copywriting market, she noticed that people kept asking for help with writing About Pages. Voilà--she identified a need. She started thinking about how a training on About Pages could be done, collected examples from good About Pages, and recently created a course on writing About Pages. This gives her so much authority as well as being able to sell an evergreen course. Smart, yes?
Even if you don't notice a gap like this through a Comp Analysis though, you definitely become more aware of the market you're in and your strengths relative to everyone else--having your differentiators confirmed by research is extremely helpful. (Also, I don't know about you but I always struggled with coming up with my differentiators off the top of my head. Even if you're able to do that, your Comp Analysis should tell you whether what you think are your differentiators are actually your differentiators.)
Here's a parting fun fact on the Comp Analysis for you: the clothing store the Gap got its start partly thanks to a gap in the market. In 1969, Doris and Don Fisher couldn't find a pair of jeans to fit Don's 6'4'' frame. So they created one and sold it along with other Levi-Strauss jeans and records in their first San Francisco store, aimed at the younger generation. The came up with the name "Gap" as a reference to the generation gap...but wouldn't it be cool if it were named after the gap in the market that launched their success?
(Source)
C) Surveys
Surveys and interviews (the next step) let you hear from ideal clients directly. The goal of surveys and interviews is to collect voice-of-customer (VOC) data--words your customers use themselves, which you can use in your messaging and copy so your ideal clients recognize themselves.
The difference between conducting surveys vs. interviews is that surveys give you information at greater scale. You can have as many people as you want fill out a survey but the number of interviews you want to conduct is limited by your time.
For me, surveys and interviews go together. You need info from both because surveys give a higher number of entries but interviews give you depth.
The combo also helps you avoid bias--if you're interviewing 3-5 of your best clients, for example, you run the risk of only hearing great things about your services. But surveying all your clients can give you a fuller picture of what folks liked and what folks think could be improved.
For me, because my research was geared towards creating offers, I ran a quick survey that asked what folk's biggest problem in their business was. (My future offers would solve those problems).
After my responses came in, I parsed them into usable data. One interesting thing I learned about this: prior to parsing my data, if I just read through my survey responses about people's biggest problem, I would have thought it was lack of time. But post-parsing, with all the numbers laid out in my spreadsheet--because spreadsheets don't lie--time was actually the second biggest problem.
The problem with the highest number of votes? Marketing. (Bingo!)
D) Interviews
My last survey question asked whether folks were open to an interview. Though I had more than four people say yes, I decided to do four interviews because I figured that'd give me enough data to work with. (Interviews get repetitive after you do 3-5.)
To prep for each interview, I looked closely at that person's survey response. Understanding what people said vs. what they meant took some reading between the lines--for example, I could see from two of my responders that they were overwhelmed even though they didn't specifically say that. But being able to recognize it let me follow up with them on the interview itself.
Each of my interviews was different so I don't have a standard script to share...but here's a handful of topics I was trying to get a sense of from my interviewees:
What problem can I solve for them?
What solutions have they already tried and how did they feel about them?
What prevents them from hiring a marketer again?
Why did they hire someone to work on a sales page instead of a homepage?
When they mentioned something (for example, "strategy"), what did they mean specifically?
Do they think they have the same needs that I think they have?
What have they not previously gotten that they wished they'd gotten?
After all my interviews were completed, I again parsed the data into usable information, which was enormously helpful in shaping my offers, messaging, and web copy later on.
Step 2: Offer creation
Where does this plane go?
Timeline: Two weeks
Objective: Define 3-5 offers that meet my audience's needs and that I enjoy delivering on
After alllll my research was completed and parsed, I used that information to help decide on my offers.
Before I get into my specific offers, let me say first that I've found offers sneakily difficult in the past. Because it doesn't sound like they should be difficult--a copywriter just offers copy, right?--but it's not that simple.
The difference between the ways I approached offers before vs. this time was keeping in mind the biggest problem my market needs to solve and why they need to solve it. My offers became an overlap of the solutions they need and what I like to do.
Note that I said what I like to do, not just what I can do--though that's a good place to start. So as a copywriter, these were my options:
Messaging Strategist - Messaging is the base of all copy and all copywriters should have some messaging skills. But a messaging strategist specifically researches your ideal client and figures out what that person needs to hear and the order they need to hear it in (we call this the messaging hierarchy in copywriter-speak).
Launch Copywriter - A launch copywriter works with launches, but (again) it's not that simple. Most people don't know this but there are several phases of a launch. There's:
your pre-launch, where you're shifting mindsets and educating your audience to prep them to receive your offer
your launch, which can go in so many different ways, from emails to LFSPs
your post-launch assets, such as onboarding for a program or course (this helps reduce refunds and retain customers)
So there are a variety of assets a copywriter can niche down further in as a launch copywriter.
Web Copywriter - A web copywriter works on websites--think your homepage, about page, services pages, opt-in pages, FAQs, testimonial pages, etc. The main difference between launch and web copy is that web copy is more static and isn't necessarily tied to a time frame.
While these are options for a copywriter in broad strokes, the truth is that there's no real difference between the roles. Everything you write as a copywriter is a sales thing.
After some thought, I went with web copy. My research told me there was a need for it among my audience, and I prefer the less rushed nature of web copy. (Launching to me feels like one big numbers game under the pressure of a time crunch. That said though, because launching can have so many different parts, you're always welcome to contact me if you'd like to chat about a launch-related need. There are certain parts I'd happily work on.)
(Update 7/3/23: After working with Jo Wiebe in Copyhackers’ Email Intensive last fall, I’m happy to work on launch materials as well. Feel free to contact me about them!)
With the web copy piece figured out, the next step was to build out some offers. In the end, I came up with four offers I really love that act as an ecosystem--meaning my main clients see a version of themselves in each one, and each one helps sell the others.
The path there wasn't so easy...but having the research I did in Step 1 helped enormously.
The first offers I got in place were what I call "small start, big win" offers, which my survey and interview data showed me a need for. Guided by my data, I created my productized services--the Small Start, Big Win Copy Polish and the Messaging Playbook, which are lower-priced ways of working with me for those who just need a taste of the experience.
The next offers that were natural were my web copy packages--though I struggled for a while determining what exactly goes into each one. In the end, I came up with two tiers for web copy packages.
The last offer I drafted in this stage isn't actually live yet. It's specifically a lead gen package and even though I have notes on it in yet another spreadsheet along with my other offers...I just haven't gotten around to building it out. I'd really love to because it's a package that I don't see others doing and--going back to the gap in the market mentioned earlier--I'm always on the lookout for those. (I'm sure I'll announce it when I get around to it.)
Anyway, the moment I saw all my offers laid out in my spreadsheet and understood how they related to each other was pretty sweet. It was like I saw a piece of the new vision a little more.
The only regret I have in this process is not taking a break after that. This journey has been long and hard. There hasn't been anything easy about it, and even a day or two of a breather after this milestone would have done good. (So when you know you've reached a milestone, no matter how much further the road stretches, take a damn break.)
Step 3: Messaging (& Positioning)
How do we talk about this plane?
Timeline: One week
Objective: Get messaging down before writing web copy
While parsed data is better than raw data because it's organized into a usable form, it's still not the same as messaging, which is more synthesized. You can look at the sections of my Messaging Playbook for an idea of how I organized my parsed data into a messaging reference document for myself.
Because I know what I'm doing when it comes to messaging, I was able to do my own quickly.
Towards the end of organizing my messaging, I also wrote a brief positioning statement for myself (mine's just a paragraph but yours can totally have more details).
The difference between positioning and messaging is that the first is related to what you're offering and the second is how you communicate this in your copy.
Here's a concrete example using my own positioning: I offer web copy for coaches and service providers who, yes, want to make money--but who have also felt or feel underrepresented in our online space.
The way I communicate this (my messaging) is by writing about how representation is important to me, by mentioning work with underrepresented groups at Berkeley, and by featuring clients from different backgrounds across my website.
The reason I sketched out my positioning in this step is that it helped me articulate how I'm different from other copywriters even further.
Step 4: Web Copy
Giving the plane its shiny new finish
Timeline: Eight weeks
Objective: Re-write website and get it up and running to re-launch!
Aside from the Research step, the step that took the longest was rewriting my website. The way I think about it, this happened in two stages. Stage 1 was writing my core webpages--my two productized services pages, services hub page, about page, and homepage.
An early challenge was turning the VOC I had gathered from my surveys and interviews into actual copy...because VOC isn't a direct copy and paste exercise (unless you see the same word repeated over 30% of the time in your research)--so you do need to think about how you communicate what your research tells you. For example, my research showed a need for client attraction for higher priced offerings. There's nothing wrong with using those exact words but the way I decided to communicate that high-quality copy is key to quality client attraction in my homepage headline was:
Your premium packages are easier to sell
with premium copy doing its job for you
See what I mean about how you need to translate your VOC?
While I was working on my website, I also did two courses that moved the needled forward for me. The first was Betsy's About Page course mentioned above. Because I was part of the beta version and I wrote my about page following course guidelines, it was featured in Betsy's About Page Bootcamp for Copyhackers! Here it is, being shown as an example for 220+ other copywriters in attendance (thanks Betsy & Copyhackers!):
The second course I did was Master of Headlines from Copyhackers. Real talk: I was good at headlines before but this helped me polish my headline writing skills even more. (Keep your eyes peeled for a future blog post with my thoughts on writing headlines and examples of all the headlines I kept AND tossed out during my website rewrite.)
Because I did these courses, I picked up some fancy badges!
(Is this what collecting Pokémon badges is like?)
Even with all the training and resources I had access to as I wrote my website, I'm not gonna lie, it was still a challenging process. An especially stressful moment was the process of finish my homepage (homepages tend to be hard because they tie everything together). But the moment I knew I had a draft that was 95% of the way there, I saw a vision--literally, it was like the clouds parted and I saw a vision of my business lasting the long term. The confidence that dropped into my body made every ounce of sweat, blood, and tears worth it.
Stage 2 of rewriting my website was about tying things up. I rewrote my other webpages--my testimonials page, contact form, interview with page--and figured out some design and tech stuff.
One stumbling point in this phase was gathering graphics for my website. I'm not a designer so I don't know how to find high-quality, cohesive stock photos without going down a huge rabbit hole. At one point, even the thought of finding stock photos stressed me out. So I tried doodling some graphics instead--and what do you know, that worked for me.
All the doodled graphics you see on this website? They're proudly brought to you by me, my gel pens, and my library scanner. Yup!
(The takeaway here is this: You don't need to use stock photos just because everyone else uses stock photos. You are resourceful. Use that resourcefulness and figure out something that works for you.)
Final thoughts:
Don’t do it alone - find yourself some business buddies
Overall, this process took so long because I wasn't settling for "better done than perfect" anymore, neither in my business or my website. I was working to building something that lasts the long haul.
As mentioned earlier, if this looks like it was a lot of work, it was. Nothing was easy about it. In fact, if there's anything I've learned, it's that when it comes to building this kind of business, there truly is no "easy" button. Not when it comes to these foundations, anyway.
By the way, if you’d like to see how I can help you with these foundational pieces, the easiest way for us to get started is through my Small Start, Big Win Copy Polish.
The other thing I learned is that this process is impossible to do alone. I absolutely have to thank two friends for their encouragement throughout this entire process:
💕 Ashley Ludlow (founder of Solmiga) is an amazing accountability buddy whom I checked in with daily. She was there for every stumbling block, breakdown, and celebration along the way, where she shared her experience, encouragement, and a listening ear.
💕 Paula McConnell (founder of Seva Digital) is an inspiration. After getting the spark to support small business in her 50's, she went back for her MBA and built her own agency. Paula makes me think of the person I want to be in a few decades--still innovating. (Btw...I don't do much agency work but you can bet I'm on Paula's team!)
And...that brings us to the end, for now. Thanks for reading through the entire journey!
I'll be back to share more soon as I relaunch this plane! 🛩️
