The Three Pillars of Business Copy with Zimmerman's In-House Copywriter
Between Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and my website, I share about my business on a ton of platforms.
I have a system that keeps it from being too much, but I know 99% of my students feel overwhelmed by the thought of keeping up with their businesses on every platform.
It can feel complicated and time-consuming until you strip away all the excess, “best practices,” and algorithm hacking and realize that your purpose, regardless of the platform, couldn’t be clearer: to communicate who you are and what you do.
It’s that simple!
Now how you do that might look different depending on the platform, but it all starts with your website.
When it comes to your website, what you write about who you are and what you do matters.
Two weeks ago, I invited my in-house copywriting expert, Rachel, on the blog to share her three best tips for writing about business.
Today, I’m inviting Rachel back to share about the #1 goal of business copy, and how to achieve it!
Jess: Rachel, can you simplify the copy process for Zimmerman readers? If someone wants to start writing or tweaking their business copy, what should their main goal be?
Rachel: I like to think of business copy having three main goals:
Communicate who you are
Communicate who your ideal client is
Speak Google (aka SEO)
Today, let’s focus on the first.
Every time you write, whether it’s an IG caption, a Facebook post, a Pinterest pin description, or your website copy (the most important!!), your job is to help anyone reading understand who you are and therefore what you do.
Who You Are
If you’ve been following Jess for more than five minutes, you’ve learned that people buy from people. That means that when we say, “communicate who you are,” we’re not just talking about your business.
We mean YOU! Personally!
There’s a book I read in school called called Tell it Slant . It’s a wonderful and helpful book about writing creative nonfiction, but the title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem where she writes, “tell all the truth, but tell it slant.”
When you write about yourself in business, your job is to communicate as much about yourself as possible, but with the slant or lens of your business focus.
“About Me” Page
The best place to communicate your business identity is on the “About Me” page of your website. Here, you have the room to really explore (in long-form) what you want your future clients and customers to know about you.
Here’s where you get the chance to curate your business identity.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s look at Jess’s “About Me” page.
Her page opens with a photo (of her!) and a line that says, “I bought my first business at 28.”
This is a fact! It is true!
It was also chosen for a reason.
Most people are checking out Jess’s page because of her business, so it’s important to let them know that they’re in the right place.
After this first introductory section, however, Jess gets into her backstory. She shares about losing her sister at the age of three, going to college and meeting her husband, and traveling before having their first baby, Stella.
This section is less directly about the business, but it helps people visiting the website understand who Jess is as a person, what’s important to her, and allows her to infuse a little bit of that signature JZ humor.
The “About” page is choc-full of other personal anecdotes and business history, giving readers both a full picture of what the business is about, but also who is at the helm of the business.
You don’t need to write an “About” page as extensive as Jess’s (everyone breaths a sigh of relief), but you should take a hint from her and weave in and out of personal and business.
And keep in mind that what you exclude is often as important as what you include.
This is where you focus on the slant. You want to include personal information that relates to your business, that gives readers the information they need to understand why you are uniquely talented and equipped to be an expert in your field and be trusted with their investment.
You can include personal humor and quirks, but you want to use them in ways that would connect with your ideal customer.
Everything you do choose to include in your “About Me” page needs to have a purpose. If it doesn’t provide context or connection, it needs to go!
There’s a famous saying by playwright Anton Chekhov. In essence, he says, if you place a loaded gun on stage in Act One, it better go off in Act Two.
If you include something in your “About Me” page, it better have relevance within your greater business identity!
Think of yourself as the lead of your own movie or Netflix show. How would the director depict the character of you? Keep that mentality as you work on your “About Me” page!
Quick tip: If you’re ever looking for content for your IG feed and you feel like you’re out of things to post, go back to your “About Me” page! Use it as your compass. No one is catching every post you publish, so go ahead and recycle that content week after week! Let your website do the heavy lifting. Your IG is made for repurposing your website content.
Want some questions to get you started on your own “About Me” page?
Click to download 10 Questions to Kick-Start Your About Page
Want to learn about the second two pillars of business copy? Check back in a few weeks!