by Kris Windley | Featured Contributor
Full disclosure: I’m a professional writer.
Which means that I have a specific personal interest in you paying for someone else to write your Copy…
But I want you to stop it anyway.
I mean – you can totally pay for copywriters to churn out some of the copy you need on your website and in contracts, and some copywriters really work hard with their clients to make their copy feel genuine. I know I spend a lot of time with my clients to make sure their Voice is showing in pieces I write…but that makes it time consuming and really expensive.
And I’m still not you.
Your unique and genuine Voice should be the reason your business stands out. It’s the most important piece of marketing real estate you have, and if you don’t take advantage of it, you’ll miss out on a massive slice of connection with your community.
And if your community isn’t connected to you, your marketing efforts aren’t working. So this is something you need to take seriously, and work on if it’s not your forté. It’s a skill you can’t afford to ignore or contract out to a paid gun, and it’s totally learn-able if you’re not comfortable with it yet.
You need to get your writing game on point, and share your Voice in the most effective places to connect with your people.
The three most effective places to be you online are:
1. Your About Page
This is literally where people go to get to know you. They click on this page more often than any other page on your site…and they expect to see you there. Not me.
There are a million different templates for the most effective About Me page, but the single most important thing you need to include here…is you.
I love helping women to plan their About Pages, but I really try to encourage them to write it themselves. Do the “best friend test” and ask yourself if you would talk to a friend like this. If your words are inching toward marketing-robot territory, cut it out. Go back to you, and your clients will too.
2. Blog Posts
Beyond the obvious issue of investment (at a couple hundred dollars a-piece, paying for blog posts doesn’t make sense in most budgets), your blog posts are another really valuable place to connect with your people, so you should take advantage of that.
You show up on your Blog each week to show your clients who you are and how you can help them reach their goals. You give them value and education, inspiration and entertainment, and you curate it all based on what they are interested in over the course of the year…right?
I know. It seems like a lot of work to do all of that. It is…and that’s a good thing. Just the process of learning all of that will set you aside from the competition and make you better at what you do.
Click to Tweet: Blogging for your audience gives you the opportunity (and accountability) to develop your brand on expertise and continual learning.
Then sharing that with your people? That will create trust and connection that is invaluable to you as a small business owner. You can’t buy that; you need to create it yourself, and believe me your readers can tell the difference.
3. Your Signature Story
Oh mama! This is one of my favourite things to help my clients develop, but I can’t write it for them and keep the magic of it.
It’s a SUPER powerful way to connect to clients and even gain new opportunities to do so, and it will help you to calm back down during those late night panic attacks. You know which ones I’m talking about: the cash flow hating, crazy hours working, why did I start this business anyway attacks.
Knowing your story – your Great Big Why and how you got there – will be like a life preserver for your own sanity in those moments. It gives you a greater purpose to focus on when you’ve had more coffee than sleep.
It will also forge a connection to your people that will stand out in the crowd. Stories are the best way to communicate any message, and a well crafted and powerful Signature Story will communicate your Brand Message like nothing else.
When you develop this Signature Story, you will have a great base for keynote speeches, workshop introductions and your overall Brand Message.
Seriously! I’ve been given more opportunities to reach a new audience because someone said, “You have to hear her story” than any other marketing tactics I’ve used, put together.
But it better sound like it’s your Story in your Voice, or it will lose all that magic and power…and it will be harder for you to stand up and share it comfortably too, if you didn’t write it.
I’m not going to pretend that it’s easy to just throw these things together.
Writing is hard, but it is a skill you can’t afford to not develop as a business owner. Being capable of communicating effectively – in a Voice that feels genuinely like your own? That will pay back in dividends…literally and figuratively.
If you’re about to make excuses like “But I have Writer’s Block” or “But I’m just not a Writer“…forget it. Those are just excuses. You can overcome them, and you can’t afford to not try.
Your Voice is legitimate; your Story is important, and you owe it to your people and yourself to share them both.
xo
K
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Writer, Writing Coach, Marketing Consultant and BizKitten Voice-Maker – Kris Windley from With a K Writing Services in Moncton, NB Canada.
She’s sick of women feeling like we need to ask permission to stand up and speak – really speak – from our expertise and experience, and she’s made it her mission to empower women in business all over the world to say:
“My Story and my Voice are legitimate, and I have EVERY right to share them. In fact, I have a responsibility to share them with my clients and my community, because I am an expert and my Voice is important.”
Before she became a BizKitten Voice-maker, Kris was a teacher. She taught Writing and Public Speaking to High School students before she left the public system to work with students with learning disabilities.
She created a new writing curriculum, wrote marketing copy and taught at a private school specializing in literacy skill development for students with Learning Disabilities. It changed her life and how she sees business, learning and the power of Voice.
Her unique writing style and genuine marketing philosophy have made Kris a sought-after writer, consultant and speaker for women in business. She is here to help women stand up and speak confidently in their own Voice, without asking for permission or feeling guilty.
Have you found your Voice yet?
Kris writes weekly for Keyboards and Kickstands – her blog at www.withakwriting.com – where she offers writing and marketing tips for women in business.
