How a brand-new idea (adopt a pistachio tree, share in its harvest) went from a pitch-deck sentence to a brand people could understand, trust and buy as a gift.
This is how Abdi Moinian first described his business to me: “A company that generates social, environmental & financial benefits by creating a new agro-farming crowd platform, where adoption of trees and investment in agriculture is made accessible to the masses.”
Every word of it is true. And unless you’d already decided to invest, you probably drifted off somewhere around “agro-farming”.
He knew it, too. When I asked what worried him most about talking to his audience, he said: “Them understanding the concept in a few seconds…how do we get them interested?”
That rare thing – a new idea, but only a few seconds to explain it
MyTreehood lets people adopt a tree on an organic farm, follow how it’s growing, and take a share of what it produces, either as income or (eventually) as the harvest itself. You could be closer to nature without having to buy a field or don wellies. You could start with just one tree.
There was a lot to fit into those few seconds. Abdi’s key messages covered the fun of adopting a tree, a way to diversify your investments, learning about orchards and agriculture, organic farming that’s good for the soil, a share of one of the healthiest nuts going, and jobs for the people who work the land. All of it mattered to him, and he was trying to say it all at once.
Two very different people, one tree
The audience research narrowed Abdi’s “anyone, really” into two people with very different reasons to buy.
The first I called the Non-Conformist. She has money to invest and no interest in taking the traditional route. She wants her investments to be environmentally and socially credible, she’s nervous about risk in a new area, and (honestly) she’d quite like something better to talk about at parties than her pension.
The second was the Thoughtful Gifter, looking for a present that isn’t mass-produced, that shows she put some thought in, and that lasts longer than a box of chocolates. She may not know much about investing at all, and she’s not really interested in learning loads about it right now.
The same research turned up three reasons either of them might walk away:
trust and financial risk,
not understanding how it works (the investing or the farming),
and a healthy suspicion of anything calling itself “green”.
Everyone else was telling one story
Then I looked at where else those people might go.
Treedom sold tree gifts with a personal touch
Ecologi was all about doing good for the planet, with no investment angle at all
Ecotree talked about sustainable forestry
The Walnut Fund focused on the money, leaning on jargon like “generational wealth” and “democratize investments” to sound credible.
The other brands were each telling one story about trees. MyTreehood could tell the whole story (the money and the meaning) without the jargon.
So the Brand Messaging Guide set out a voice that was educational, friendly and fun, and three key messages to carry everything else:
Invest in something more interesting than tech stocks, and more tangible than bitcoin
Get closer to your food
Do something good for the planet with your money
It also set out how to answer the three barriers.
Explain the whole process, from handing over your money to the end of your tree’s life, as simply as possible
Use trust markers (partnerships, credentials, clear numbers on risk and return, behind-the-scenes content from the orchards)
And be honest about farming’s environmental limits, because that’s what makes the green claims believable
Trees with Benefits
Then we put the Guide to work on the website, including my favourite headline I’ve ever written.
The MyTreehood homepage headline
When the site launched, the homepage spoke to both buyers. For the Non-Conformist, a section called “Break free from boring” asked why you’d invest like your grandad. For the Thoughtful Gifter, there was a gift route right there on the homepage. “Farm without the wellies” brought in the part about getting closer to your food. And “How it works” walked through the whole thing in five plain steps, from choosing your tree to receiving your share of the harvest, because the Guide said the simpler the explanation, the more likely people are to trust it.
A long-lasting investment
The Brand Messaging Guide gave MyTreehood a clear sense of who it’s talking to and what they need to hear, so that three years on, every new piece of work still has something to stand on.
Over the last 3 years, Abdi and I have used it to build social media strategies, reach out to influencers, and create a gifting guide.
So more people can get closer to the soil (without wellies), and munch on their very own pistachio nuts!
Got an idea that’s hard to explain in a sentence?
If you’ve built something that does lots of good things at once, there’s a fair chance your audience is getting all of them at the same time (and remembering none of them). A Brand Messaging Guide sorts out who your thing is really for, what they need to hear first (the rest can wait), and how to show them they can trust you.
How a coach with a decade of happy clients realised her message was no longer working, and how a messaging audit discovered what her audience needed to hear instead.
Pippa’s first message about working together was a lot like a lot of messages I get from people…steeped in frustration that her business didn’t fit traditional marketing “rules”.
She’d been told, by more than one person, that a mastermind needs to promise specific, tangible results. She agreed with that in principle, she said, but also “I’ll be buggered if I can articulate the results.”
A decade of happy clients and no way to say why
Pippa runs The Disobedient Business Co. with Lucy, and the Disobedient Business Mastermind is the main event. It’s for ADHD and autistic business owners who’ve been at it a while. People join and then stay. One member had been there since September 2021, and others for well over two years. Pippa knew it worked, partly because “none of the people that are in the mastermind are dickheads, and they wouldn’t stick around if we weren’t doing something right.”
The trouble was selling it. She wanted to get it back to being “an easy sell”, and she told me straight that it was “def not landing in the current marketplace at all.”
The advice she’d been given was to hang the Mastermind on one thing, so it became a sales mastermind or a launch mastermind. But that was too narrow for what the Mastermind does, and a bit disingenuous. She was stuck.
Which was why she needed me.
Five years of tweaking at the edges
She’d written the messaging a couple of years earlier, and since then she’d tinkered with different sections, sharpening and tweaking, without changing the structure underneath.
She could feel the gap, too. “We’re definitely missing the mark in terms of speaking to people the way that they need to hear things now, as opposed to maybe the way they needed to hear them in 22, 23.” She needed some kind of golden thread that would run through everything – something suited to the new context we found ourselves in in 2025 – a bin fire globally, cost of living crisis nationally, and everyone in the online business world finding selling more difficult.
Send me everything
The Messaging Reset is a week-long messaging audit for businesses whose messaging used to work and has stopped landing. I work out what’s still doing its job and what’s drifted, then map out what to say first (and who to say it to) right now, in a doc you can copy and paste straight from.
It starts with me reading everything, and I mean everything. Pippa took me at my word. She sent the website pages, her welcome email, a filtered view of every email she’d sent since April, her draft framework, onboarding answers from Mastermind members, a testimonials spreadsheet she was embarrassed about, and a brand-new doc she’d pulled together that morning.
Then we talked it through on a kickoff call, and I sorted what her people were dealing with into three groups.
There’s their brain, and the judgment, self-doubt and shame that come from being told one-size-fits-all and finding it doesn’t fit.
There are their ethics, and the bro marketing, manipulative tactics and toxic productivity they keep being told they need.
And there’s the vibe they’re looking for, which is a space where they can be themselves and find people like them.
Her voice was already doing its job for all three, and that part of the Reset map simply says “Do Not Touch!” The humour, the swearing and the generosity of it all stayed exactly where they were.
What needed work was the order things were said in, and who they were said to.
Knackered, and just trying to stay upright
Pippa’s people were the same ADHD and autistic business owners, allergic to blueprints and drawn to her for the same reasons as ever. What had changed was their context.
The old messaging assumed a reader who was angry and ready to burn it all down. Five years ago they wanted to rage against the system. Now they’re knackered, and just trying to stay upright. Most had spent a lot of money on coaches and programmes, and the cost of living had made every decision feel heavier. What they wanted to know was whether this could finally work for them.
Yes, they still wanted the world and unjust systems to change. But this Mastermind couldn’t just give them that – it actually had to make their business work, too. They were in a “put your own oxygen mask on first” situation.
So the Reset moved the lead from rebellion to relief. The core shift went from “This is a space for business rule-breakers” to “This is where your business finally works, because it’s shaped around your brain, not someone else’s formula.”
What you put in place of the rulebook
The ideal Mastermind member needs to believe two things before they’ll jump in:
“You can help me get the results I want.”
“I won’t have to leave part of me at the door to get them.”
Everything else in the map hangs off those two lines.
There’s a new value proposition for the Mastermind, the messages to lead with and the order to use them in, a clear signal that this is for people with three or more years in business, and a sales page opener written for someone who’s tired rather than furious. There are before-and-after rewrites of her existing copy, a swipe bank of lines she could lift straight into emails and posts, and five mini case studies built from what her members had already told her.
It all arrived as a Google Doc with a video walk-through, so she could copy and paste from it rather than squint at a shiny PDF.
“Ohhh, yeah that makes sense'”
“It all makes total sense,” she wrote, “and to be honest, both comfortingly and also fucking annoyingly (on me not you), 97% of it is stuff I’ve been circling for aggggges.”
That’s the bit I hear most often after a messaging audit. Most people have been circling the answer for a while, and they need someone outside the business to point at it and say yes, that one.
After years of the industry shouting about launch numbers and revenue, she’d come to believe her clients’ results were “too squishy” to count, even though she knew how much they mattered.
So we used the implementation call for exactly that. We triaged the sales page so the new messaging could go in without a full rewrite, planned content around each part of the messaging shift, and worked through how to show results from the testimonials and feedback she already had, without sounding “bro-ey”.
Seven weeks
The last time Pippa had torn her business down to start again, her website was offline for eighteen months.
This time she rewrote the whole thing, copy and design, in seven weeks. When she got to the two pages she’d been avoiding (the Mastermind page and the homepage), she brought me back in to red-pen the first and write the second. The Mastermind page she’d drafted was already a long way from the old one. It felt like a significant shift towards what the Mastermind offers, and the struggles her audience were dealing with right now, and I didn’t change much.
A few months later, Pippa joined me on an Instagram live to talk about the Reset. Without being asked, she made the case for it better than I ever have.
“Downwards of a thousand quid, I cannot think of another thing that would be better to invest in at the moment. If you are not saying the right things to the right people in the right way… you can put all the content out in the world that you like and it’s gonna be an absolute load of nonsense.””
Pippa Parfait, The Disobedient Business Co.
Circling the same answer for a while?
If your business works, your clients stay, and you still can’t quite say what you do for them.
Or selling has gotten more difficult, but you’re not sure why.
A Messaging Reset is a messaging audit that keeps what’s working, shows you what’s drifted, and gives you the words to put your messaging back where your people are.
Brilly’s Tone of Voice Guide: How a sports bra brand with a patent, lab results, and too many ways to describe itself found its positioning, its voice, and a customer journey that carried women from “not another sports bra” to checkout.
Claudio Storelli’s team designed their sports bra the way you’d design a trail-running backpack. You cinch a good backpack so the weight sits exactly where you want it, loosen it off for a walk, tighten it up for a run, and adjust each side on its own. When Claudio first told me about it, he described the moment the idea clicked as a slightly mad realisation: “we’re sending people to Mars”, and women with bigger busts still can’t get a sports bra that’s comfortable.
So they engineered one. It wraps around you, each side adjusts independently (because nobody is perfectly symmetrical), and in lab testing it outperformed every sports bra on the market. They called it Brilly, because the product is clever and they wanted the brand to be a little bit clever too.
Plenty of ways to describe it, none that landed
Claudio had the patent and the test results. He also had a problem. “I have many ways of describing what this does,” he told me on our first call, “but we need a way to nail it.”
The science was the obvious place to start, and the trouble was that the test results were, in his words, “very dry”. Look at how everyone else sold sports bras, and you got two options. At one end, the hardcore athlete running two marathons back-to-back. At the other, women having pillow fights with clouds in the background. Neither was the woman Brilly was for: “the smart, busy woman who squeezes a workout when she can”, then picks up the kids, grabs a coffee and meets her friends for brunch, all in the same bra.
Underneath it all was why the brand needed to exist. Women had told the team they’d stopped doing certain workouts, or stopped working out at all, because of what happened to their chest. Claudio wanted a brand that told them “you don’t have to hide, just go do it”, and put a smile on their face while it did. (He was also very clear it shouldn’t be pretentious. He hates pretentiousness.)
Finding the space between the lab report and the pillow fight
We started with strategy, because a voice with no position behind it is just a nice tone.
Everyone on the team filled in the brand discovery questionnaire. There were no customer interviews to draw on yet, so I went message mining for the words women with bigger busts already use about their sports bras: the uniboob, the straps digging in, wearing two or three bras at once, and the sweaty fight to get the thing off afterwards. The competitor research showed brands promising comfort or support or style, and nobody claiming all three at once, so that became Brilly’s ground.
The positioning gave Brilly a cause. Brilly rebels against bad bras on behalf of all women, and its lead message puts the blame where it belongs: “Your body is right, the garment is wrong.” Angela, Brilly’s fractional CMO, called the “on behalf of all women” idea “a powerful connective tissue community statement”, and summed up the strategy better than I could: “We want to create the community out of these people, not just spray and pray.”
A voice that can explain engineering over a martini
Then we ran a brand voice workshop with the whole team, sorting a long list of tone words into the essentials, the nice-to-haves and a pile we called “no, heck no”.
Brilly came out as a blend of two voice types. The Translator handles the science, so a patented engineering design becomes something you’d happily read on your phone in the queue for coffee. The Friend at the Bar keeps it human, a bit cheeky, and on your level (the Guide describes it as chuckling at the bar over a couple of martinis). Claudio had asked for copy that would “smirk like your clever, smart, cool friend”, and this is the voice that does it. The never list mattered just as much: Brilly is never embarrassed (boobs are natural, and the language says so) and never judgmental, because every body is worthy of a bra that fits.
Who she is, and what she needs to hear when
The first draft of the personas talked about bodies changing through the month, and Angela pushed us wider. Bodies change across a whole life, and a bra that adjusts can go with you through all of it, which also gives a customer a reason to come back for a new size. So the personas follow life stages: before children, pregnancy, postpartum, mums wrangling small children, perimenopause and menopause, and the women who practically live in their running kit. Each one has her own story and her own reasons to need Brilly.
Then we mapped the key messages to where she is in the buying journey. When she’s fed up but not looking, “Your body is right, the garment is wrong” and “We ripped up the rulebook” are there to stop the scroll. When she’s comparing options, the Translator steps in with science-backed support and engineered comfort for real life. When she’s ready to decide, “Move freely, live fully” shows her what changes, with the science repeated for reassurance.
Putting the strategy to work
The Positioning, Messaging and Tone of Voice Guide became the brief for everything that followed, and Brilly’s team brought me back for most of it.
The homepage and product page follow that same journey: the problems she recognises, how each one is solved by the design, everyday use cases from the school run to the sofa, and a route into the full engineering for readers who want the geeky detail. An ad landing page and personas for their ad campaigns came next.
Angela expected most people to need a few visits to the site before they bought, so the welcome email sequence was built to carry them there. Six emails move from Brilly’s story to real wearers, then the product, the engineering, a day in the life, and finally the guarantee, which opens on a line that came straight out of Angela’s comments on the Guide: “We get it, you’ve been burnt before.”
Then came naming the product, its technology and the new category Brilly wanted to own. I built two complete naming architectures from category design principles and tested every name against the Guide, plus guardrails we agreed early on. Nothing that sounded like constrictive shapewear, nothing that told women what shape their bodies should be, nothing cutesy or patronising about bigger busts, and nothing that would sound odd coming from a friend at the bar. (One strong contender fell at the last hurdle, after a certain billionaire decided to rename a social network after the letter X. Naming is a contact sport.)
What the team said
Angela read the Guide slowly, leaving comments as she went, and told me on our feedback call:
“I feel like you really understand what I think we’ve all been trying to put into words.”
Angela, Brilly
Tyler said: “I felt like I knew what the brand was now, and the story we’re trying to tell… it really helped me kind of visualize it.” Tom’s verdict was that it “seems really spot on”.
Claudio read the whole thing within half an hour of it landing in his inbox and replied, “I just read through it and it’s awesome!” A few weeks later he emailed again: “we LOVED working with you and are so proud of your work. I have already bragged about you to a couple of fellow CEOs and will continue to do so.”
Got something brilliant and no way to nail it?
If you know your work is good (you might even have the proof), and every way you describe it comes out too dry or sounds like everyone else, a Brand Messaging Guide is where I’d start. It gives you the position, the voice and the messages, and a plan for which message goes where. Brilly’s went from first questionnaire to draft Guide in about two weeks.
Comments Off on Before the spotlight: getting your website copy ready for a big moment
by allwordsbypeta
Got a press feature, podcast interview or launch coming up? A practical guide to getting your website copy ready before a lot of new people land on it, with a real example from a client who did exactly that.
The way I clean before someone new is coming round is like no other cleaning.
The kitchen gets done properly for the first time in a month (even behind the toaster), the hoover comes out at a speed that alarms the cat, that pile of tupperware on the side finally gets put away, and everything that doesn’t have a home gets bundled into the cupboard under the stairs with the door shut firmly behind it.
Because nobody opens the cupboard.
Until they do.
Someone goes looking for the loo roll, and there it all is.
Your website is that cupboard. Most days it’s fine, because the people who visit already know you. They’ve been reading your posts for months, and they forgive the homepage that hasn’t been touched since 2022 because they know what you’re actually like.
Then something good happens (a newspaper wants to feature you, or a podcast host with a proper audience finally says yes), and a lot of people who have never met you are about to go looking for the loo roll.
What happens to your website when you get press or a podcast feature?
A press feature, podcast or launch sends a wave of cold visitors to your website, people who have never heard of you and give your homepage a few seconds to decide whether you’re for them. Copy written for people who already know you (or that you haven’t touched since 3 offer stacks ago) often doesn’t give strangers enough to go on.
Your regulars forgive a lot because they’ve met the real you somewhere else, and new visitors don’t have that to go on. And if the big moment is in a field where people are already sceptical (health, money, coaching, anything with a comments section), they may be arriving primed to doubt you.
A real example: getting a doctor’s website ready for a national newspaper feature
I worked with Kirstyn, an NHS-trained doctor and personal trainer, in the run-up to a national newspaper feature. The day before our kickoff call, she’d read the comments under a peer’s article. They were exactly what you’d fear: strangers deciding a health professional was only in it for the money.
Her website at the time was, in her words, a DIY job that she’d changed a lot over the last few months, and she didn’t love it at all. She knew what she did and why. She just couldn’t see it written down anywhere in ways a stranger would get.
Except she could, because it was all over her social media. Her followers already knew the warm, sensible, slightly exasperated-with-the-nonsense version of her. The job was to bring that person onto her homepage and course page before the crowd arrived.
After the copy came back, she said:
“Without Peta’s help, I know I would have felt uneasy about a large volume of people landing on my website. Now, I know I will feel happy and content with what is on there.”
How do you get your website copy ready for a big moment?
Look at your homepage the way a stranger would, then build the new copy from words you and your audience already use. In order:
Do the stranger test on your homepage.
Plan your website copy from words you’ve already written.
Put your credentials where the doubt lives.
Give cold visitors one next step.
Leave yourself weeks, not days.
1. Do the stranger test on your homepage
Open your homepage on your phone (that’s where most of them will be) and cover everything below the first screen.
Does what’s left tell a stranger who you help and what you do?
If you have to scroll to find out, so do they, and most won’t.
2. Plan your website copy from words you’ve already written
Before you write anything new, go back through your posts, newsletters, reviews, DMs and the comments your people leave. Copy out every phrase that sounds like you on a good day, and every phrase someone else has used to describe you.
Your best website copy is very often sitting in your own captions, in words your audience has already responded to.
It’s a much better starting point than a blank page (or a chatbot). And because it’s how you already talk, it’s the easiest way I know to get website copy that converts without sounding salesy.
3. Put your credentials where the doubt lives
If the people arriving are likely to be sceptical, answer the doubt early and simply, in words they’d use themselves.
Kirstyn’s qualifications are extensive and technical, but “NHS-trained doctor” is what a stranger actually understands.
Say the thing they need to hear to keep reading, then get on with it.
4. Give cold visitors one next step
People who’ve just met you are unlikely to book a call.
Give them one easy, low-commitment thing to do (join your newsletter, grab your free resource) so the attention you’ve earned doesn’t evaporate the day after the article runs.
5. Leave yourself weeks, not days
Copy that sounds like you takes some digging, and some sitting with once it’s drafted. Start early enough that you’re not rewriting your homepage at midnight before the big day, so you actually get to enjoy the moment.
Questions people ask about getting their website ready
What copy do you need on your website before a launch or press feature?
At minimum, a homepage that passes the stranger test and a page for whatever the new visitors came to find (usually your main offer or course). An about page that says why you’re credible, and one clear next step for people who aren’t ready to buy, will do more for you than a full site rebuild.
How long does it take to write website copy?
For a homepage and one offer page, allow two weeks from first conversation to finished copy. Most of that time goes on research and listening. The writing is faster once you know what you’re actually saying.
How far in advance should I update my website before press coverage?
As soon as you know the date. Features and interviews can go live earlier than expected, and you want time to read the new copy a few times and live with it before a stranger does.
Should I use AI to write my website copy?
It can help, if it’s working from your own words. Kirstyn’s old copy had been pieced together between her brain and a chatbot, and she didn’t love a word of it. Give it real context (your posts, your clients’ language, clear messaging), and it’ll save you time without flattening your voice.
If you don’t have clear messaging, then anything that gets written will be less focused and strategic – and less effective.
When they open the cupboard
Big moments are lovely, and they’re also slightly terrifying, because suddenly a lot of people can see the thing you’ve been meaning to sort out for ages.
The version of you they need to meet usually already exists, though. Your people have met them. It’s just a matter of getting them onto the page before the doorbell goes.
If you’ve got a spotlight moment on the horizon and you’d like another frontal lobe on the case, get in touch. I’ll happily talk through the best approach.
Comments Off on Inside a brand messaging guide: two coaches who couldn’t say why someone should choose them
by allwordsbypeta
A real brand messaging guide example, from two coaches who could describe their work but not why someone should choose them. What went into their Guides, and what changed once they had them.
A brand messaging guide is the document your marketing works from. It sets out who you help, the words they use, why they should choose you and how you sound saying it, so every page, post and proposal tells the same story. Executive coach Susan Sutherland and relationship coach Krystle Hearley each used theirs to write the copy they’d been stuck on.
“My brand is in a shift mode,” Susan told me. “I know who I work with and what I stand for, but my message hasn’t caught up.”
Susan Sutherland had spent nearly three decades in corporate leadership, climbing every rung of the ladder until she left as a senior vice president, and was now coaching executives standing at the same crossroads she’d once faced. She was very good at it. Most of her clients came through referrals, which meant she’d never needed words that could travel further than a conversation (referrals are lovely like that, right up until you want to grow beyond them).
Then she started planning a new website and a bigger presence on LinkedIn, and the gap got very hard to ignore.
“I can describe what I do,” she said, “but not why someone should choose me. I’m not bold or explicit enough.”
Krystle Hearley put it differently when she came to me with The New Way To Date: “I kept trying to explain everything, and ended up saying nothing at all.” Her business couldn’t have been more different from Susan’s, and the problem sitting underneath was exactly the same.
At a glance
Susan Sutherland
Krystle Hearley
Who
Executive coach, nearly 30 years in corporate leadership
Therapist-turned-coach, founder of The New Way To Date
Where she was
Established practice, mostly referrals, about to build a new website
Launching a new online dating community in a crowded market
In her words
“I can describe what I do, but not why someone should choose me.”
“I kept trying to explain everything, and ended up saying nothing at all.”
Inside her Guide
Two client personas, a competitor map, her voice type and archetype, elevator pitch, USP, bio, brand story, key messages and content ideas
Positioning statement, the tagline “Dating with Depth”, brand voice, customer avatars, copy templates and bios for press, profiles and podcasts
What she did with it
Finished her website, wrote new email sequences, kept LinkedIn and proposals consistent
Wrote her website, email funnels, blog posts and event descriptions
What is a brand messaging guide?
A brand messaging guide is the reference book for everything you write. It sets out who your clients are and the words they use, how you’re different from everyone else they might be considering, how you sound, and the key messages you’ll repeat across your website, emails, social posts and proposals. Once it exists, you stop starting every piece of writing from a blank page.
Mine are called Brand Messaging Guides (capital letters and all), and the two in this post are real ones.
Why do coaches struggle to explain why someone should choose them?
Most coaches can describe their work in detail, because they do it every day. Saying why someone should choose them is harder, because it means looking at every other coach a client might find and saying out loud what makes you different. Referrals hide the gap for years, because someone else has already done the explaining for you.
Susan’s version of this was a tone problem as much as a positioning one. She’d been torn between sounding “corporate enough” for the executives she serves and “authentic enough” for herself, and every time she sat down to write (on her website, in proposals, even in conversation) she’d pick one and feel she’d lost the other.
Krystle’s was louder. She had a therapist’s understanding of emotional safety and a properly different idea about how dating could work, and like a lot of people launching something new, she was trying to say all of it at once.
Neither of them was doing anything wrong (I promise). It’s just very hard to read the label from inside the jar.
What’s inside a brand messaging guide? Susan’s, section by section
Susan’s Guide works from the outside in. It starts with her audience, then her competitors, then her voice and personality, then the brand statements and key messages she uses everywhere, and finishes with the search phrases and content ideas that carry her message beyond referrals. Each section feeds the next one.
Her audience
We started with the two clients who turn up most often in her work. Alex, the Established Executive, is late 40s to early 60s, accomplished and privately wondering whether this is all there is. Jordan, the Restless Leader, is mid-40s to mid-50s, on the edge of a big shift and unsure what comes next.
Demographics are part of the story, sure. But a small part. The client interviews gave us the tension Susan sees every day (success without fulfilment) and, just as usefully, the exact phrases her clients use to describe it. We took some of those phrases straight from the Guide and put them on her website, so the right visitors knew within seconds that they were in the right place.
Her competitors
Next we looked at the rest of executive coaching, plus the therapy and wellness people her clients might also be weighing up. Susan spotted something straight away: almost everyone focused on performance or on healing, and hardly anyone did both. That became the heart of her differentiation, coaching the whole human inside the executive role.
Her voice and archetype
I map voice using Justin Blackman’s framework (I trained with Justin, who is frankly the king of brand voice), which sorts writers into nine voice types by cadence, rhythm, tone and vocabulary. Susan is a blend of the Yogi, calm and contemplative, and the Translator, clear and precise.
Then I use the twelve Jungian brand archetypes to get at who you are underneath how you sound. Susan’s dominant archetype is the Sage, the truth-seeker and mentor, which suits an audience of experienced executives looking for meaning.
This was the section where everything clicked for her. Once her voice had a name, the corporate-or-authentic tug of war stopped. “It gave me permission to sound like myself,” she said. “Before, I kept wondering if I should be more corporate or more spiritual. Now I don’t have to choose.”
Her brand statements
Built on that voice, the brand section gave her an elevator pitch, a USP statement, a social bio and a brand story, all ready to copy and paste, plus example phrases she can use as prompts for emails and social posts.
Her key messages
With the audience and voice in place, the messaging almost wrote itself. Three of her key lines:
“Holistic executive coaching that looks beyond your KPIs.”
“You don’t have to burn everything down to be happy.”
“It’s lonely at the top. I’ve felt it.”
They now run through her homepage, sales pages, emails and LinkedIn, so her audience gets used to her themes and knows exactly what they’ll get from working with her.
Her search phrases and content ideas
Finally, we mapped the search phrases and blog ideas that carry her message beyond referrals, like “Beyond KPIs: how holistic leadership drives both personal and professional success”. (No keyword stuffing. Susan wasn’t interested, and neither am I.)
Feeling extra nosy? Flick through Susan’s Guide below.
What does a brand messaging guide look like for a brand-new idea?
For a new business, the Guide has to define the thing before anyone has heard of it. Krystle’s pinned down what made The New Way To Date different and gave her ready-to-use copy for press, profiles and podcasts, so she could explain it the same way every time.
Krystle Hearley, a therapist-turned-coach, knew dating apps weren’t working, for her clients, for the people she saw repeating the same patterns, or for herself. So she built The New Way To Date, an online community that blends personal growth with meaningful connection. Less swiping, more self-awareness.
Over four weeks we worked through founder-led discovery (unpacking her vision and her own experience), voice of customer research to find the real pain points and the right language for them, and a competitor analysis to find the gaps The New Way To Date could own. Her Guide included:
A positioning statement and the tagline “Dating with Depth” (I’m still really proud of that one)
A warm, grounded brand voice
Customer avatars built around the emotional and practical reality of dating today
Messaging that holds emotional safety and self-trust alongside the wish for connection
Copy templates and bios she could use in press, on profiles and on podcasts
What changed once they had a brand messaging guide?
Both coaches started writing the things they’d been putting off, and stopped second-guessing how they sounded while they did it. Krystle wrote her website, email funnels, blog posts and event descriptions from her Guide, in language that finally matched the care behind her offer.
“It finally gave me the language I’d been reaching for,” Susan said.
She’s used her Guide to finish a website she’d been stuck on for too long, write new email sequences and content themes, keep her tone consistent across LinkedIn and client proposals, and get better results from ChatGPT, which now has her voice and messaging to work from. She also spends less time writing content and proposals, because the lines, phrases and whole paragraphs are already there to copy and paste.
Krystle said:
“You helped me go from having the whole world of dating and personal development to talk about – to having something clear and focused to say. That made a huge difference in my confidence, and in what I share now.”
Her audience noticed as well. The new positioning gave people something to believe in, and something to connect with.
How is a brand messaging guide different from a brand voice guide?
A brand voice guide covers how you sound: your cadence, vocabulary, tone and the phrases that are recognisably yours. A brand messaging guide covers what you say and who you say it to: your audience, your positioning, why someone should choose you and your key messages. My Brand Messaging Guides include both, because a voice with nothing clear to say is just a nice tone.
Where does the Regenerative Story Framework come in?
The Regenerative Story Framework is my messaging framework, built on the Heroine’s Journey. It treats the change your clients go through as something collective and ongoing, and it shapes how every Brand Messaging Guide I build now maps your audience and your messages.
Most story frameworks in marketing (StoryBrand included) are built on the Hero’s Journey, where one person conquers one problem and claims the prize. That’s an odd fit for coaching, where change is usually slow and rarely happens alone. I’ve written more about why the Hero’s Journey is the wrong model for your brand story, and the Regenerative Story Map is a free way to try the framework on your own messaging.
Questions people ask about brand messaging guides
How long does a brand messaging guide take?
Usually about four weeks, from the first discovery session to the finished Guide. Most of that time goes on research: client interviews, competitor analysis and listening to how you talk about your work. Two rounds of revisions are included.
How much does a brand messaging guide cost?
My Brand Messaging Guides range from $1,350 to $3,450, depending on how deep the work needs to go. We scope it together on a call, so you know the price before anything starts.
Do coaches need a brand messaging guide or a brand voice guide?
If you know what you want to say and just can’t make it sound like you, a voice guide may be enough. If, like Susan, you can describe what you do but not why someone should choose you, you need the messaging, and a Brand Messaging Guide includes the voice work too.
What do you do with a brand messaging guide once you have it?
Write from it. Use the key messages on your website and sales pages, the bios on your profiles and the example phrases as prompts for emails and posts. Give it to anyone (or any AI tool) writing for you, so everything sounds like the same business.
Ready to sound like the business you’ve grown into?
If you’ve built a business you’re proud of and your words still sound like they belong to an earlier version of you, a Brand Messaging Guide is where I’d start.
Comments Off on Stop waving case studies at terrified clients: A better approach to B2B marketing during a recession
by allwordsbypeta
The bottom line: When business owners are terrified about economic uncertainty, waving case studies at them and shouting “just invest in marketing!” is tone-deaf. Here’s why that approach fails – and three empathetic strategies that actually work for purpose-driven brands.
There have been tears, and recriminations, and a general accusatory tone.
The swimming pool in our local leisure centre is closed. Because the boiler is broken. So that means that all children’s swimming lessons have been cancelled.
It’s been two weeks, and Erica is cross with me. (Because, obviously, it’s completely my fault. I snuck in with an oversized spanner and undid some pipe that was integral to the whole engine. Just so I didn’t have to wrestle her still wet, wriggly, 5-year-old body out of a swimming costume and into her clothes…
I didn’t, I promise….)
But, it’s refreshing, honestly. Because for the first 5 years of her life, I’ve been trying to convince her that letting go of me in a swimming pool wouldn’t, in fact, kill her. And that, if she did, she’d find the whole experience much more enjoyable.
Being proved right is quite nice sometimes. And also exasperating. (Bit like parenting in general, really)
I knew, because I’ve already been through it with one terminally anxious child, and because I’ve learnt to swim myself, that she would be perfectly safe. That the water could be fun, and relaxing, and that she’d enjoy splashing around playing games. Once she took the (metaphorical and actual) leap away from being a limpet around my neck.
But, from her perspective, I was talking bollocks.
How could I possibly know that it would be ok? How could it possibly be ok when she was terrified? When everything around her looked uncertain and strange, and she didn’t know whether there was anywhere steady to put her feet?
Sound familiar?
The problem: marketing during a recession has become tone-deaf
LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Facebook (anyone still there?!), podcasts, webinars – all the marketers everywhere are trying to get you to close your eyes and make the leap into investing in their services. To trust them that clinging on to as much of your revenue as possible is self-defeating, and will never result in growth.
Telling you that yes, it does look scary, but you’ve been here before, and you know that letting go – making an investment in your Facebook ads, brand messaging, email strategy, PR plan – will mean you can swim more easily towards your goals (is the metaphor getting tortured yet? Answers on a postcard, please).
And you know what? They’re right.
There are buckets of case studies, stats, research articles, and real-life evidence to back them up. To show you that pulling back on marketing in a downturn, recession, or time of uncertainty, can stunt your business growth. And that investing in strategic marketing can supercharge it (or whatever verb we’re not currently avoiding because ChatGPT is obsessed with it).
But all you can see is no solid ground, tariffs, global insecurity, constantly changing waves. And all you can feel is the terror that letting go, taking even a gentle leap – will ruin everything.
Why the “just invest in marketing!” approach isn’t working
Marketers telling you that you should invest in marketing even though the market is so unpredictable/perhaps there’s a recession coming/blah blah blah, doesn’t have the effect they think it does.
It comes off as self-serving.
“I know you’re confused and stressed, and the immediate response is to pull back on all costs, but you shouldn’t. Because I need work.”
Yes, that’s what it sounds like.
Even though there are facts and stats, and they can show you the McDonald’s case study that backs up investing in marketing in a downturn. Even though they mean well (most of them), and they’re right.
It’s tone deaf.
And it’s beginning to sound a little like the B2B version of those coaches who tell you that you’ll never grow if you don’t invest before you’re ready. Leaving you with massive credit card bills, a group call where you get 5 minutes of “advice” a month, and a side order of regret.
It’s also the opposite of good, effective, empathetic marketing. Disregarding the anxiety your audience is going through is a terrible strategy (ethically, and in terms of effectiveness).
What the data actually says about marketing during a recession
Here’s the thing: the research really does show that maintaining marketing spend during economic uncertainty pays off. But how you present that information matters.
The stats everyone quotes:
A McGraw-Hill study of 600 companies found that firms maintaining or increasing ad spend during the 1981-82 recession saw 275% sales growth over five years, compared to just 19% for those who cut advertising
Companies that kept marketing during the 2008 recession achieved a 17% compound growth rate, while competitors who pulled back struggled to recover
Nielsen research shows brands going “dark” for six months lose 2% of long-term revenue each quarter, and it takes 3-5 years to recover that lost brand equity
The McDonald’s story everyone loves: During the 2008 recession, McDonald’s increased their advertising investment while competitors like Burger King pulled back. And, as a result, McDonald’s stock rose 18% while Burger King’s dropped 31%. They invested 3.2 times more than Burger King in advertising and positioned themselves as the value option with their Dollar Menu strategy.
These numbers are real. The strategy works.
But you know what else is real? The absolute terror that business owners feel right now about making any investment when everything feels uncertain.
It might be time to invest in marketing. Or it might not.
Here’s what I’m not going to do: tell you that NOW is definitely the time you need to invest in strategic brand messaging or marketing strategy.
It might be time for you to invest in being more strategic with your marketing and messaging.
It might not.
I can’t unilaterally decide that for everyone in my audience. I’m not scrolling through your accounting software or sitting next to you as you weigh up cancelling that Patreon subscription.
(If we jump on a call, you lay out your struggles and goals, and I know working with me can help, then I’ll absolutely make a recommendation. Based on your circumstances.)
Like with Erica and her swimming fears, it’s time to be a little less tough love, and a little more “let’s have a hug while you tell me how you’re feeling, and maybe then we’ll go have a paddle in the baby pool.”
3 ways to market empathetically during economic uncertainty (without sounding self-serving)
If you find yourself in the position of trying to convince business owners to part with their hard-earned cash (because you know in your heart of hearts that it will make their business stronger – not because you’ve got a quiet diary), then there are other ways than waving the McDonald’s in 2008 case study at them.
1. Pay attention to what they’re actually afraid of
It’s time to move beyond dismissing their concerns with a “but the data says…” Instead, think about sitting down next to them and really understanding what’s keeping them up at night.
What this looks like in practice:
Instead of “Companies that cut marketing lose market share,” start with “I know you’re looking at your cash flow and wondering which expenses are truly necessary right now. That’s a completely valid concern.”
Ask questions like:
What specific financial pressures are you facing right now?
What would need to be true for you to feel confident investing in marketing?
What’s your biggest fear about maintaining your marketing spend?
Then – and only then – can you address those specific concerns with relevant solutions.
Why this works: Your potential clients aren’t arguing with the data. They’re paralyzed by fear. When you acknowledge their fear as valid rather than something to overcome with statistics, you build trust. And trust is what drives decisions during uncertain times, not case studies.
Yes, the bigger strategic project will bring them brilliant results. But right now they need the quick and tangible wins. How could you repackage your genius in a way that gives them those?
What this looks like in practice:
If you’re a web designer, instead of only offering full website redesigns:
Offer a conversion-focused homepage audit with actionable fixes
Create a landing page package for one specific service
Provide a “quick win” package that updates their three highest-traffic pages
If you’re a business coach, instead of only six-month programmes:
Offer a one-off strategy session with a written action plan
Create a “sprint” intensive focused on one specific challenge
Provide quarterly check-ins rather than ongoing monthly commitment
If you’re a photographer, instead of full-day shoots:
Offer a headshot refresh session for updated LinkedIn profiles
Create a “content bank” mini-shoot for social media
Provide brand photography specifically for their highest-converting sales page
The psychology behind it: During economic uncertainty, businesses look for what researchers call “branded affordability” (the same strategy McDonald’s used with their Dollar Menu). They maintained quality but made it accessible to budget-conscious customers.
Your services probably already create strong ROI. But if the upfront cost feels prohibitive when someone’s anxious, they’ll never get to experience that ROI. A smaller entry point with clear, measurable outcomes reduces the perceived risk.
Real example from my business: When I noticed purpose-driven startups and small businesses saying “Your Brand Messaging Guide looks great, but it’s beyond my budget right now,” I created the Mini Guide at roughly half the price. Same quality, focused scope, tangible results. These clients used them to plan content strategies, brief designers, and tighten messaging (all the things they really needed without the full bells and whistles they weren’t ready for yet). I practiced what I’m preaching to you.
Don’t expect them to be convinced by what a global behemoth did when they’re running their business from a desk in a coworking space in Coventry.
What this looks like in practice:
That McDonald’s case study is brilliant for context. But your actual clients need to see businesses like theirs succeeding with your approach.
Instead of “Companies maintaining marketing during the 2008 recession saw X% growth,” try:
“I worked with a three-person consultancy last year who were terrified about investing in brand messaging during a slow quarter. We created a focused messaging framework for £1,595 that they used to update their website, pitch deck, and LinkedIn content. Within two months, they closed a client worth 10x that investment – specifically because their new messaging resonated.”
Why this works: Research on marketing during downturns shows that traditional buyer personas become less relevant during recessions. Psychological segmentation that considers emotional reactions becomes more important. Which basically means you need to show your audience – “people like me buy things like this.”
Your prospective clients aren’t emotionally connected to McDonald’s success in 2008. But they are emotionally connected to businesses that mirror their own size, stage, and challenges.
Where to find these examples:
Case studies from businesses at similar revenue levels
Stories about customers who were initially hesitant but saw results
Your own journey investing in your business during uncertain times
The value-based marketing approach for purpose-driven brands
Here’s what ethical B2B marketing during a recession actually looks like: You’re focus should be on helping the right people make informed decisions for their specific circumstances. For example, in my business:
Some businesses genuinely shouldn’t invest in comprehensive brand messaging right now. Maybe they’re in survival mode. Maybe they need to focus on cash flow. Maybe their resources are better spent elsewhere.
And some businesses absolutely should invest – because clear, strategic messaging is exactly what will help them stand out when competitors go quiet, or because muddled messaging is actively costing them deals.
My job, and yours, is to help people figure out which category they’re in, not pressure everyone into buying.
Creating flexible options that meet people where they are
Focusing on customer retention as much as acquisition
Beyond being ethically sound (and making you a pretty cool person), this approach makes good business sense. The clients who do work with you will be the right fit, not people you pressured into something they weren’t ready for.
What purpose-driven businesses should actually do about marketing right now
If you’re a purpose-driven startup, coach, or service provider wondering whether to maintain your marketing efforts, here’s my actual advice:
Audit your current marketing spend:
What’s driving revenue versus what’s just creating noise?
Where are you getting the best ROI?
What could you trim without impacting your ability to attract and convert clients?
Double down on what works:
If your website converts well but traffic is low, focus on driving qualified traffic
If you’re getting traffic but poor conversions, fix your messaging (that’s where I come in)
Get crystal clear on your value proposition: During uncertain times, B2B buyers are going to prioritie solutions that promise clear wins. Can someone understand exactly how you help within 10 seconds of landing on your website?
If not, fixing that messaging is probably worth more than any new marketing channel you could add.
Make it easy to say yes:
Clear pricing (or at least pricing structure)
Low-risk entry points
Proof that you understand their current challenges
Trust signals (testimonials from businesses like theirs)
Whether you’re the one scared of the leap, or the one coaxing others into the pool
Whether you’re the business owner terrified to invest, or the marketer trying to convince others, empathy wins every time.
For business owners: The data really does show that strategic marketing investment during downturns pays off. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore your gut feelings about your specific situation. Find an expert who will help you figure out the right path for you, not just sell you their solution regardless of fit.
For marketers and service providers: Stop leading with the McDonald’s case study. Start leading with empathy. Understand that your potential clients aren’t irrational for being scared. They’re being human. Your job is to help them make the right decision for their circumstances, not to pressure them into any decision.
Start there. And if you’d like a hand turning that empathy into strategy that actually converts, let’s talk.
You’ve got questions about marketing during a recession? (Or while everyone is panicking about there maybe being one?) I’ve got answers:
Should I cut my marketing budget during a recession?
No, cutting your marketing budget during a recession usually backfires. I know that sounds counterintuitive when you’re trying to preserve cash, but companies that maintain their marketing during downturns recover faster and steal market share from competitors who go quiet. The research across multiple recessions is pretty clear on this. That said, I’m not telling you to keep spending money on stuff that doesn’t work. Be strategic about where you invest, not just slashing everything because you’re scared.
How do I know if I should invest in marketing right now?
Ask yourself: is unclear messaging currently costing me deals? If potential clients are confused about what you do or why they should pick you, then yes, you should invest in fixing that. It’ll pay for itself quickly. But if you’re genuinely in survival mode and worried about making payroll next month, then no. Sort out the immediate crisis first. Marketing can wait until you’ve caught your breath.
What’s the difference between maintaining marketing spend and being tone-deaf?
The difference is empathy, honestly. Being tone-deaf means waving case studies in people’s faces while ignoring that they’re genuinely terrified about their business. Empathetic marketing means saying “I know you’re scared, here’s what might actually help you right now” instead of “just trust me and spend money you don’t have.” One acknowledges reality, the other pretends fear isn’t valid.
Why do so many businesses cut marketing first during downturns?
Because marketing feels like the easy thing to cut when you panic. It’s often seen as “nice to have” rather than essential (spoiler: it’s not). When cash gets tight, business owners look for things that won’t immediately break the company if they stop. Marketing seems like one of those things. Except it’s not, because cutting it means you lose visibility, brand equity, and market share. And then you’re really struggling when things improve.
What type of marketing works best during a recession?
Marketing that works best during a recession is the stuff that clearly shows value. Focus on how you solve problems or save people money. Show ROI. Share testimonials from businesses similar to your prospects. Make it really easy to say yes with clear pricing and low-risk options. And honestly? Digital channels often win here because you can measure what’s working and they don’t cost a fortune.
How can small businesses compete with larger competitors during economic uncertainty?
This is actually when small businesses have the advantage. You can be faster, more personal, and more empathetic than the big corporations who are busy cutting budgets and laying people off. While they’re going dark, you stay visible with strategic content. While they’re hiding behind automated systems, you build real relationships with clients. You become the trusted alternative to the faceless corporation that stopped returning calls.
Ready to get your messaging right?
If you’re ready to stop guessing what your audience wants to hear and start communicating with clarity and empathy, let’s talk about whether brand messaging support makes sense for your specific situation right now.
I offer strategy calls where we’ll dig into your current challenges, what you’re trying to achieve, and whether working together would actually help.
Because whatever the economy decides to do, one thing remains true: clear, empathetic messaging that resonates with your audience will always outperform confused, generic copy that makes people work too hard to understand your value.
And unlike forcing a terrified five-year-old into the deep end, we’ll start exactly where you are and build from there.
(My exceptional VA helps me edit my podcast so it actually goes out, and puts my copy into carousels that don’t look like a colour-blind 3-year-old made them)
Like so many others, I’m doing the work of 7 people. And yet, we’re told we’re cheating if we let AI lend a hand.
I’m in charge of sales, marketing, growth, finances, delivery, client relations, quality control, network building, capacity planning, and everything else.
I also have 2 children (1 with additional needs), a cat, a husband, laundry, cooking, meal planning, shopping, cleaning, school runs, exercise, and a million pieces of life admin that pop up out of nowhere (you know the ones).
Business for a lot of people doesn’t mean renting an office, growing by word of mouth and investing in wider marketing when you’ve grown to a certain size and can afford to hire someone to do it for you.
Now you have to plan and organise and create daily (or more) content for at least 4 different channels, battling myriad algorithms, understand SEO, and work out funnel automation from the very beginning.
You have to be your own full-sized marketing department before you even fill your books (or pay yourself a salary).
So yes, more people are using AI to take the pressure off. Because, let’s not beat around the bush, it is too much pressure. For this new breed of business owners, who are more likely to be balancing caring responsibilities around their brand, these pressures are unreasonable. However much shiny content by people like Amy Porterfield tells you it isn’t.
Which is why I think the gatekeeping and shaming around using AI is unfair, and unreasonable.
Yes, there are ethical issues around AI – its development, regulation, use (uncompensated) of art and content made by humans, environmental impact, the fact that Sam Altman is obviously part of the Silicon Valley “I’m smart so I can do whatever I want”, and “isn’t this interesting I’m going to see where it leads, even if it might hurt people” mindset.
For example, I can’t stick around on LinkedIn or threads for more than 5 minutes these days without reading that asking ChatGPT a question is like pouring a bottle of water down the sink.
Which, fine. But have you stopped and checked what the environmental impact of doomscrolling for 3 hours is? Or your latest “it’s for the content” Amazon purchase? Honestly, the problem is less saying “thank you” to the robot living in your computer, and more all those millionaires flying around in private jets… just saying.
If you have an online element to your business, then you rely in some way on the algorithms of the various social media sites. These algorithms reward profiles that put out frequent and regular content. And, yes – even if you’ve got an email list – you need some way to drive leads to that list. If you’re at the point in your business growth when you can’t afford to outsource to a marketing team, then you are the marketing team. And, in order to be seen amongst the noise on social media, you need to come up with a ridiculous amount of content. The overriding feeling is that it’s about volume.
And I’m sorry, but the average (often female) service-based business owner cannot produce this volume in an organic, considered, handcrafted way, without burning out or neglecting the client work that pays their bills.
You telling them that they’re personally melting the ice caps and ripping off every single author out there isn’t making them reconsider using AI. It’s just layering on another coat of shame, overwhelm, and the feeling of not being enough.
Look, I’m a copywriter. I’m aware that AI has knocked out a large portion of my industry. I’m aware that it has made it harder to convince people of the value of what I do. I have lost clients who decided (sometimes correctly, and sometimes not) that they could take the work we’d done together so far, pair it with ChatGPT, and cut their marketing investment to $20 a month.
Would I prefer everyone to adopt their very own pet copywriter to handcraft every single piece of marketing and sales material they put out into the world?
Sure.
But that was unrealistic before AI, and it’s even more unrealistic now.
We laud the lowering of barriers to entry to business. How the internet has opened up opportunities, made being an entrepreneur more accessible.
This is part of it.
Why punish and browbeat the self-belief coach who can now help more clients? Or the ADHD mentor who can now find more people to support because she can use AI to organise her thoughts and combat procrastination?
Do I think that people could be creating more effective AI content?
100% yes.
Do I roll my eyes as I see brands and individuals who I rate putting out emoji-strewn captions that could be talking about any industry or offer?
100% yes.
Do I offer services for clients who want nothing to do with AI and are happy to invest in human-crafted words and strategy?
Obviously.
Am I going to continue to suggest to these brands that investing in messaging strategy and brand voice work that they then train their AI with will make ongoing content creation easier AND more effective?
Damn right I am.
But what I’m not going to do is write 53 LinkedIn posts about how I can spot when you’re using AI because of em dashes, or rocket emojis, or contrast structure, or because you mentioned cheese.
The majority of these brands aren’t putting out this content because they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. They’re doing it because they’re fucking overwhelmed. They feel like the algorithm is against them (because it is), and they’re just trying to build a business that pays their bills and makes life worth living.
Why are we shaming people for using the tools at their disposal to make their lives easier?
I’d rather help people build sustainable businesses (with whatever tools help them do that) than add to the pile-on.
Comments Off on How to use strategic messaging to increase website sales
by allwordsbypeta
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Most business owners, even those looking to increase website sales, think, “I don’t need a copywriter.”
When I introduce myself at networking events, I can see the thoughts forming: “She seems lovely, funny, and articulate; do you think she’ll be my friend?” (lol)
But also: “I can write pretty decent copy myself. And, you know, well – I can use ChatGPT…Do I really need her?”
I get it. These are both reasonable questions.
If you’re capable of writing sentences that make sense, shouldn’t your money go to things that seem more urgent or obviously revenue-generating? Like a high-performing website, or a bigger ads budget?
Sure. But, for example, if your website is getting traffic and not converting it into leads or sales, the problem might not be your website, or how much you’re spending on ads. It might be those sentences you’re writing (or pasting from ChatGPT), and the messaging strategy behind them.
The words on your website can increase website sales – or not…
I don’t just write pretty sentences. I craft strategic messaging that drives measurable results for your business.
What if I told you that changing the headline on a client’s homepage led to $40,000 in additional quarterly revenue? Or that tweaking the copy on another client’s services page increased their qualified leads by 40%?
Strategic messaging isn’t about being clever or creative for its own sake. It’s about writing copy that:
Connects emotionally with your ideal client
Differentiates your business in a crowded market
Moves people to take action
Let’s explore what that really means – and why it’ll increase website sales.
Good copy vs strategic messaging: why “good enough” is costing you
Let’s look at a common section of most websites: the About page.
“Good enough” copy might be readable, even engaging. But, in my experience, it’s:
Focused on you, not your client
Lacking a clear connection to your offer
Not guiding readers toward action
Strategic messaging, on the other hand, transforms that same page into a powerful sales tool.
Let’s take the example of a baby products company I worked with. Their original About page was well-written, friendly, and factual. But it was a dead end – it didn’t do anything to connect emotionally, build trust, or move readers towards making a purchase.
Here’s how we changed that:
We told a story their audience could see themselves in. The primary buyer was a time-poor, sleep-deprived parent. So we spoke directly to that experience. Because people want to be seen.
We validated their worries. Rather than glossing over the chaos of parenting, we acknowledged it with warmth and humour. We made space for the stress, the guilt, and the overwhelm – because people want to feel heard.
We showed that this brand genuinely gets it. Instead of just saying “we make great products,” we built empathy into every line. We understood why softness matters. Why easy-clean designs matter. Why fast shipping can be the thing that tips someone from browsing to buying. People want to feel understood.
We kept the tone light, warm, and reassuring. Like chatting with a slightly more experienced friend at soft play. No jargon, no corporate fluff. Because people buy from people.
So we ended up with a page that didn’t only “tell the brand story” – it created an emotional bridge between the customer and the company. That’s what strategic messaging looks like in action.
For this client, the result was a 15% increase in sales, a lower bounce rate, and a fast-growing email list of loyal customers who felt like they’d found their people.
The real cost of low-converting website copy
Ok, so what does having “good enough” copy look like in real life?
If your messaging isn’t intentionally crafted to connect and convert, you’re probably experiencing at least a few of these:
Decent website traffic, but few enquiries or sales
Social posts with likes, but little meaningful engagement
A constant battle over pricing instead of value
Struggles to explain what makes your business different
Lots of tire-kickers, few ideal clients
And guess what? They’re all signs that your current copy is leaving money on the table.
A simple messaging framework to increase website sales
When faced with an underperforming page, here’s a messaging technique I often turn to:
Problem: Name your client’s biggest challenge
Not just any problem – the one that’s keeping them up at night. Instead of “We help people manage their money,” try:
“Feeling overwhelmed by your finances?”
Agitation (or Empathy): Dig into that challenge
“Every time you look at your accounts, you feel that knot in your stomach. You’re trying to save for retirement, put kids through university, and keep enough cash for emergencies – but you’re not sure you’re making the right moves.”
Just a little note: I often refer to this as Empathy instead of Agitation – because the goal isn’t to manipulate. It’s to:
Remind people it’s worth solving the problem
Show that you understand exactly how it’s affecting them
Solution: Show your offer as the path forward
“With our personalised financial roadmap, you can balance today’s needs with tomorrow’s goals – so you can stop worrying and start living.”
This kind of copy makes people feel seen, understood, and motivated to take action. That’s what moves the needle.
Real clients, real results
I’ve worked with clients from a whole range of industries, all with different voices. And they all want their website to work harder for them. It should be your online home – your shop window – but it should also be the open door and salesperson that encourages people to actually buy.
Here are a few examples of how I’ve used strategic messaging and conversion-focused copy to increase website sales:
Elewa Media: Say what your audience is thinking
A Bay Area video production company was struggling to stand out.
We rewrote their About Page to start with this line:
“In the Bay Area, you can throw a stick and hit a video production company. So why work with us?”
By naming the elephant in the room, we positioned them as thoughtful partners – not just another vendor (and then we jumped right into the reasons they were actually different).
Result: More qualified enquiries. Higher-value projects.
Design Desk: Speak like a human
This exhibition design firm had impressive work – but generic, formal copy.
We changed the home page headline from “Your partner for European exhibitions” to “Fresh designs that make your brand unforgettable”
We rewrote their messaging to speak directly to client desires (stand-out, memorable exhibits) and pain points (recycled, boring designs).
Result: Enquiries up 50% within 3 months of the new site going live.
Katie Gale: Embrace what makes you different
Katie, a bridal hair and makeup artist, had no clear user journey or standout messaging.
We embraced her alternative vibe – referencing the bands, books, and cultural markers that she and her ideal clients loved.
Result: Amazing feedback and an inbox full of ideal client enquiries. One person said: “Your website was a breath of fresh air.”
When website messaging has the biggest impact
After working with dozens of brands, I’ve noticed patterns. Messaging work has the greatest chance to increase website sales when:
Your site gets traffic but few conversions
You’ve recently evolved your offer or niche
You’re constantly explaining your value on calls
These inflection points are prime opportunities to fix the gap between traffic and sales.
How to invest in website copy that converts
If you’re ready to increase website sales, here are three ways we can work together:
Brand Messaging Guides
A 20 – 30 page blueprint for your brand. It includes core values, audience insights, positioning, and key messages.
Debbie Danon from Rebel Leadership calls her guide “a goldmine of messaging that glows with integrity” that she uses daily to sharpen proposals and inspire her content creation.
A detailed guide defining your brand’s unique voice, including characteristics, tone guidelines, and channel-specific adaptations.
Clients like James Lee from Evolution Engineers have freed up 10 hours weekly by eliminating the endless loop of content corrections. Now his team can confidently speak in the brand’s voice without constant supervision.
A focused, 60-minute session where we solve specific messaging challenges and unlock clarity. If your goal is to increase website sales, then we can zero in on what will make the most impact.
After our session, Olivia said:
“Peta is an absolute wizard. She got to the heart of my message in under 30 minutes—something I had been struggling to do on my own for years! Plus, she gave me actionable and reasonable next steps to bring this vision to life.”
The first step is booking a free, no-pressure strategy call. We’ll talk about your goals, dig into your messaging challenges, look at how we can increase website sales, and see if we’re a good fit.
Comments Off on The personal brand paradox: How much of yourself should you really share?
by allwordsbypeta
If I tell you that I had a colonoscopy, does it make you more likely to buy my Brand Messaging Guide?
If I explain, in excruciating detail, my holiday breakfast order preferences, will that land me more speaking gigs?
Probably not.
But knowing me better – my background, my experiences, my slightly odd sense of humour – does make you more likely to want to work with me. Somehow, the fact that I wrote my first paid piece of copy on my phone while trying to get Erica to sleep, or that I once wanted to be Prime Minister, or that I’m raising an autistic son… these snippets make me stick in your mind. They’re all a part of my personal brand.
This morning, I spent three minutes of a ten-minute business presentation talking about my family, my background, and various other personal bits and bobs. And when someone asked why, I told them straight:
“You can work out what products or services I sell from a four-minute conversation with me and a glance at my website. But good business relationships are built on getting to know the person, the passion, behind the business.”
So where’s the line? Between giving valuable context in your personal brand and oversharing? Between being authentically you and being that person on LinkedIn who somehow turns their breakfast smoothie into a lesson about venture capital funding?
Let’s figure it out together…
Why personal brands matter in business
Before we get started, if you’re competing solely on price or features, you can probably skip this article and go back to your calculator. But if you’re trying to build a brand that resonates? That creates loyal customers who actually care about your success? Then you should probably stick with me.
The last time I gave that networking presentation, a soon-to-be client leaned over and whispered to the person sitting next to her, “I HAVE to get this woman to write my website copy.” Not because I’d dazzled her with my extensive portfolio (though it is pretty dazzling), but because something in my story connected with her.
The same principle applies to your e-commerce personal brand. Sure, you could just list your product features and competitive pricing. But there are more effective tools.
Take Otbor Toys, for example.
When they came to me, they were struggling with credibility, and with getting people to pay premium prices for their products.
They made wooden heirloom toys, handmade in Bulgaria, with traditional Bulgarian techniques and local woods. And honestly, they’re gorgeous. If you saw them in a boutique, then you wouldn’t question the price. But there were trust issues from an Eastern European country, and nothing on the website made the case for the premium price tag.
The founders had thought running away from their Bulgarian roots was the answer. But instead, we dove into the story, educated the audience about Bulgaria’s history of incredible craftsmanship, and shared how the founders’ children inspired the collections.
We added in personal details, and they saw fewer abandoned carts.
People don’t buy products anymore – they buy stories, values, and yes, a strong personal brand.
The three circles of effective sharing
Think of your personal brand elements like a target (and no, this isn’t another one of those “start with why” lectures – I promise).
The Inner Circle: stories that sell
These are the experiences that directly relate to your business. Like how you created your sustainable fashion brand because fast fashion literally made you sick. Or how your own struggles with breastfeeding led you to develop a better pump (shoutout to my friends at Jevon Baby).
These stories aren’t something nice you sprinkle in. They do a vital job – showing your audience why you actually care about solving their problems.
The Middle Circle: relatable reality
This is your day-to-day stuff that makes you human. Like my Gran’s insistence on putting ages in birthday cards, or my millennial refusal to use “2” instead of “to” or “too” in texts (never happening, sorry not sorry).
For e-commerce founders, this might be sharing your morning routine with your own products, or the chaos of your latest product photoshoot. It’s the stuff that makes your customers think “Oh yeah, they get it.”
The Outer Circle: the TMI zone
This is where we building a personal brand ventures into “colonoscopy detail” territory. Or those LinkedIn posts that decide it’s appropriate to turn a breakup into a lesson about resilience in the supply chain. You know the ones.
Looking for brands that balance this well? Check out Plum Deluxe’s about page (yup, another client). They tell founder Andy’s story about his relationship with his mother and how it inspired his company. But they don’t milk it or overshare. (And they don’t make the whole page about him, there’s stuff in there about their ideal customer, too).
The real reason developing a personal brand matters
If you’vejoined my email list, you probably read this line in my welcome sequence:
“The personal/professional divide only serves to disempower those with caring responsibilities or other concerns.”
And I stand by it. (Otherwise, I’d have taken it out of my welcome sequence, obvs.)
Here’s why a strong personal brand matters for e-commerce founders:
The ability to separate your work life and home life completely is a luxury most of us don’t have
Your experiences and challenges often directly inform your product development
Building genuine connections with customers creates brand loyalty that discounts just can’t buy
But there’s something even more powerful at play here.
There is magic in connection.
Finding your sweet spot
So how do you know what to share? Here’s my quick gut-check guide:
Does it help your audience understand why you’re qualified to solve their problem? Like how my background in youth work makes me excellent at understanding and connecting with different audiences. What experiences make you the perfect person to create and sell your products?
Does it build genuine connection without overshadowing your message? Sharing that I grew up on the poverty line helps people understand my drive to work with brands that help people. What parts of your story explain your brand’s mission?
Does it add value to your customer’s experience of your brand? My slightly sarcastic asides (you might have noticed a few) let potential clients know what working with me will be like. How can your personality enhance your customer experience?
Putting it into practice
Here are some ways you can start weaving your personal brand into your e-commerce business authentically:
Start small:
Share snippets of your founder journey in your email newsletters
Let your product descriptions tell the story of why you created them
Add personality to your packaging inserts
Have a social strategy that’s about building connection with your audience, not just selling to them.
But avoid:
Turning every life event into a forced business lesson
Sharing personal stuff just because you feel pressured to be “authentic” – you should share at a level that makes you feel comfortable
Letting your personal story overshadow your products
Getting too caught up in what other founders are sharing
The key? Be intentionally you.
When I share about my background in youth work or my experiences as a parent, it’s because these things directly inform how I help my clients. When you share about your journey, your struggles, your wins – make sure they add value to your customer’s understanding of your brand and products.
Think of it like a first date – you want to be open enough to build connection, but not so open that you’re sharing your entire medical history before the starters have arrived.
Need some help?
No matter what the massive LinkedIn bros say, people buy people.
Are you giving them reasons to buy you?
(Ok, well not *buy* you… but you know what I mean.)
If you’re trying to define what your personal brand really is, and how much of “you” it makes sense to put in it, then talk to me about a Brand Messaging Guide. Or, if you’re a solo service provider or coach, The Messaging Reset might be a better fit.
If you’ve built a personal element into your brand and you’re worrying about maintaining that authentic connection as you scale, then talk to me about a Brand Voice Guide.
Either way, book a call here and we’ll work out the next step for your brand.
Let me tell you a story. A story about someone who knows how to build a community. Someone who’s community I’m a part of.
I got an email from Tracy this morning.
Tracy has been in my life for 14 years. I see her around 4 times a week, and we can spend between half an hour to 2 hours together. I know what her kids are getting up to, the books she’s reading, what causes she’s thinking about, the new ideas she’s coming up with. I know her favourite drink, the skincare she uses, and what she thinks about Taylor and Travis.
We’ve never met.
The community I’m obsessed with
Tracy Anderson is a fitness trainer. She’s developed a method that keeps my ADHD brain from getting bored, that’s put me back together physically after two pregnancies and births, and that kept me sane during my husband’s cancer diagnosis and death.
She has earnt my undying loyalty.
I’m also connected to the wider community of other people who follow her workouts. (I even met one of my first copywriting clients in a Tracy Anderson Facebook group!) We’ll check in with each other to talk about recent workouts, to compare notes on equipment, to try out new recipes. And I’ve never met any of them, either.
The result? I buy everything Tracy launches (well, almost everything – I’ve yet to stretch to the Vitality weeks she runs in the US, but they’re on the vision board). I have her DVDs, streaming subscriptions, leggings, and equipment. I’ve bought skincare and books she’s recommended. I am all in.
When she sends an email, I’m excited. And when she launches a new product, I’m already more than halfway towards buying it. I don’t need as much convincing, and I have fewer objectives.
I feel part of her community.
These are the kind of people you want in your audience. People who don’t feel like an audience of customers – they feel like part of a community.
Because, when they do, they’re much more likely to buy your stuff, and it’ll take much less time to convince them they need it.
But how do you get them to that magical state of obsession? How do you build a community that’s obsessed with you?
How to build a community and make people feel like they’re part of it
Do you want my advice as someone who spent 15 years building communities of young people?
It’s about more than a Boots or Tesco-style loyalty scheme that offers you a quick return on your investment, or extra perks (Although these aren’t to be sniffed at).
I think that more small businesses should strategically work to create that feeling of being part of a family. Knowing how to build a community is something you need to pay attention to.
And here are 3 tips to get you started:
Make them feel special
Send them emails on their birthday with a personalised discount code. Let them in on behind-the-scenes secrets, ask their opinions. Never underestimate the power of asking questions (and, you know, listening to the answers!).
Make them feel listened to
Regularly ask your members about their needs, preferences, and the things they’d love to see you offer…and then ACT on that invaluable information!
Would they find it easier to follow your course videos if you had captions or a transcript available?
Are they looking for a less involved offer at a lower price point?
Make them feel part of something
If you’re a brick and mortar business put on special VIP events that feel like secret parties. If you live online then give them early access to sales, or host a members area on your website with access to exclusive content or discounts.
And, of course, use the regular emails you send to your members to build on that feeling of being part of something, being special, and being listened to.
How a strong community can grow your business
We’ve had an uncertain few years in the business community, and we’ve seen how the sense of insecurity can affect people’s spending habits. But if you’ve figured out how to build a community, then you have an ace up your sleeve.
If you have nurtured a community, and a relationship with your customers, then spending money with you will feel secure and comforting.
When people already know, like, and trust you AND they feel part of your community, then you won’t have to work as hard to convince them of the value of your offer. They’ll be excited to see your email drop into their inbox. They’ll run towards the pre-sale link. And they’ll shout about you from the rooftops.
Not a bad return on your investment really.
If you’re looking for support – someone who will care as much about your business as you do, then book a strategy call with me. We’ll work out the best way to build your very own obsessed community.
