Having a website is essential for starting a health coaching business online (particularly with the current situation). It creates a hub of information about your personal brand as well as generates leads and interest in your business.
The downside? It can be a lot of initial financial outlay, at a time where you might not have many clients to cover the cost. So, I wanted to write this article to help save you costs on your website and avoid hiring a copywriter.
But it does come with a caveat…
The professionals know what they’re doing, they’re trained to help you speak to your audience and give you a new perspective so you can communicate your services better. I would recommend getting one if you can.
But, I also know that it’s not doable for everyone so here are my pro tips so that you can avoid hiring a copywriter in the beginning of your journey.
Tip: Avoid Hiring a Copywriter (But Prepare For The Eventuality)
I would argue that most businesses that don’t have experience or training in writing will hire a copywriter or content writer eventually. So, I would suggest thinking long-term.
Set your ground rules and brand guidelines for your website copy before you start writing, as if you were hiring a professional. That way you’ll write the information that you need on your website, even if it’s not pro copywriter standard (just yet!)
Then later on, if you decide to hire a copywriter you can make them work on the same guidelines and you won’t have a complete sudden shift in tone of voice that might put off your clients or audience.
But, back to what you have to do to avoid hiring a copywriter right now…
Know yourself
I know it sounds wishy washy, but as a health coach YOU are your brand. So what do you truly stand for or hope to achieve? Have you ever said it out loud? If you had to put your brand into a few words right now, something that encompasses your brand’s core and benefits you’re bringing, what would these be?
Creating Your Tagline:
With this information you can create your tagline. It’s essentially your elevator pitch and needs to be short and snappy but get the message across.
Some great examples for the health coaching world are:
- Unleash the healthiest version of you.
- Making life fulfilling.
- Healthy, happy eating.
- She’s got power.
- Your health, your way.
It’s all about explaining your brand, but don’t be afraid to mix and match to begin with until you find one that sticks (you’ll know it when you find it.)
Top Tip: Ask your audience or do a poll in a like minded group and see which one resonates or explains you well. You can ask them what feelings or emotions they get from seeing your name and tagline. Just remember that if you’re polling you need to poll close to your audience type, or your tagline will be suitable for an entirely different industry.
Creating Follow Up Above The Fold
Your home page will often act as the landing page for your business so you want to make sure that when potential clients land, they’re not going to immediately click away (known as a bounce rate). Below your tagline, but above the fold, follow up on your tagline and include a simple couple of sentences to explain what you do and who you help in the process.
A hero image works well here as well to keep visitors focused on the area you want them to read.
Speaking of which…
Know who you’re writing for
How well do you know your audience?
Don’t be afraid to admit if you have no idea who they are or you haven’t narrowed it down from ‘everyone’! But know that without this information your copy is going to be generic and may or may not work. Ultimately you need to speak directly to the pain points, and hopes of the potential client. And this is different for all kinds of people.
How does this avoid hiring a copywriter? Well, if you’re able to relate specifically to your audience or explain how you solve their biggest problem you’re overcoming one of the biggest hurdles that many people fall at.
Knowing where your audience comes from is the most important thing when trying to establish meaningful connections through the content that you’re putting on your website.
Building buyer personas
Demographics and psychographics are what matter here – knowing their age, gender, what they do and where they live, their interests, hobbies, values and opinions, or what they like spending money on. These will give you tons of info to dive into and see what type of content would work well for them.
When you have built your ideal buyer persona (which is a fancy word for – the type of clients you like to work with) you need to write two lists.
#1 Pain Points – What are obstacles or problems that your audience are facing that you can help them overcome? For example, some health coaches who focus on nutrition for parents could include:
- Struggling to have the time to cook healthy meals.
- Addicted to takeaway.
- Fussy eaters.
- Too tired to eat healthily and snacking too much.
#2 Hopes – What do they want in the future you can help them achieve? Again for health coaches who deal with nutrition for parents their hopes would look something like:
- Want to know what foods are healthy for themselves and child development.
- Want easy meals that taste delicious.
- Want to avoid takeaways and not miss them.
- Want to feel comfortable in their own skin.
This list becomes your gold dust for copywriting because you then add these to your service pages! Each of your service descriptions (as well as the introductions on your home page) should address at least one pain point and one hope!
Putting It Into Action:
If I take the above you could then create the copy for your 8 week coaching program introduction to look something like this.
Example Copy: “In this program, you’ll learn how to identify healthy, nutritional foods for you and your whole family. As well as be able to cook quick, healthy meals that will stop you reaching for the snacks! Whether you have fussy eaters or you’re addicted to takeaways, this 8-week program can help you eat nutritious meals, without spending too much time on them, so you can feel comfortable in your own skin!”
Look at the breakdown of that piece, I’ve managed to fit both hopes (highlighted green) and pain points (highlighted red) in the section.
Now, that speaks directly to a parent that wants a healthy lifestyle. They’ll be able to relate to that and are more likely to pick your services as a result because they feel you know them.
Have efficient calls to action
A call to action (CTA) is exactly what it sounds like: a message that prompts visitors to take action now. Which action will be is entirely up to you.
For example, an email subscription prompt is a CTA. A button or link to learn more that leads to details on a service or About page is another call to action.
The point of a CTA is to lead visitors down your sales funnel, and you must have CTAs in your copy. Approach each web page you create a copy for with a couple of simple questions: What is its purpose? Where should it lead the visitors next?
You’d be surprised how many health coaches get caught up in writing about themselves, their services, and their results that they forget to invite the potential client to interact!
Do you want discovery calls? Do you want them to sign up to your mailing list? It’s important to decide so you can tie in the copy you’re writing to the point of action!
Top Tip: Keep one CTA type per page. You can have as many buttons as you like, but avoid asking people to do too many things on the page at once. I would recommend when you start out to pick one thing you want people to do from your whole website (two if you have an opt-in already) and then focus on that. It keeps things simple and clear, and doesn’t dilute your message!
Never assume everyone knows you
This is where the main issue arises when you avoid hiring a copywriter and I’ll tell you why.
You have all the knowledge about you and your business, and almost 100% of the time, you’ll make an assumption about how much someone knows about yourself. Have you ever spoken to someone after a long time, mentioned your business and they act surprised? You wonder why when you’ve been on social media every day.
That’s because people don’t retain information, even those that love you! So you need to take all assumptions out of it (which is what a copywriter does since they don’t know anything!) This is the hard part, so remember to be clear about who you are, what you do, what you offer, and what benefits they will get from working with you.
Remember: If you haven’t mentioned it, it doesn’t exist. Make sure the benefits and solutions you offer to your future clients take centre stage on your website and don’t assume they’ll be able to put two and two together!
Top Tip: You can get feedback from outsiders in groups on Facebook, friends, or you could drop me a message if you like! As long as it’s someone who doesn’t know the business ‘you’ at all! And then ask them three questions based purely on what they see:
- What do I do?
- Who do I help?
- How do I help?
If their answers don’t match up to yours (or what you want their answers to be) you know you have some rewriting to do.
Make all copy scannable
The format matters too!
You can write compelling copy that will easily connect with your audience and bring conversions and drive sales up, but that won’t happen if they can’t keep their focus.
People read online content very differently from books, so don’t make your site a book. People like to find the information they are looking for fast, so make all copy skimmable.
Use headers, bullet points, small paragraphs of a few sentences at a time, and definitely highlight the parts you want them to find first or interact with!
Writing copy is an artform
Doing your own copy is a blessing and a curse. It’s great because you are your brand and you know your business better than anyone could. (and it’s free). But being able to compartmentalise and look from a completely different perspective is hard (even for pro copywriters sometimes.)
If you’re going to avoid hiring a copywriter and need some help with your website or getting the kinks worked out, get in touch and I’ll see how I can help!
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