[Photo Credit Flickr smoorenburg ]
I know that some readers may disagree with me when I say you should write own your web content. Some of you may feel uncomfortable writing, may not have time to write, or just prefer hiring a professional writer for projects such as this, but I am here to encourage you to participate in the process at least a little bit. Here are three reasons why I think you should write your own website content.
When someone lands on your website, one of the first things they are thinking is “what can this person do for me?” Your content is really important in answering that question and the way you present yourself and your offer should be very personal. If someone else does the writing for you it’s like inviting someone over for dinner, and sending your cousin to replace you as the host. Your cousin may resemble you in mannerisms and conversational style, but your cousin is not you and makes a terrible stand in. You would never do this, and I don’t think you should do it on your website, either.
Secondly, your coaching practice is your coaching practice. It is not a paid writer’s coaching practice. No one cares as much about your practice as much as you do and one of your opportunities when writing web content is to show how much you care about what you do. This realness and authenticity is one way to “click” with your prospects. People make buying decisions based on emotional responses, this has been proven with research by the University of Florida where a national study* of 23,168 people concluded that emotions were nearly twice as important as knowledge in consumer buying decisions (*source article by Nancy D. Solomon). Writing about what you do from the emotional benefits point of view is very powerful.
Lastly, you can build trust and credibility when you write your own content. Your website can be huge for you here. When you show up on the about page talking about how you got into coaching, what your biggest wins and disappointments have been, what you enjoy doing when you are not coaching, etc. you become someone to whom your reader can relate. You become more than a professional bio or a trained coach. You become someone they might want to hang out with and this is key in building the trust that it takes to get to yes. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Your reader can’t get to know you if all you have on your about page is a starchy bio that someone else wrote for you.
So there, I said it. I think you should write your own web content. If you need help with editing I think it is great to ask for help, but the foundational ideas should come from your heart and your point of view.
What do you think?
