It’s my daughter’s 21st birthday party next weekend.
Caterers. Marquees. The whole shebang – after all you’re only 21 once I’m told.
When talking to the caterers about the menu, I was struck by their approach:
Who are the guests?
What age?
What’s the party theme?
What will they be wearing?
All these questions just to decide what they’ll eat and drink and to set the table?
BUT it’s exactly the right approach.
If you don’t know who you’re catering for, how can you make choices?
If you were running a nightclub ( think I’m showing my age with that term) or
If you were running an online engagement platform (think I’m showing my age with that term)
you wouldn’t put up a sign:
Thursday night- everyone welcome, because, well, no one would come.
No one would think you were talking to them.
Talk to everyone and you talk to no one!
Instead you have student night, Over 50’s night, or soul night- whatever.
It’s the exact same with the copy on your website
When you write your website copy or your Facebook posts who are you targeting?
All students studying for GCSE Maths/ German /Spanish?
OR those struggling with quadratic equations, or verb tenses or basic vocabulary?
Any SATS students or those with specific problems?
To dig a little deeper, to get the copy just right, think of students you’ve turned around recently:
What were their struggles?
What could they not get the hang of?
And most importantly, how would they or their parents say this ?
If you use the actual words people use, you’ll have deeper connection with them
They’ll read it and feel instant confidence in your ability to help them.
Here’s this in action: women aren’t lying awake at night saying to themselves, ‘I wish I had a bikini-ready body.’
But they could well be saying, ‘I’d love to look great at Christmas’
Similarly, parents of your students aren’t saying to themselves:
‘I wish Johnny could master quadratic equations.’ they’re far more likely to say ‘I hope to God he gets into university.’
Your website copy then would read:
Worried your child won’t make the grade for university?
or
You’re ill-equipped to help with even basic French vocab, but you know your child could do with some help if he’s to get into university …
Here are the simple steps to nail this:
Go through any emails you have from previous students you have worked with.
Highlight any problem your student had before working with you.
These are your students ‘pain points’ that you want to turn into website copy.
Here’s what this may look like :
Hi there
Do you have any space to work with my son Jimmy who is really struggling with his SATS?
He seems to lack the basics and the class is going too fast for him.
To be honest, I think the whole thing might be beyond him but he needs a good score to get to university. His teacher says he lacks confidence. Can you help?
Website copy gold!
Does your child lack confidence when it comes to his SAT test?
Is the class going too fast, fells like it’s all running away from him?
Let me put a SAT strategy in place for him.
Reading that, I’d feel like you ‘got’ me; you understood exactly what I needed.
From now on, write down phrases parents or students use when they first contact you. You’ll soon build up a bank of problems to use in your copy and posts.
Now give your website a copy MOT –
Who are you talking to?
Are you using their language?
In the meantime, we’re going for beetroot soup, pomegranate glazed chicken and a trio of chocolate puddings.
Cheers!