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I took a scooter tour around a city I visited recently. It was a ton of fun, but when you think about it, it’s wild the amount of trust it takes to book a tour. You’re signing up for an experience you don’t know anything about, expecting a total stranger to show up. And they do. The tour guides are great at what they do. When it comes to building trust, guide sites do a great job of showing that they can solve your problem. Here’s the formula: Your problem: in a new place, don’t know what to...

I’ve been traveling and my brain is in approximately three time zones at once, so this week I’m highlighting some amazing things people in my communities are offering. Hope one of these makes your day easier! Repurposing your Content (sliding scale) | April 2nd A sliding scale workshop online on April 2nd, about repurposing your content! This workshop covers several repurposing tactics, so you can share more often and be more visible without reinventing the wheel every time. If you or a biz...

Your website isn’t for you. It’s for your audience. When people land on your site, they’re looking for signals that they’re in the right place and that you’re the right person to solve their problem. The best way to make sure your website resonates? Know how your audience processes information. Broad demographics - generation, lifestyle, how your audience grew up - shape how people decide who to trust. That context matters more than we give it credit for. When I was in high school, we texted...

It’s hard enough to get seen and grow on social media. You’re fighting the algorithm gods and teensy attention spans, but it can be a good place to grow your visibility. Part of what makes social media an effective marketing strategy is getting people off the platform and into your ecosystem. There’s a couple of ways to do this, but a common way is a link-in-bio page. A bunch of companies built businesses around this idea, like Linktree, Hoppr, or BioSite. But if you already have a website,...

Website copy and design are pb&j. Mac & cheese. Milk and cookies. Biscuits and gravy. Chicken and waffles. (Maybe I’m just hungry.) But copy and design really do go hand-in-hand. The words on your site and the design are two pieces that work so seamlessly together that it’s easy to forget they’re two different disciplines. As a designer, I think copy matters more than design. I can make something look good, but if the words aren’t working, then it’s just… pretty, not functional. Design’s real...

There’s a wealth of advice on the internet on how to position yourself, your offers, and make yourself ‘stand out’ from your competitors. Some of that advice is really good and comes from people genuinely trying to help you connect with your audience so you can grow your business. Some comes from marketing bros who are trying to teach you to do anything possible to separate your audience from their money. There’s a lot of manipulative marketing out there, and some of it is done so well that...

I’ve been working on a couple of Wix projects, and it’s involved a lot of: “why is this setting here.” “okay wait that actually makes sense.” “oh cool, I broke it”. It’s been… humbling. Every new tool comes with what I think of as a learning tax. You can pay it with time, money, or frustration. Usually some combination of all three. With Wix, I’ve been paying in time. Clicking around, testing things, googling weirdly specific questions, rebuilding stuff twice because I didn’t know a shortcut...

Consistency is the thing people actually notice. Using the same images, colors, language, and voice over and over again is what makes you look professional, even when you’re second-guessing that green again. All of those pieces are parts that make up your website. But if you’re not organized behind the scenes, actually putting your hands on those assets when you need them turns into a giant time-suck you just don’t want to deal with. (Been there, done that. I went through a few digital...

In a strategy session last week, a client told me she was thinking about building a second website. She’s an intimacy and relationship coach. Her current site focuses on working with women, but she also works with men and couples, which led her to think about a second website. Same services, same outcomes, just framed for a different audience. I told her I didn’t think that was necessary, because a second website felt like a messier move than she needed for her business. This comes up a lot...

Ever played the game “what is this ad selling”? It’s one of my favorites, and there are some categorically bad ones out there (looking at you, truck commercials). One I saw recently had the tagline “No Mold, No Cold”. That would make sense for an HVAC company or maybe insulation. But it was a DIY flooring ad. The commercial showed people laying a strip of flooring, hammering it in, using shims to keep it level - all normal flooring things (I’m assuming. I have zero experience installing...