Hey, permission to let go of the pressure to connect your services to Big Business Outcomes (revenue, new clients, business salvation).
What I found over the 100+ interviews I’ve done with the clients of my clients is that your best prospects are …not grasping at anyone who says they’ll increase revenue or client inquiries.
They’re focused on solving a specific problem or achieving a specific goal.
It’s often better to take the gas off big promises and go deeper into how you’re the best at your thing.
Here’s why in more detail:
1. This is one surefire path to saying something uniquely you on your website.
Everyone can, and frankly, does, claim to “increase pipeline” or “drive more leads” or “boost your revenue.” What everyone cannot — in good faith — stake a claim on is the philosophy you’ve carved out, the methodology you’ve built, the special judgment, taste, and talent you possess.
When you foreground these things instead of big claims, you stand out and become harder to copy.
2. The better choice is to let your testimonials, case studies, and results highlight Big Business Outcomes for you.
Decision-makers probably do indeed have the idea that “upgrading our branding” or “hiring an email marketer” etc. will contribute to increasing revenue.
But if someone is seriously considering hiring, they already believe this about the solution, generally. What they don’t have a built-in belief about is whether you specifically will deliver these outcomes downstream.
So claims in your copy , like “Elevated branding will boost your business,” are kind of … flat? You’re convincing someone of what they already believe to be true. Like, duh, why else would I be considering this?
But social proof that says your work specifically contributed to these outcomes feels a lot more relevant. E.g. “We worked with X Branding Studio and it was a key part of hitting our 2025 stretch revenue goal.” Okay, now we’re talking!
3. Most services can’t take credit for singlehandedly driving revenue or new clients… and decision-makers know this.
When I got new brand photos taken last summer, it would have been weird if my photographer told me, “Hey these brand photos will make you look like such an expert that you’ll instantly win more business!”
Because that’s not exactly true. Yes, photos matter a ton. They needed to be amazing to support my branding, website, and messaging. And all those things, combined with all my marketing and relationship-building efforts, do work together to win me business.
But it’s not one piece by itself that does it. And it’s disingenuous to claim it.
4. Ideal clients — calm, readily able to afford you, looking for the best work possible — are not desperate for more revenue tomorrow.
Certainly, they have revenue goals. And hiring you might be part of that goal.
But if a potential client is looking for one perfect hire or upgrade to save their business? They’re most likely going to be disappointed … and blame you.
If your core message on your site is all about how your services will generate revenue, you’ll end up attracting people whose level of thinking starts and ends at “I need more revenue.” Instead of the person who’s thinking about finding the best fit to do the job.
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There are some nuances here (as there always are!), depending on how closely your services are tied to Big Business Outcomes.
Creative services (design, brand, ghostwriting, etc) are further back, where my advice here 99% of the time will apply to you: stick to what makes you really good at your thing over Big Business Outcome Claims.
Services like paid ads or SEO, on the other hand, have a more direct tie-in to specific results, so you might make someclaims — but still follow a lot of what I’ve shared here (letting case studies back you up, making claims believable by walking through how your approach gets them…).
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Over and over again, what I see is that a great potential client on your website is most likely checking whether you’re the best fit to solve their problem or achieve their goal.
They’ve decided that this type of service is a key rung on their ladder to what’s next. Now, they want to find the best choice.
Meet them there.
Xoxo, your favorite website freak,
Krista
P.S. Did you see the Google news about “A New Era for Search”? They essentially made an announcement talking about how they’re overhauling Google’s search results page for AI.
For a good tl;dr read this great post by Meg Clarke (whom you might remember I interviewed about this stuff earlier this year).
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