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Date:
July 9, 2021

Author:
Ashlyn Carter

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Hey! Ashlyn here, OG copywriter for creatives—reporting for duty. 

Let's get you a message so tight you can bounce a quarter off of it. Around here, we serve up science-based storytelling strategies the creative set.  Even while raking in more than 1.26M in agency work since I've been at it, I firmly believe working from a place of rest (not hustle) IS possible—and I want the same for you. Words matter. Best be sure they work (and oui, with math) ... and know how to party while they're at it. 

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Reading time: 14 min.

If you’ve ever wondered how to writes a work-with-me page or a great services page, you’re in the right place. In this post, I’m breaking down how to explain what you do for your paid services in a way that brings all your potential clients to the yard. 😉  Hit like if this page on your website needs to be refreshed or rewritten or written from scratch, and let’s get going.

This is the final part in a three-part series where I’m talking through some things you can do to get your business up off the ground or breathe fresh life into it. You can open up another tab and catch up on the other two here!

I’m also starting another series on email marketing copywriting—if you don’t wanna miss that, then click the subscribe button on my YouTube channel so you’ll be in the loop to know when they drop next Thursday.

How to Write Your Work With Me Page - Ashlyn Writes Blog

Plus, read until the end—I’m giving you a lightning round of do’s and don’ts of things that you should and shouldn’t do on your work-with-me page. This comes after drafting dozens of them for the clients in the agency side of my business and then, seeing students put into work these. These are things that I have caught and edited during copy chiefing sessions—it’s yours for the taking.

Let’s jump in!

BTW, I was feeling a *little* bit extra and made a worksheet just for this post—it’s the Work-With-Me Page Worksheet (very creatively named;)

Click here or down below to grab your FREE Work-With-Me Worksheet!

 

No. 1

The Basic Framework

Okay, so let’s start with an outline of what you need to write. The goal of your services page or your work-with-me page is to get them to the next step in the funnel. I talked about the basic funnel in the first video in this series that I would create if I was starting my business from absolute scratch today. I’m gonna say that whole “get them to the next step” probably a million more times, I start by telling you WHY I came up with the 16 elements that you need to have on this page, which I’m also about to tell you.

A quick story about how I even came up with the 16 elements I’m about to show you.

When I first started my business and left corporate marketing, I essentially had two businesses under one roof. I was continuing my moonlight gig as a wedding calligrapher and stationer, but I was also beginning to offer brand messaging website and launch copywriting as a conversion copywriter. So both of these services I’m shilling out under one roof. The more I learned about copywriting and the more that I was applying what I knew from corporate marketing, but then what I was learning as I was selling to more of a creative market, I started to develop this. One day, light bulb, why am I not using this formula that I’ve come up with over on the calligraphy side of my business, as I’m trying to market to and sell to couples for wedding services? I wanted to see if I could better anchor my prices—wedding calligraphy isn’t cheap. You also don’t *need* it to get married.  With that, this Sweet 16 framework was born.

how to write your work with me page-awblog

You may be familiar with this Sweet 16 Sales Page Template in the shop. It’s one of our best sellers. I’ve recently released a version that is more helpful if you’re specifically only selling services and only selling a digital product or offer. And I know 16 seems like a lot, it seems long. But the beauty of this framework is that it can be accordioned out for that 5,000-word sales page. And I want you to consider shrinking it down a little bit to 500 words, a thousand words for your service.

Let’s break down the basic framework…

So these first few ones, I’ve done a video on my P-A-R-I-S framework, but essentially what we wanna do right out of the gate is start with that problem, agitate it just a little bit and remind them of what they want. Before you flash them that three or four-figure price tag, you need to demonstrate empathy and authority. We also need to make sure that we’re connecting with that aspirational identity that your ideal client wants, and you can help them get.

  • 1 | Problem-You need to demonstrate empathy and authority—AND demonstrate the aspirational identity they’re going for
  • 2 | Agitation
  • 3 | Remind them
  • 4 | Interesting Fact– I think it’s so important, now that they’ve invested in the emotional side of their thinking, we need to back that up with the rational side. So here we want to give them an interesting fact, a data point, a statistic, something that can really give them some meat of yes, you were thinking this is a good decision, but let me just show you exactly why you were onto something and absolutely is. Here’s your moment to back up what you’ve told me so far by bringing in a data point, factoid, or proof.
  • 5 | Solution– After you’ve done those four things, voila, the S, the solution. You can now introduce the offering that you’re trying to sell.
  • 6 | Social Proof Pass No. 1. — And as soon as you do that, I want you to bring in a social proof pass. This is the first one you’re gonna have on the page. A testimonial, case study, some sort of authoritative figure saying why you are trustworthy.
  • 7 | Socratic Price Anchoring & Reasoning  – Headline, Body Copy-  Or as I call it more common, the Starbucks Test. Because it is 2021, and at this point, we’ve all purchased something and somebody has sold it to us by saying, you could buy your weekly coffee at Starbucks or four coffees a month or whatever, or you could put that money over here. That concept, what they’re doing there, is price anchoring. They’re helping you understand and putting it in terms that you can start to associate with where you’re already spending your money. So I want you to have a moment on this services page, where you’re doing that same thing. You’re telling them kind of the cost of not doing business with you. What is that going to bring in their life in terms of stress or money spent elsewhere, etc.
  • 8 | The Stack– I want you to list out like a grocery store receipt, every itemized thing that they get as part of the service in working with you.
  • 9 | Call-to-Action-Now you’ve done that and you can call to action, you can have the button that says either fill out the application to work with me, contact me for your free consultation, hop on a discovery call by picking your time here, whatever it is. Remember what I said at the top of this video, the goal of this entire services page is to sell that click, okay? So many of us feel like if we can just look somebody in the eye and get to talk to them and hear what they need and explain to them what we do and how we can help them, we can sell them on what we do. The whole goal of this long page is that CTA that you’re putting right there.
  • 10 | Scarcity-And yes, there’s still scarcity if you’re a service provider. Because last time I checked, you don’t have infinite hours in the day. You need to go ahead and tell them how many of these you’re anticipating booking for the year, for the next quarter. Your spots are limited because you aren’t a superhero.
  • 11 | Social Proof Pass No. 2- Let’s chime in again, by letting somebody else sell them with words and not you, which is always great.
  • 12 | Promise-Making, Risk-Reversing Guarantee-We wanna give them some sort of promise-making, risk-reversing guarantee. What if they start to work with you and aren’t getting what they like. Or they invest all this and didn’t get what they wanted. How are you gonna come in and give them some sort of happiness guarantee, or work with them on rounds of revisions. Or whatever it is that you have in your process that helps make sure that clients walk out the door satisfied every time, mention that here.
  • 13 | Credibility– A quick line of credibility to explain why I should even trust you to do this.
  • 14 | Attract/Repel -It could be helpful to include some sort of attract or repel. How do I know if I’m a fit for this offer versus one of your other offers is better for me? Or you don’t work with people like me.
  • 15 | FAQ- Related to that, give me a section of frequently asked questions.
  • 16 | P.A.R.I.S. Framework™ & Stack Recap-And finally, the last thing is, I want you to give me that one more Hail Mary pass. I want you to give me the P-A-R-I-S formula one more time with that call to action after it. So again, you can really go for the juggler and remind me of what it is that I’m wanting and how you can help me get it.

Okay, I know that was a lot and I breezed through it. Like I said, I go into it more in-depth in that template and inside Copywriting for Creatives., but I hope this gives you a basic starter package where you can take that and apply it to your work-with-me or services page.

If I could say this to you in red flashing lights—it’s something that I think really helped me when I started my businesses—I did not adopt the mentality of being a freelancer. I looked at myself as a business owner, day one. Spelling out what you do in a page like this in that long framework, that can really help you start to see what you do as a productized service.

A Forbes writer recently wrote this, I loved it. He said that, “The gig economy is still robust, but the solo-commerce model, in which service-based industries, residential home services, caterers, professional services, all of that helps people grow easily from contractors to a solo practitioner business, to even a micro-small business and beyond.” Yeah… that’s what a lot of us do as service providers. We look at what we do as a small business.

All of that brings me to this next step. Now that we have this framework, how do you actually organize this message and copy on your work with me page?

Related: The Secret to Sales Calls That Close the Deal 

 

No. 2

How to Organize it

Okay, there are two services (work with me) page templates we keep in the arsenal on the agency side of my business, and I’m gonna walk you through those here.

#1  is what I named the “services splash page”—it’s essentially a menu of your services.

#2  is that medium to long-form services page, like I just walked you through.

Here’s this sitch, that person that is in the market to spend money on your four, maybe even five-figure service, your absolute cream of the crop offer,  ideal client, is probably not the same as Budget Betty over here who’s looking to just spend, you know, a few hundred bucks or whatever it is and get what she needs. Because of that, we have to speak to these ICAs differently. You’ve got a couple of options here.

Your first option is to have that work-with-me tab on your website. Go straight to this mid to long-form services page, where you’re outlining what it is you do. It’s probably a little bit harder to have this long form page explain multiple different packages. If you have tiers inside of a package, this could be a great way to do it. But if your offer ladder—I referenced an offer ladder that I would build out if I was starting my business again in that first video—if I’m doing that, and I’m really selling to ideal clients that are on opposite ends of the spectrum, then what I’m gonna do here is drive to what I call a services splash page. I have a menu of options available for them to pick on. That way they can compare a little bit more apples to apples. They can choose to click through on one of those CTAs and zoom straight to a mid-long form services page, where you’re really explaining what you do for the high-end offer.

how to write your work with me page-aw blog

Maybe the lower ticket version can click straight to purchase that or talk to you on the phone, or whatever it is. That way if they’re seeing a services splash page, they can choose to either click to your big service and see everything that that includes in that long-form services page. OR they can look at one of the other offerings that you’re providing if they’re, again, an ICA, that’s very different from the person that’s ready to pull out their pocketbook and their hard-earned dollar and spend.

You can let the CTAs to those smaller offers be things like, I fill out an application, or hop on a discovery call with me, or whatever it is.

Again, remember the purpose of this page is to get them to the next step in the funnel—do what it takes to get them there.

If you are going with the splash page route, absolutely include some of those P-A-R-I-S elements that I mentioned back in step one. I pulled a couple of examples here from some Copywriting for Creative students. >>>

 I have both Bethie, who provides photography services

I’ve got Tiffany, who is a PR coach.

I chose these two and wanted to show you their services pages so you can see both a B2C example and a B2B example. If you like the idea of this services splash page, and you wanna see some examples of that.

Here’s another example— this is a template that’s inside FG funnels— here is kind of how that would look. Like I said, personally, my recommendation is that absolutely you add up before they see that menu.

 

That P-A-R-I stuff, the S is the menu. We need them to know you’ve got empathy, you’ve got authority—you’re really listening to their problems before you come out and say, buy my stuff.

 

No. 3

Do’s & Don’ts

Okay finally, here’s some do’s and don’ts for your work with me page or services page.

DO give an idea of prices 

Oh my gosh, I can not say my prices on my website. I’ve talked at length about this, yes, you should. I’ve got plenty of videos where I’ve talked through this. My favorite analogy is just to imagine that you’re going to a really fancy restaurant, or for today, let’s say you’re going to a fancy spa. You’re looking at the list of options you can order. The price is beside all of them, so you feel really clear about how much you’d be spending. And then there is the offer, the offer that seems like exactly what you would want. Oh my gosh, it’s what you’re dreaming of in a spa day. And it says price upon request. Well, most people aren’t gonna get their courage up to ask. They’re just gonna pick what they know, what they can see. And that’s why you need to have your prices available on your work with me page. Because a lot of times, by not including them, people just automatically are gonna assume that they can’t afford you.

DON’T focus so far down the funnel that you forget this page has one job—get them to the next step.

All right next, don’t focus so far down the funnel that you’re not remembering what I said a lot in this video. And I’m gonna say it again, that the goal of this page is to get them to the next step in the process. Maybe you’re selling your free discovery call. Maybe you’re selling a consult call. Maybe you’re selling a free audit or even a paid audit, but very rarely are they gonna be going from this page immediately hitting that call to action button and getting to check out with their credit card for your three or four figure service. There’s likely some interaction with you, whether they’re getting that pricing guide, or a proposal from you, or hopping on the discovery call. So burn that in your mind as you draft to this page, that the goal of it is to get them to do the next right thing. Get that fish on the line.

This work-with-me page, doesn’t have to reel them all the way in. You’re gonna use some other tools to do that. A FreshBook’s study showed that 50% of respondents experienced symptoms of poor mental health for the first time this past crazy year as entrepreneurs. I think a lot of the stress that comes with being a small business owner can come from the feast or famine type mentality. I personally have a lot less stress and more confidence if I’ve got some fish on the line. People I know I’m gonna talk to you about my services.

DO also embed a brief contact form at the bottom of your work with me page.

Next step, do embed a brief contact form at the bottom of this work-with-me or services page, whether you’re doing the services splash page route, or you’ve got the long form page, and that’s all you have. Maybe they think they are a special snowflake and they don’t fit into any of your tiers or any of your offers in your offer ladder. Maybe they love them all, but now they’re just having some analysis paralysis and they don’t know which one is a fit for them where they are. So include that.

And then, also, this is a pet peeve of mine, but absolutely have some sort on your contact page of form. If you’re gonna include a form there that is separate from your application to work-with-me. I can’t stand when I go to somebody’s contact page to just reach out about whatever it is, and my only option is to act like I’m a client. And it’s asking me what date is my event, and all that kind of stuff. I just wanna say hey. I know I’m not talking about contact pages in this video, but make sure you have either your email address or you’ve evergreened out that form so it can suit other types of inquiries. But on the work-with-me page or services page, you can make that one a little bit more application modeled.

Related: Behind the Scenes: My EXACT 2021 Client Onboarding Process

DON’T set unrealistic conversion rate expectations

And finally, don’t set unrealistic conversion rate expectations. I broke down conversion rates in this video, so you can watch that. But remember, it’s still a numbers game, a traffic game. You can’t just launch to this refresh page and wait for all the calls to come in. You do need to get some traffic pushed to the page to make sure people are actually landing there. They have the option to read through what you have and decide if they’re a fit or not to go to that next step in your application funnel. That’s why I said it so many times in this video, that your goal is to really get them to the next step—that is what you’re measuring for, for the conversion rate for this page.


Now, you know how to outline your work-with-me page, but what about the branding of it all and how you can figure out why you’re different from your competitors? I’ve got all that and more teed up in this video on my YouTube channel. Comment below if you’ve got any questions—here’s to working from a place of more rest and less hustle.

⬇️Don’t forget to click here or down below to grab your freebie Work-With-Me Page Worksheet that may help you sort through this a little bit more.⬇️


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How to Write Your Work With Me Page - Ashlyn Writes Blog

Reading Time: 13 Minutes Reading time: 14 min. If you’ve ever wondered how to writes a work-with-me page or a great services page, you’re in the right place. In this post, I’m breaking down how to explain what you do for your paid services in a way that brings all your potential clients to the yard. 😉  Hit like […]

7/09/21

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