The BTL Client

Monique Sourinho is a food photography wonder-woman. She’s a Recipe Developer, Commercial Food Stylist, Photographer, Food Blogger, and Influencer, just to name a few of the hats she wears on a daily basis.

Her purpose lies in sharing her enthusiasm for life with others. And what better way to do that than by merging her love of creating new recipes with her affinity for fostering community, supporting artisans, and bringing life’s simple joys to the table?

Connecting with people through food is one of her greatest passions, and it is also the center of her world as a food stylist, photographer, and recipe developer.

The Project Details

I’d been following Monique on Instagram for quite a while, because I’d heard a lot about her from my best friend, Jayme, and past BTL clients, Michaela (of LBV The Label) and Lindsey (of Wildflower Events + Design). The one thing they all told me was how nice, generous, and impressive Monique was. Everyone who knows her knows how much time and effort she puts into her work, and how deeply she cares about it (almost as much as she cares about lifting up her community).

A few years ago, when I was first dipping my toes into the world of freelance copywriting, I reached out to Monique to ask if she needed a content writer.

(Brief side note: I always recommend reaching out to people in—and on the outskirts of, in this case—your network when you’re first starting out as a copywriter or other creative service provider to build your portfolio, learn which specific facets of your field you like and don’t like, and to gain experience working with clients before your business takes off.)

She didn’t need anyone at the time, but we stayed in touch, cheering each other on from our respective sides of Instagram, until January of 2021 rolled around and Monique decided her digital presence needed a complete overhaul.

 

THE DELIVERABLES:

• Website copywriting
• SEO-optimized blog writing
• Email welcome sequence
• Lead magnet creation
• Freebie delivery email sequence
• Email opt-in forms
• BTL Library Card VIP Day (for more blogging!)

 

The Goal

Because Monique is an extremely multi-faceted human being running an even more multi-dimensional business, showcasing all the different parts of who she is and what she does was extremely important for this project. Our goal for this project was to create a space where Monique could share all of her passions—cooking, baking, educating, photographing, collaborating, influencing, writing—under one roof, seamlessly.

 

The Website’s Audience + How We Spoke To Them

Monique’s website caters to a lot of different parties: brands seeking a food influencer and recipe developer for sponsored collaborations, restaurant owners seeking a food photographer to showcase their dishes in their environment, businesses seeking a photographer to uniquely capture their product, aspiring recipe bloggers and food photographers hoping to learn about the craft, hungry people of Pinterest looking for a new recipe to make… this site is getting traffic from ALL over the Internet.

Catering to multiple audiences is something that I don’t typically do—but Monique is not typical; she’s much cooler than that. The usual ‘copywriting rule of one’ (aka speaking directly to one person in an effort to make them feel comfortable and seen) I apply to my website projects had no place here.

Appealing to all of Monique’s varying target audiences while keeping her brand voice consistent and relevant to all was a fun challenge. Here’s how I did it:

1) Creating a clear “these are the things I do; here’s what you can hire me for” moment. By separating her services into five separate categories—food photography, commercial food styling, recipe development, restaurant sessions, and sponsored collaborations—we broke down all the ways a brand can work with Monique and offered an easy-to-understand explanation of what each facet of her offerings entailed.

2) Finding common ground between all of the varying audiences and running with it. Of course, that common ground was food. Whether the reader was visiting Monique’s website to inquire about a sponsored social media post, a recipe to be developed, a food photoshoot, a nugget of advice about the food blogger slash photographer world, or to find inspo for what to cook for dinner, everyone had an interest in food.

And because I love any reason to incorporate some sort of theme into the copy (it makes everything so much more fun and relatable!) I of course had to transform her services from the boring “what’s included” to the much more exciting recipe format of ingredients and method.

We also chose to gather all of her offerings together under the name ‘Collaboration’ as opposed to the traditional ‘Services’ because it felt more aligned with the way she operates her business. We then separated the rest of her website—the recipes, the community interviews, and the advice column—into their own respective pages to improve the user’s experience and make the navigation around the site easier.

Table Talks is where Monique’s love of her community gets to shine. If the term ‘support local’ were personified, it would be Monique. She’s the definition of a great neighbor, always thinking of new ways to show up for her people, lift them up, and do what she can to help them professionally and personally. Table Talks is her series of conversations with the lovely people of her network about their unique places in the world and how they navigate what fuels their fire.

(To see one in action, read my Table Talk interview with her!)

Kitchen Journal is the most mouth-watering part of the site, where all of Monique’s recipes live. As the page says, “like life’s greatest moments, recipes are meant to be shared with the people you love.”

Field Notes houses all of Monique’s tools of the trade, advice for aspiring food bloggers and recipe developers, and everything in between. This page acts as her own personal advice column, where she generously shares her knowledge with her industry.

The Best Parts

I’d classify everything on Monique’s website as a ‘best part’ if I could—and I think that’s due to Monique’s stunning visuals (I mean, have you seen what this woman and her camera are capable of?!) and the gorgeous branding and web design created by my friends at Oh Sierra.

When Monique asked my recommendation for a brand and web designer, I thought of Xanthe and her team immediately. Oh Sierra does such beautiful, intentional work, and I view them as a leading agency in their industry. They’re so nice and down-to-earth, but are also extremely professional, talented experts with their finger on the pulse and their head in the game. In other words: they know their stuff when it comes to design, marketing, positioning, and creating a damn good brand and website.

I’d been dying to collaborate with them for months, and knew Monique would love them as much as I do.

Thankfully, I was right, and Monique chose to secure her spot on Oh Sierra’s coveted client list and collaborate with them on her brand and website design, and they were absolutely worth the wait. Bee The Love 2.0 would not be what it is today without Oh Sierra.

The Final Product

If you couldn’t tell from the paragraph above: I’m completely ecstatic with the way this website turned out. Monique put her entire heart and soul into her revamped digital presence, and she deserves a round of applause for how hard she worked on it (and how hard she works on everything).

She is genuinely the kindest soul, and I’d love for you to visit her website, sure, but I’d love even more if you followed along with her on Instagram to experience all that Bee The Love has to offer for yourself.

If you’re interested in collaborating on a website copywriting project like this one, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:

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To get in touch with me directly, send me a DM or email sara@betweenthelinescopy.com. Have a great day!