Have you ever had the opportunity to stand up and talk about your area of expertise in front of a huge audience completely full of your ideal clients?

I have—and, until 20 minutes before, I wasn’t ready. 

Let me set the scene for you… 

[Warning: I’m really exposing myself here. If you’re someone who found me from Circle Day, and you’re reading this, plz maybe don’t.]

It’s mid-summer, and I’m taking a rare moment to chill without thinking about work or being tugged on by my toddler. 

I absentmindedly check my email, because I’m an addict, and see a message about a call for speakers for Squarespace Circle Day. 

A couple minutes later, I’m clicking ‘submit’ on the presentation pitch I’d just pulled out of my ass: How To Make Your Website Copy Actually Sound Human. 

Because the Squarespace Circle community is made up of mostly web designers, I had a feeling they’d like it, since no website design is complete without website copy. 

Fast forward a few weeks: I was right. They loved it. And they’re asking me to speak in person at Circle Day, located at Squarespace’s NYC headquarters.

I’m freaking pumped. And not gonna lie, I’m feeling a bit famous. My first-ever big-deal speaking engagement! First stop Squarespace, next stop TED! 

Naturally, I do all of the things to prepare: brag about it to my parents, write about it in my journal, send audio messages about it to my friends… you know, the important stuff. 

I save the actual presentation for the day before it’s due to Squarespace’s community manager and tech team. 

…but because I’d already had a good base design from my Site Series modules, and I knew what I wanted to say, it was fine. A win for the procrastinators, yet again!

Fast forward a few more weeks: I’m sitting at DryBar, hair half-wet, half-beautiful, and it hits me. 

I didn’t prepare a next step. 

What kind of marketing mentor am I? How can I preach about giving your audience a clear next step if I didn’t even create one for my own *actual, literal, sitting-right-in-front-of-me* audience?

As soon as I change into my fancy speaker outfit, mirror-selfie, and pay, I head straight to Starbucks to gulp down a venti cup of sugar and pull out my laptop to fix my fiasco. 

“Quick—how do I capitalize on all the traffic I’ll (hopefully) get during and after my presentation?” I thought. “What do I have to offer them? What do I want them to know about me and my brand? What would make them want to continue their relationship with me?” 

I hurriedly add an extra section to my ‘free stuff’ page, hoping that downloading my slides from the day (and promising more info about my website copy guide) will be enough to entice them onto my list. 

Fast forward a few hours: it’s 3:30pm, and I waltz onstage, pretending like I’m cool and smart and professional and definitely not someone who built an entire segment, opt-in, and welcome sequence mere minutes before Circle Day’s first event. 

Moral of the story? Have your shit together. 

If you keep reading, I’m going to tell you all about how to do that—and which elements of your shit, specifically, to have together—but first, I want to remind you of something:

You have this opportunity to speak to a huge group of your ideal clients and customers about your business and your expertise EVERY SINGLE DAY through your website.

You never know when a video will go viral.

You never know when a big creator will post about you.

You never know when a blog post will rank #1.

You never know when an article will feature you.

You never know when an idea pin will pop off. 

>> You never know when, but it’s ALWAYS a possibility that you could get an influx of traffic at any given moment—are you ready?

You don’t have to speak at some fancy conference in order to get yourself in front of the right audience—this would be a good place to talk about blogging, Pinterest, and SEO, but we’ll talk about that one another time—you have that opportunity with your online platform indefinitely.

All you have to do is make sure you’re ready. 

Here are the 5 things I’d make sure you have in place (and feel confident about!) to be ready for your ideal clients and customers when they first find you online:

#1 – The right words

Are you surprised I’m listing this one first? Website copy that speaks directly to your ideal clients’ or customers’ current situation (what they need, what they’re struggling with, what would improve their lives) is essential for keeping them interested.

If they don’t immediately feel seen, they’ll ‘X’ out. Plain and simple. When you speak their language—and you give them a shiny solution to fix their pesky problem—you’ll get the best results. 

(If this is something you struggle with, you may benefit from this workbook or this course!)

You’ll want to make sure your design is on point too, of course, but yet again, that’s a whole other convo. Read this if you want to hear my thoughts or hire her if you want to use the same web designer I did. 

(Or if you’re more of a DIY person, check out Tonic Site Shop‘s Showit website templates. They’re the best on the market & you can use code ‘btlcopy’ for 15% off your entire purchase! Read why I love ’em here.)

#2 – The clearest call to action.

Tell! Them! What! To! Do! Next! 

Or where to go. As long as you give them direction for what to do after they finish reading the webpage they’ve landed on, please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t let your dream clients slip away because you didn’t tell them where to go. 

Read this post to learn how calls to action keep readers reading.

#3 – The best secondary option

If your ideal client or customer can’t afford you right now, or your availability doesn’t fit their timeline, or they’re on the fence about taking the leap, or they want to compare other creators’ offerings before deciding, or… whatever the reason, making sure you have a great secondary option is key.

This could be a lower-ticket offering, it could be an educational resource, a DIY option, it could be a collection of blog posts, it could be your lead magnet—anything to a) keep them on your site longer, or b) keep you at the forefront of their mind. 

…which brings me to the next thing you’ll want to have ready to roll:

#4 – An invitation to continue the relationship

Specifically, one that sounds sooo perfect for them that they couldn’t *possibly* pass it up. This job is usually assigned to your lead magnet (which performs best as a pop-up, set to appear 10 seconds after they’ve started scrolling). 

# 5 – A plan to keep them engaged

This is where your email marketing sitch comes into play. 

Once you have them on your email list, you’ll need to first deliver whatever you promised to send them, then offer a more in-depth introduction to you and your brand, and, depending on your goals, continue to offer more context (and strategically sharing curated-for-them resources that you know they’ll find helpful) until you feel like they’ve sufficiently gotten to know you. This is your welcome sequence.

After they complete your welcome sequence, you don’t want to let their emails just chill on your Subscribers list—you’ll want to actually engage with them by sending a newsletter.

(Side note, in regards to email marketing, here’s how I can help: you can download my free lead magnet and welcome sequence sample or inquire about having me set up your email marketing operation for you!)

& if you have all of the above in place, you’ll be more than ready to welcome any new website traffic that comes your way!

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:

Subscribe to my newsletter! I send one marketing tip, once a week – and, according to my subscribers, it’s “the best marketing newsletter on the Internet” and “the only reason to wake up on Tuesday mornings.” So… yeah. You’ll love ‘er. 😏 Click here to subscribe!

Check out my services. I write website copy, sales pages, email sequences, blog posts, and brand messaging guides for entrepreneurs of all kinds! Maybe you’re my next favorite client.

Read the rest of my blog. It’s home to everything from copywriting tips, to marketing education, to freelance advice, to portfolio-worthy projects… if you like this post, you’ll love the blog. Here’s a quick roundup of my most popular posts.

Sign up for my web copy course. Actually, it’s not *only* about website copywriting—I also teach modules on copywriting basics, developing your target audience, search engine optimization, blogging, and email marketing.

Enlist me as your mentor. I have an entire in-depth blog post about my one-on-one consulting process for new and aspiring copywriters, if you’re interested in having a big-sis-style mentor to help you grow your freelance copywriting business & get results.

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