How to sell yourself on your website

Ask any of my friends and they will tell you I have this annoying habit of hitting them up with completely inappropriate questions at the most inopportune times. I could be at a dinner party and decide to suddenly ask the other guests what their favourite sexual position is, or their most terrifying experience. In fact, the other night I pulled the latter out of the hat with two Chileans, and the response was completely unexpected. “Well, I was shot outside my school,” one said, before revealing the scar across her chest. “I had someone put a knife to my throat on a bus one time,” the other replied. I guess that’s life in South America, and suddenly my dumb contribution about walking home late from a train station in the dark one night was not so “petrifying”.

Strangers aren’t exempt from my questions either, and I find myself regularly asking the check-out chick what her dream is and whether the Centrelink fellow enjoys his job. Must be the journalist in me, I guess.

So, what on earth does this have to do with writing website content?

Well, when you peel back the layers and divulge something abstract and interesting about yourself, suddenly conversations reach a whole new level. Rather than just skimming the surface, you really gain an insight into a human being, and you create deeper connections. That’s what you want from your website content.

You need to differentiate yourself from the masses and find that special thing that makes your business or service different from competitors and appealing to customers. You may be a sixth generation funeral director with an uncanny ability to balance a ball on your head while juggling five oranges. In other words, you know your shit and can multi-task. Or, you may have base-jumped off the Petronas Towers 12 times and always landed on your size-14 feet. Translation: you are willing to take educated risks when needed, but those extra large feet always keep you grounded.

Maybe you’re a criminal defence lawyer who can also do this, so you know how to get out of tricky situations.

Take this example of an About page with a difference. Florida-based video production company LessFilms put together a creative rendition of their story, and while video production has nothing to do with wrestling, their idea works. It grabs your attention, even if you’re left asking, “WTF”. Whatever your strengths might be, put some of that ‘colour’ into your website to illustrate what you can offer. Be creative, be original, think outside the box. And always, always, explain the relevance of those strengths to the customer. Good luck!