Quite literally nothing gets me going more than getting to pitch in on what I’m going to call a “refinement” for a brand – in which the values are getting more clear, the message is evolving, and it all needs to come through with new messaging.
So when Michelle of Saela Studio reached out for help with her website copy to make sure it aligned with the growth her design studio had experienced in the 4+ years since she last revisited it?
I absolutely sprinted to my laptop and into a draft.
The Brand
Michelle and her team offer brand and website design for businesses and personal brands who want to embrace slow living without stifling their growth – and let me just tell you now that if I was scrolling her website and saw even just this snippet? She’d have me as as client for LIFE (and probably get annoyed by all the times I told her how seen I felt in that moment).
The Backstory
Michelle has been in business for years – so obviously, she knows her way around a website. But despite designing some of THE most refined, beautiful brands and sites I’ve personally ever seen, Michelle wasn’t sure how to communicate her work and value through her website copy.
She reached out with four goals in mind:
- More inquiries
- Better inquiries
- More personality
- To set the stage for an eventual rebrand and rename (she renamed her business from Michelle Marie Studio to Saela Studio within months of completing our project)
Here’s how we did it:
The Messaging Strategy
As with all messaging, our strategy for Michelle’s website started with one question:
What’s the REAL problem my ideal client is having?
Because it’s not “they need a new website.”
It’s not “their font isn’t working.”
It’s that they want to grow strong, sustainable businesses and actually make more money (duh) – while simultaneously slowing down their lives and having more room to savor it all.
Favorite Moments
Since I designed AND wrote websites before just writing them, I always have a few design-forward ideas for sections – and as a designer, Michelle was immediately game to add hand-drawn illustrations to this one to bring it to life (I’m not over the little Kindle or the sourdough starter).
This is one of THE moments on Michelle’s site that we pulled straight out of her ideal clients’ minds – the question of, “Will you be able to design something that actually feels and looks like ME?” (Yes, yes she can.)
And of course, a moment for the best part of Michelle’s About page – continued proof that you can connect any two ideas (Michelle’s love of romantasy books and her business mission, in this case) with the right angle and plan.
The Quote
“You definitely need to work with Amy! She knew how to capture my brand voice perfectly. I felt so lost with my website copy before working with her; it was all over the place and I didn’t know how to capture my witty, fun side in my copy. I thought that I needed to be super stiff and straight to the point. Amy really brought character and charm to my words, while keeping it professional. I just know it’s going to help me bring in the perfect, ideal clients for my business!”
Narrator: And it did, because within a month of launching her new website, Michelle messaged me that her project inquiries had already doubled.
Design Credit
Michelle designed her own website, of course – browse the full site here!
