Approachable and professional sounding website copy–here’s how to do it

Caitlin: Hello, hello. Welcome to the place for offbeat health professionals who have bravely swapped their health care hats for non clinical creative caps. I'm Caitlin, a psychologist turned copywriter, and this is Healers with Hustles.

Caitlin: All right. Now today I want to start with a wee imagination exercise. Don't worry. I'm not going to ask you to meditate, but imagine you're on a healthcare professional's website, right? You're searching for a professional to engage with. but instead of finding, a website that's written with clarity and written in a way that you think, oh gosh, yes, this person finally gets me.

Caitlin: Okay. Instead, you're met with stiff, jargon filled clinical language that reads a little like a textbook. Now, it probably might leave you wondering if this person really understands you, right? but while I've got you here, let's also think about your own website.

Caitlin: Does it reflect who you are and make people feel the way you want them to feel? Or does it also risk leaving your audience or visitors with the same sense of disconnect? But today I want to talk to you about how you can make your writing more human and approachable while still also showcasing your professionalism.

Caitlin: And I'm also going to share a free guide at the end to help you get there. Now. Often when I review healthcare professionals websites, if I'm helping them with their website copy, I see language that just, it makes me want to, it makes me want to fall asleep, I'll see language like, facilitate, optimize or the best evidence based practices or, those type of catchphrases and they might seem, professional or impressive, but they don't really create that connection that your clients are looking for.

Caitlin: They're just. Like corporate speak that just is empty. It doesn't really mean a lot. And with marketing, you've got to remember the biggest thing or the biggest thing with marketing is that people want to feel understood and supported and using technical jargon field language just creates a distance and really, puts you at arm's length.

Caitlin: but it is super easy to fall into that trap of feeling like you need to be really polished and, using words that make you sound smart, but really what you're doing is, like I said before, creating that barrier. And one of the easiest ways to connect on a website is by using. Brand voice and showing your personality through voice.

Caitlin: But I want to touch on a misconception or a fear that some professionals have is about personality and professionalism that maybe if they do show themselves or show that they're human, that maybe it might make them not feel professional. But you've got to

Caitlin: remember what professional means, right? Professional is about being reliable, following through on your promises and acting with integrity. And clients want to know that they can trust you, and they don't necessarily get that trust from seeing impressive vocabulary. But now I'm getting you to do lots of imagination today, but yeah, also thinking about the experts that you admire, do they bury their messages in jargon and fancy words, or do they make their complex ideas really accessible and understandable so you can connect with them with this expertise.

Caitlin: you might not believe me, you might think, oh, Caitlin'sfull of poo. Well, maybe I am, but speaking of poo, there is actually a bit of a shift happening in marketing and health care where, relatability is becoming a little bit of a key to standing out. And what I mean about, speaking of poo is, you might've seen Queensland health's, it's okay to poo at work campaign where they talked about that awkward, but universal topic.

Caitlin: Which is people using the toilet to poo at work, but it was a campaign that used humor and relatability to get a conversation started about an important healthcare message. And in fact, next week, I'm talking to Caitlin Cash from the Queensland health digital marketing team, exactly about this, about how healthcare professionals can use approachable, relatable marketing to connect with The ideal clients.

Caitlin: So definitely, make sure you tune in next week, but I also want to say that using approachability and. Relatability in content isn't just for, big organizations such as Queensland health. It's also an opportunity for you to get ahead of the curve and use this type of, way to connect with your audience because not everyone does.

Caitlin: And so, as I said before, it's can be a key way to stand out, which I'll call is that just by being you, you can stand out. Heck yes. I also want to acknowledge that I didn't always write in an approachable conversational way.

Caitlin: In fact, when I wrote my first website for my psychology practice, I almost treated it like an assignment that my supervisor was meant to grade. It was full of phrases like, utilizing evidence based practice, tailored to your unique needs, and, employing a client centered approach or.

Caitlin: Probably something in there about, having a warm and compassionate nature or something like that.

Caitlin: But then I realized, well, I didn't even understand what those phrases meant before I did masters, right? It took me to do masters to understand what those phrases even meant. so how a client's going to know what those phrases are.

Caitlin: So really they're either empty and people just skim over them because they don't know what they mean. Or they create confusion. And as, one of my copywriting mentors, Anita Seik says, when we confuse, we lose. And so I can tell you once I rewrote my copy to sound more like me, more conversational and a bit more approachable, things change.

Caitlin: I had clients who mentioned what I said on my website and said, yes, someone who finally gets it, or yeah, you're the one that I needed just because I read something on your website that it spoke to them, which is pretty cool.

Caitlin: if you're thinking, okay, cool, Caitlin, but how do I do this? Well, here are a few quick and easy tips, to get you started. One is audit your words and write like you speak. So read your website and the content out loud, like literally read it out loud. And if you're reading it and you're pausing or you have to stop and reread something, it's probably an indication that it's unnatural, or maybe it's a bit complicated.

Caitlin: Or maybe it's something that there's no way you would actually say out loud. So rewrite it and make sure your words are simple and conversational. It doesn't necessarily need to be conversational, but definitely, but it's easy to understand.

Caitlin: And so really that is, use plain English. If there was a tagline or a catchphrase that I'd say all over and over again, it would be use plain English. The next one is, vary your sentence length. So when all of our sentence lengths are the same length, writing sounds super monotonous and it really might lose your audience's attention.

Caitlin: a really good way to do this It's to break up long sentences with really short, punchy ones to keep people engaged.

Caitlin: So if you're finding that you're running out of breath when you're reading out loud, you might need to add a full stop or add like a one or two, one or two words just to keep people awake really. And then the third one is to write to one person. So when you're writing, just imagine one client. They call it the rule of one.

Caitlin: Don't think of an entire audience that you're writing to. Just think of one, your one ideal client. Your one person that you want to write to. It doesn't mean that you have to. So if you only have one client for your ideal client for your whole website, it just means that one piece of content that you're writing is written to one person.

Caitlin: So it might be one page is written to one ideal client, then you can do another page that's written to a different ideal client, but it's always should be. One person that you're writing to, and that means you write in a way that you're speaking directly to them. And so that means you're more likely to use language that uses you, or you might be a bit more specific about the problems they're facing.

Caitlin: And when we use specificity, it's a really good way to show. That you get them, but if you want more tips,

Caitlin: I have a free guide that I created, which is ditch the academic speak and write like a human, which is, yeah, that's exactly what it is. It ditch the jargon and write, say what you speak out. So yeah, ditch the academic speak. And really it is ditching the jargon and writing as you would speak to a client, basically.

Caitlin: And it is packed with heaps of tips to help you write with personality while also staying professional. And not only that, I always go a bit nuts in anything I do, but, In the guide, there's an appendix at the end and there's, basically AI word swap. So, you know, AI uses particular words or phrases.

Caitlin: I'm sure you've noticed them, like Delve. Oh my God, Delve. What is, what is with that? Although it is a bit of a bummer though, Delve, because Delve was a word that, Psychoanalysts often use, and now I feel like I can't use that word because it's just, I got AI all over it. But anyway, that's a side that we don't need to get into today.

Caitlin: But so it does have a bonus of word swap appendix. And then also there's a bonus in there, which is, 12 additional relatable brand voice copywriting tips. and it is free. So yeah, bonus guides to the free thing, but you can grab it, in the show notes. So pop the URL.

Caitlin: I know this can all sound a bit scary, right? It's going to sound a bit like, Oh my gosh, I'm actually going to be vulnerable and show up and sound like me. But really, I want to give you a big permission slip to do that. So before I leave you, I'll get you to do something else. a bit silly is to place your right hand over your heart and say, I solemnly swear that I give myself permission to break grammar rules and write how I want to write, not how I was taught to write.

Caitlin: And I think that once you. Give yourself permission to do that. writing becomes so much easier,

Caitlin: if you found this episode helpful, I'd love if you could share it or maybe even tag me or comment on Instagram, because I'd love to see how you're putting these tips into action, but thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.

Caitlin: Alright, that's the end of another episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to Healers with Hustles. If you've enjoyed today's episode, will you do me a tiny favour and subscribe to the show? Just tap the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform and you'll be the first to know as soon as a new episode drops.

Caitlin: Thanks so much for listening. Okay, ta ta for now.