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3 Ways to Make Your Homepage POP with Personality

Waaay back when I first started on this entrepreneurial journey, I sat down at my computer so enthusiastically, finally ready to bust out my website copy and scale the business of my dreams…

Only problem?

***Instantaneous Analysis Paralysis***

That’s right — I had no idea where to even begin, and all the words I wrote sucked. It felt paralyzing and defeating, to say the least.

Because someone who claimed to be an aspiring copywriter should always have the right words to write, right?

I already felt like a failure, and worse yet, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to make my dream life a reality.

But see, you — like me — won’t let a little setback like this stop you from achieving your goals.

No. No.

You and I — like most nurses — are the picture-perfect representation of resilience, and we’ll learn along the way like we always have.

So I asked Dr. Google…

“How do you write website copy?”

And I gave it my best shot. I painstakingly wrote all the copy for my website, or at least a very rudimentary version of what I thought was website copy.

And I’ll be the first to admit that my website copy’s first version was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I deleted it. 

I deleted the entire thing.

Seriously.

I crumpled that virtual document and tossed it over my shoulder, where it swiftly landed at the bottom of a well-placed trash bin.

So, not only did I have to figure out how to write better copy, but I also had to figure out how to write copy that actively attracted my ideal client while not sounding like it had been fabricated by machines for machines.

And I bet you’re equally as lost, frustrated, and tired of having dry and uninspiring words on your website — words that don’t sound like you and don’t properly represent you, your brand, or your mission.

So, are you ready to say goodbye to dull, generic, and uninspired website copy?

Let’s talk about it and put you on the fast track to having a homepage that POPS with personality!

How to write homepage copy for your website that POPS with personality

You might be wondering, “Who cares if my website copy is boring as long as it gets the message across to the reader?”

Sure, it’s true — boring, but clear messaging is 1000% better than wild and confusing messaging.

You have to find the balance of accurately portraying your brand voice, so you sound like an actual human and still come across with a clear, concise, and connection-worthy message.

Your brand voice encompasses the tone, language, and messaging you use to convey your brand’s personality and values and also plays a key role in shaping how your audience perceives your brand and engages with it.

A well-defined brand voice also helps you maintain a consistent brand identity across all touchpoints, whether it’s your website, social media, email, or advertising campaigns. This can be particularly important for larger organizations with multiple departments or teams, as it ensures that everyone speaks in a unified voice and consistently represents the brand.

So, by creating a clear and compelling brand voice, you strengthen your brand’s reputation and increase the likelihood of building long-term, meaningful relationships with your customers.

Now, let’s answer how to implement your brand voice in the homepage copy of your website so that it POPS with personality and your readers connect with your mission, convert into loyal customers, and even tell all their friends about you.

I’m happy to show you SDN examples of homepage magic I’ve crafted on my own site (and I will). But it’s not all about me, so I’ve searched & searched, and luckily, I’ve found a couple of nurses in business with bombdotcom websites (which also happens to include me because DUH).

First up, Nurse Farah, whose brand voice is the kick in the booty you need to embrace the courage to craft the career of your dreams.

Next up, Self-Care Catalyst, whose brand voice makes you feel heard and gives you the confidence to finally advocate for yourself.

Then, there’s me, hi — just a regular ole nurse turned copywriter — here to prove that you can have website copy that actually represents you while still speaking to and connecting with your ideal client.

1 | CRAFTING HOT HEADLINES

Headlines must be HOT to persuade the reader to keep reading or take your desired action.

(I first learned about hot headlines from Alex Cattoni, creator of the Copy Posse. Watch this YouTube video or this one to learn directly from the source.)

Some things to keep in mind when crafting your hottest headlines yet:

Make your headlines clear, concise, and scannable.

We all know by now that most readers have short attention spans, so they might get to a site, quickly scroll to scan the headlines, and then decide if they will stay or X out. Causing confusion, not being clear, and not making your text scannable won’t keep your readers around long enough to persuade them to make a purchase.

So be extra cautious when writing your headlines because these are likely the largest font size on your website and, therefore, the most scannable.

Use visual hierarchy like H1 and H2 font sizes or bold and italics to make your words stand out.

The key here is to use visual hierarchy sparingly and purposefully. You definitely don’t want all of your text to be H1 font size, and you also don’t want to bold or italicize every other word either. So use visual hierarchy, but be intentional about which words you’ll use them on.

When writing headlines, remember to answer who you serve (your ideal client) and how you help them.

The whole point of having a website is to attract clients and persuade them to buy into your offers, but readers are inherently selfish, and they want to know what’s in it for them. So, when crafting your headlines, write them in a way that makes sense to the reader.

Consider how aware and knowledgeable your audience is about your product or offering. The more aware they are, the easier it will be to sell to them, but the less aware they are, the more educating you’ll have to do to convince them they really do need you.

Now, let’s get into our headline examples from our fabulous nurses in business. I’ll focus on the headline in the hero section for each example.

(The terms” hero headline,” “hero image,” or “hero text” refer to the very first images, headlines, and texts above the fold on your website, where the reader isn’t required to do any scrolling to find.)

First up, Nurse Farah — she’s coming at her readers with a big, bold, and easy-to-read one-liner: “Wanna be a badass nurse? You need a badass coach!”

It’s everything you want in a headline because she answers

→ who she serves: “badass nurses”

→ how she serves them by offering to be their: “badass coach”

→ and then follows this with what they will receive if they decide to work with her: “transform your life and career now!”

It’s so simple, clear, concise, and powerful and still showcases Farah’s personality while speaking directly to the heart of her ideal client. To improve this hero headline, I’d add a call to action to either her services or contact page so her reader knows exactly how they can receive her “badass” coaching.

Self-Care Catalyst has a bit of a longer headline in regards to word count compared to Nurse Farah, but it’s still very clear and answers who she serves and how she serves them.

The headline states

→ who she serve: “nurses and nurse practitioners”

→ the benefits her clients will receive: “transform their lives from burned out to thriving”

→ how those clients will receive it: “through education, empowerment, connection, and community”

→ and lastly, followed by the first call to action, “Let’s become besties.”

I like the little bit of personality in the call to action, but if I were writing this headline, I’d want to spice it up with more descriptive language. I’d also split it into a headline with a sub-headline below it or a headline with an eyebrow header above it, which would split up the text visually and make it a little easier to read.

My homepage headlines (yes, plural) are different because I chose a visual hierarchy to highlight my hero headline and the sub-headline below it. I made this decision after I received my brand photos, and my brand’s visual identity all came together in my mind.

I imagined having this HUGE hero image that took up the entire screen with text overlayed on the image. I wanted my audience to read this first text and say, “Yes, that’s me…now how do I actually go from sleep-deprived nurse to thriving entrepreneur.”

This decision was a conscious choice on my part because it forces the reader to keep scrolling IF they’re intrigued enough to find out how to go from a sleep-deprived nurse to a thriving entrepreneur. It is not a headline optimized for search engines by any means — and I don’t care.

The text below the hero image (just below the fold) is my subheading and condensed version of my offer and mission. This subheading tells the reader what I’m offering to help them go from a sleep-deprived nurse to a thriving entrepreneur.

I’m telling the reader

→ what I do: ”Website copywriting”

→ who I serve: ”nurses daring enough to reinvent what it means to be a nurse.”

→ followed by my first call to action: “Let’s work together”

I didn’t really follow the typical H1 hero headline you’d expect, especially if you were focused on using your keywords for search engine optimization, but I could easily combine the two and say something like, “Website copywriting for nurses daring enough to reinvent what it means to be a nurse and journey from sleep-deprived nurse to thriving entrepreneur.”

However, that sentence felt like too much to me.

It’s clunky and not very clear or concise, so I decided to split them up and have a hero headline that’s reader-focused with a subheading (which is actually tagged as my H1 heading) just below the fold that’s more SEO-focused.

Like I said, it forces the reader to scroll, but hopefully, they’ll be intrigued enough to want to know how to go from sleep-deprived to thriving. I’m intentionally breaking that “rule” and taking a bet that they will be — and that’s okay with me.

And you don’t have to follow all the “rules” either as long as your website copy is straightforward and doesn’t confuse your reader. There are plenty of opportunities to make your website copy POP with personality and stay memorable, which is what Nurse FarahSelf-Care Catalyst, and SDN have all done.

2 | BEING UNAPOLOGETICALLY YOU

By having a clear and consistent brand voice, you can better connect with your audience and build brand recognition and loyalty. Brand voice involves defining the personality and tone of your brand while considering what kind of voice will resonate with your target audience.

Defining your brand voice will help you build guidelines for the language you use and how you use it in all types of communication, education, and marketing.

But my biggest tip: Be unapologetically you and write how you actually talk.

I guarantee you, whatever it is you do, it has been done before, and many other competitors are currently offering it.

But no one is you. No one has your voice.

No one has your perspective or lived experiences that make your offer uniquely yours.

Your secret sauce is YOU. Your perspective gives you your unique mission and vision for your business and brand.

So lean into that because, in the words of Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

I love Farah’s proclamation in her mini-about section. She says, “Watch me, lady!” after an encounter with a past clinical instructor. She describes an experience that taught her a valuable lesson, convinced her to try that much harder, and connects with her audience with a story that may be similar to what they’ve experienced during their time in nursing school—and I can personally say clinical instructors going rogue isn’t uncommon at all.

Diana writes about her story on Self-Care Catalyst and highlights text with a bolded font to make it more scannable, as I discussed earlier.

And I love her headline with her first sentence, “I didn’t leave. I decided instead to step into my power and not let fear take over.”

I don’t know Diana, but I can hear her saying this out loud like she’s talking to a friend, and me being her “friend” knows precisely what she means because I’ve been there too and hearing that she made it out and that she’s living her best life means so can I.

And now, my homepage

I wanted my readers to know my name, connect with my story, and understand who I work with and how I can help them.

Not only that, I also wanted them to know that I’m a “sucker for a good ass story” because I AM.

I wanted to spice up my copy with something that I truly love and something I’d actually say out loud — well, maybe that wouldn’t be the first thing I tell people, but you get it, right?

I just love stories — I love reading stories, I love connecting with stories, and more importantly in this context, I love writing stories, meaning I will do my best to write the best, most iconic story I can for my clients so they can get back to doing what they love and changing the freaking the world.

3 | STORYTELLING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

Speaking of stories…

Using storytelling in your website copy can be incredibly effective in engaging your audience and creating an emotional connection with them — it’s why I say all over my website that I specialize in writing “connection-worthy copy” and why I believe conversion copywriting outperforms SEO.

By telling a story, you can communicate your brand’s message in a relatable and memorable way, making it more likely that your audience will remember your brand and return to your website in the future.

Also, storytelling will help to differentiate your brand from competitors and establish a unique brand identity that stands out in the minds of consumers. Incorporating storytelling into your website copy can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness, increasing engagement, and driving conversions.

Farah’s storytelling really shines in her about page, but I still love this section of her homepage because it has the potential to be a great story using a technique called “Pain, Agitate, and Solution.”

Farah uses a list format rather than a full-blown story to describe each pain point and solution. However, I still believe she’s developing a story here for her readers, and I love that she also injects her personality into each point. This list showcases her unique selling proposition while connecting with her audience and clearly listing all the benefits they’ll receive from working with her.

Farah determined that a list format would be more powerful for her audience, and that was a decision I’m sure she made intentionally to make her message clear and understandable to her audience.

Diana uses her personal story to connect with her audience and takes them on a hero’s journey by highlighting their current status and what it’s like to be them now: “tired, anxious, burned out, exploited, exhausted, lost” then she introduces the catalyst: “I almost left nursing all together” and follows how she overcame pain and resolve the problem: “mentorship, self-discovery, and taking a pause,” which is everything you’ll receive by joining her community.

I love the headlines in this section: “You are not alone” and “I see you,” which highlight Diana’s unique connection to her audience. By incorporating her story with her audience’s pain points, she’s very effectively engaging them to read more and persuading them that they deserve better and that they can be a nurse and be happy and healthy at the same time.

I decided to use future pacing in my story and wanted to take the reader on a journey of imagining what it’s really like to have it all, so they’re more likely to take the steps necessary to make it their reality. A little further down on my homepage, after my mini-about section, I continue the story with my audience’s pain points and my offerings’ benefits.

I split my story up in the middle by my mini-about to highlight my connection with my audience. I wanted them to see that I am a nurse just like them and that my story isn’t so different than theirs.

Then I continue the story and answer the question they’re probably wondering, “How exactly can you help me if you’re just like me?!” And my story concludes with this sentiment: “Look no further because I’m the copywriter you need for your business so you can have the life and career you’ve always dreamt of.”

Putting it altogether for homepage copy your audience can’t resist

So, if you’re struggling to make your website’s homepage copy more engaging, remember these 3 effective strategies to convert your audience into loyal customers:

First, always craft hot headlines that grab your audience’s attention, entice them to keep reading, and even persuade them to come back for more.

Secondly, make your copy stand out by being unapologetically you. Don’t try to conform to anyone else’s expectations or standards, but instead, embrace your unique voice and personality because that’s what people will remember.

And finally, use storytelling techniques to convey your message and create a more emotional connection with your readers.

It’s important to remember to tailor your website copy to your specific audience and brand. Generic or cookie-cutter copy won’t cut it, as it won’t reflect you, your values, or your brand.

So take the time to understand your target audience and what they’re looking for, and then write copy that speaks directly to them. When you get it right, you’ll be amazed at how much your website’s homepage copy can impact your overall success. Try these strategies and see how they can transform your website’s online presence!

And if you’re too overwhelmed to try to do ev.er.y.thing. on your own, then hire me, and I’ll write it all for you. 🥳


Ready to redefine what it means to be a nurse and scale the business of your dreams with connection-worthy copy?


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