Elevator Pitch
If you are serious about marketing whatever you do, you need to have an Elevator Pitch at the ready. In more formal settings it’s also called a Personal Statement. If you chose to present your business – it would be a Mission Statement.
What is an Elevator Pitch, and why it needs to be written?
Imagine that by a lucky chance, you’d find yourself in an elevator with your potential best boss or a perfect customer. The elevator starts, there are a few floors to go, and the hoped-for prospect of yours suddenly asks:
So, what is it that you do?
Could you promote yourself for the next 60 seconds? Or your mind would go blank and the whole encounter would not be so lucky after all?
For moments like this, you need an Elevator Pitch. A statement that highlights your best qualities, visions, and goals, has a memorable introduction that smoothly transitions into skills and experience, and ends with a clear indication of what kind of business interaction you are open to.
What does it have to do with Brand Strategy?
A lot. The elevator incident is a story from the past. Today, as more people work from home, that promotional pitch needs to move where people interact. And that is often online.
As a professional, you need to have a LinkedIn profile, exist on a couple of social media platforms, and often maintain a website portfolio. They all include the “about” or “bio” section, and this is where your statement should go. So, it needs to be sweet, short, and in writing.
Writing objectively and accurately about yourself is not easy. People often shy from it. Working on websites I was hired a few times to do it as a part of my design. First, this is not part of the creative aesthetics I promise to deliver, it is copywriting. But most important: your story needs to come from you.
Personal Statement Writing Steps
- Introduce yourself and name what you do.
- How passionate are you about it? People need to know that you care before they care what you know.
- List all that qualifies you: education, skills, talents, and experience. Do you have special traits that make you stand out?
- What is your goal? Be specific.
- Finish by clearly stating the service you can provide.
I know it is not that easy.
Let me confess. Although I had written my statement many times, as of this writing, it needs revision. The reasons? With time my skills change, my focus change, my goals change too. I think that is a natural process. Nevertheless – although perfection can kill the progress, revisions are often needed.
Revisions
Make sure everything is clear to a reader who has never met you. You may have forgotten to mention some key details that are obvious to your family and friends, but a stranger wouldn’t know. Test your story on a stranger.
Check the length of your pitch. You are not timed by the elevator speed anymore, but as a web designer who occasionally checks sites’ analytics, I can tell that people who scroll through them are very “clicker happy”. Unless you deliver something special – they will click away from your story in a second. Or less.
Besides, although your website page can be in theory indefinitely long, to be reused on other platforms your statement must stay within the character limits required by them. LinkedIn is generous and allows you … up to 2,000 characters. With other social media, you may expect less.
Writing content for the web has additional rules:
- Avoid too wordy sentences. Run-on sentences are often confusing, and English will not always be the first language of your reader.
- Stay consistent with your “tone of voice”. It can be friendly or informative, casual, or formal, and so on. If you are serious about marketing, it should be a part of your strategic branding.
- Use keywords and phrases that help improve your SEO (search engine optimization). When it comes to your site visibility: the keyword is king.
A simple explanation of a “keyword”: is a word or a phrase that your potential customer would type in the search field to find you. It is not always the name of your profession. For example, someone looking for a plumber may be typing “leaking faucet” instead.
If you’d like to learn more about writing for the web, let me recommend a book “Don’t Make Me Think“ by Steve Krug, pictured here and linked to the Amazon Store below. Since its first edition in 2000, this book has been my “go-to” source and helpful guide.
DISCLAIMER: The links to the Amazon Store, are my affiliate links. This means that at no cost to you, I may be earning a little commission if you use them to place an order. NOTE: I never recommend what don’t use myself.Thanks for reading!
If you had the patience to read this whole article, it may be something that interests you. As long as the “reply” option below is open, please comment to let me know.