Let’s start with the news: WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE! And, yes, we’re shouting about it. Thank you to our partners at WebEnertia for the beautiful design work, wise counsel, and for guiding (okay, dragging) us through this process. Now that it’s live, and we’re catching our breath, we can’t help but think, “That wasn’t so bad.” And that’s clearly a lie. This was no small feat on many levels.
The cobbler’s children
It’s always easy to use our clients as an excuse for why we haven’t made progress on our own marketing. In truth, we have been busy. We’re lucky to be able to help our clients tell compelling stories, create marketing-moving brands, find the perfect name. And during the pandemic, we’ve been grateful to have been able to keep everyone employed. So, while we watched many clients launch fresh, new sites over the past year, ours was shamefully dated. Almost as dated as our jeans, apparently. It was a constant to-do that rolled over week by week, and despite our most adamant wishes, no site magically launched itself (where are the elves when you need them?!?!).
Perfectionism drives procrastination
So, the official storyline is “We were soooooo busy.” And the flip side of that excuse is a bit more personal. When you write for a living, it’s really hard to write about yourselves. That’s why our clients hire us. It’s challenging to tell your own story. There’s too much to say. The navel-gazing can get deep. And did we mention the jargon? Ok, that wasn’t really our problem here.
The real truth is that when you write for a living, you have a deep-seated fear that what you write for your own site won’t be good enough. Sometimes when we’re working on projects, we send off drafts not knowing how the client will receive them. It’s a bit nerve wracking, but it’s not personal. It’s a collaborative process and we always know that we can take the feedback and make it better. When you’re the writer and the client, it’s so much harder. And the deeper fear is that the people that visit your site will judge what you’ve written and then reject you. Maybe. But is that likely? Probably not. (Not that we’re desperate for your approval or anything. But we’ll take it, if you’re offering.) Although, all of those thoughts swimming around provide plenty of reasons not to move things forward. And the months rolled on.
Commitment is hard
This is another big creative road block. When you take as long as we have to revamp your website, there is definitely a feeling that it needs to be something you can feel good about for a decent amount of time. And that makes committing to what you want to showcase, and how you want to say it, and what you want it to look like, all feel like huge decisions. That’s where smart partners come in handy. Thank goodness for content management technology that lets you update these things easier now (yes, we’re that old that we remember when it wasn’t). And there’s nothing like deadlines and accountability to make sure you get your S#!@ done.
Putting it out there with pride
And so, we did it. We carved out the time. We looked those scary blank pages right in their beady blank eyes. We gave direction. We picked imagery. We wrote the damn copy. Getting it launched was a relief and a moment of victory. We did it! And we’re proud of it.
Welcome to the new WriteBrand.com
