Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

Freelance Consulting: Striking Wording

Posted by Anonymous on 7/24/2012 at 2:47 PM ET 150 Points
Hi there,

I am busy setting up my Freelance Consulting website, but I want "what I can provide" to be clear and striking in a limited amount of words. Here is what I have thus far:

"I totally love helping people out...I have worked in the IT industry since 2004 and during this time I have connected with industry leaders (in various fields) from around the world. And today, I am offering my experience and connections to you.
I WILL find and deliver absolutely ANYTHING you need done..."

I basically can provide various services, ranging from graphics, programming, audio, video etc. I know leaders in these fields who will provide these services for my clients at a fraction of the normal costs.

Thanks for the help :-)
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/24/2012 at 5:40 PM Accepted
    Dear Kevin,

    Your text above talks about you three times as often
    as it talks about your potential client: that's not good.

    The fact is that really, no one cares about you: you are irrelevant. You've connected with industry leaders?

    Good for you. Sadly, no one cares.

    You totally love helping people? Bully for you ... but to me, as a potential client, you tell me nothing about what's in this arrangement for me. Which is a mistake.

    You see, when it comes to my bottom line, I care about me, not about you. So talk to me—your potential client—about how brilliantly awesome you will make ME look.

    Deliver this kind of value and you'll have my rapt attention. But warble on about you, you, you and you'll bore my socks off.

    You want to be clear and striking in a few words?

    Tell people what you'll do for them.

    Tell people you'll increase their sales by X percent in X number of months.

    Or that you'll help them engage X number of new customers.

    Or something like this, but whatever you say, don't say it about yourself.

    And with all those services? You run the risk of offering too much. If you can deliver on EVERYTHING ... go ahead, knock yourself out ... but if you have a few areas in which you're stronger, it might be wiser to focus on those areas.

    And the bit about supplying services at a fraction of the normal cost? The flight to cheap is not always the best way. Just saying. I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted on 7/24/2012 at 5:45 PM Moderator
    The problem is two-fold:

    First, you're trying to be all things for all people. That's generally a losing strategy. Be very specific about who is in your target audience and promise the benefit that's most important and meaningful to them.

    Second, a section called "what I can provide" is really inward focused. Your prospective customers don't care what you can provide. What they care about is whether or not you can provide what they need. Example: If you speak Spanish, but they don't need a multilingual consultant, then "what you provide" is just extraneous information that gets in the way. The same applies to any long list of "what I can provide."

    So here's the way out of your bind: Be really specific about your target audience and the important and unique benefit you provide for them. And then forget about telling folks what YOU do. Tell them instead what important problem of THEIRS you can solve.
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