As a good food brand, you need to emphasize the good in your brand. And when we say good, we don’t just mean the delicious, healthy, sustainable products you create. We also mean the good story behind your pursuit of success in the good food economy. It’s not enough for your story to travel word-of-mouth in your community. It’s essential to build your brand around your philosophy, and the best way for your mission to guide your brand is to put that story into writing.
This is where Anna Bradshaw’s job as a conversion copywriter comes in. Anna believes in the power of your story—the power your brand mission holds. All she needs is the right angle to frame a fitting choice of words and the online space to do so. Her job as a conversion copywriter helps brands like yours tell your story so you can make more sales online.
In this conversation, Anna shares the significance of copywriting for setting up our businesses for success.
Virginia Foodie Essentials:
Key Points From This Episode:
Follow The Virginia Foodie here:
As a good food brand, you need to emphasize the good in your brand. And when we say good, we don’t just mean the delicious, healthy, sustainable products you create. We also mean the good story behind your pursuit of success in the good food economy. It’s not enough for your story to travel word-of-mouth in your community. It’s essential to build your brand around your philosophy, and the best way for your mission to guide your brand is to put that story into writing.
This is where Anna Bradshaw’s job as a conversion copywriter comes in. Anna believes in the power of your story—the power your brand mission holds. All she needs is the right angle to frame a fitting choice of words and the online space to do so. Her job as a conversion copywriter helps brands like yours tell your story so you can make more sales online.
In this conversation, Anna shares the significance of copywriting for setting up our businesses for success.
Virginia Foodie Essentials:
Key Points From This Episode:
Follow The Virginia Foodie here:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
[00:00:00] Anna Bradshaw: As a craft brand, you're gonna have an amazing story. Even if you don't think that you do, you do. So people wanna hear your story. They wanna hear the story behind your products, what makes them special. Don't be afraid to have a great about page and really optimize it.
[00:00:18] Georgiana Dearing: Welcome to the Virginia Foodie Podcast where we lift a lid on the craft food industry and tell the stories behind the good food, good people, and good brands that you know and love.
[00:00:30] Georgiana Dearing: If you've ever come across a yummy food brand and wondered how did they do that? How did they turn that recipe into a successful business? Then we've got some stories for you.
[00:00:43] Georgiana Dearing: Hello and welcome to the Virginia Foodie Podcast. I'm George Steering, founder of VA Foodie, and I provide marketing strategy and coaching for craft food brands. In my coaching practice, I talk about the big buckets of content that food brands always have on hand, their mission and values, their product and ingredients application, or their products in use and community.
[00:01:08] Georgiana Dearing: And today we're gonna touch a little bit on your product line. Now I listened to podcasts as well as record one. And early this summer I was driving around town knocking some errands off of my personal to-do list, and at one point I literally yelled yes at the radio and raised my fist in agreement with the speaker and I thought, I need to get her on my podcast too.
[00:01:32] Georgiana Dearing: Now, you may be surprised at my big reaction in the car when you hear her. Charming and approachable and a little unassuming. Anna Bradshaw gently drops some hard truths about copywriting, product descriptions, and the purpose behind your web copy that its sole purpose is to help you make more money.
[00:01:53] Georgiana Dearing: Often new brands feel squeamish about asking for sale, but that's precisely what you need to do in order to survive and thrive in business. And in her copywriting practice. Anna's become an expert at helping small brands make more money. She says it right in her bio. I help brands tell their story so they can make more.
[00:02:16] Georgiana Dearing: So listen Annie, and hear what she has to say because she gives some great advice today. And if you like listening to Anna and her advice, please like this episode, leave a review and hit that subscribe button.
[00:02:34] Georgiana Dearing: Boy Anna, I am so glad that you could join me today. Thank you for coming onto the podcast and I. Put my guest on the spot and say, could you introduce yourself to the listeners?
[00:02:46] Anna Bradshaw: Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm Anna Bradshaw, and I help food businesses make more money online through clear messaging.
[00:02:56] Anna Bradshaw: So I'm a conversion copywriter and I write primarily websites and emails.
[00:03:02] Georgiana Dearing: I love your description. It is so focused. I know exactly what you do. , . That was great. So a conversion copywriter, that means you convert visitors into sales, right?
[00:03:16] Anna Bradshaw: Exactly. Yeah. So conversion copywriting puts the emphasis on getting people to take action, and usually that action is purchasing.
[00:03:23] Anna Bradshaw: Occasionally it'll be something else like signing up for an email list or following on social media or sharing with a friend. But it's always really action. You're
[00:03:33] Georgiana Dearing: a solopreneur. Can you talk more about this distinction that you have? What makes you different from other resources?
[00:03:40] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah, I take an approach that really blends that conversion optimization side where we're looking at best practices, we're looking at persuasion tactics, and we're just using a lot of data to inform what I do.
[00:03:54] Anna Bradshaw: So I'm always trying to follow the best practice to get my client more sales, but at the same time, I'm also really cognizant that they have a larger brand vision and we want to keep all the copy there right in alignment with that vision. So we don't wanna take any shortcuts that would distract or counteract the work that they're doing to build a brand.
[00:04:14] Anna Bradshaw: So we're writing in their brand voice. Some clients have a really fun, cheerful brand voice. Others, they're a better for you brand with a real focus on nature and natural ingredients. And so we bring that wholesome tone and feel into the copy. And it's balancing the two of those, which is unique cuz you can definitely get creative copywriters and then you can get those.
[00:04:35] Anna Bradshaw: Be super salesy, but I like to blend the best practices for sales with the brand personality together.
[00:04:43] Georgiana Dearing: That's great. I love to hear that. I'm a marketer, so I love to hear that everything that you're doing is in coordination with all the other aspects of brand positioning. I first actually heard of you through another podcast that I was listening to, and I have to tell you, I literally was in the car going Yes, yes.
[00:05:02] Georgiana Dearing: Raising my fist and going, yes, I agree. . So I'm afraid we're gonna have a little bit mutual admiration here because I just wholeheartedly think that what you're doing is right on point. Now I work specifically with craft food brands, so could you speak a little bit about how your work might be helpful to the food?
[00:05:22] Anna Bradshaw: Yes. Well, for food brands who want to establish an online presence, maybe you've been selling at farmer's markets for years and now you wanna get into direct to consumer. Online copy plays such a big role in that because when you are sampling in person at a store, Customers can see your products, they can pick it up, feel the packaging, they can mm-hmm.
[00:05:45] Anna Bradshaw: enjoy the scent of your foods. And of course they can taste it. And that's like your biggest, easiest way to sell, right? Is if someone tastes how delicious your product is, then it's like a no-brainer to purchase. Oh yeah.
[00:05:56] Georgiana Dearing: Yeah. So how do you replicate that ?
[00:06:00] Anna Bradshaw: Well, you have to paint a really clear picture with words and kind of use the copy to reduce the perceived risk of buying something online.
[00:06:09] Anna Bradshaw: Even though we're all really used to shopping online now, it's still a bit of a risk to try a new brand, a smaller brand that maybe we haven't heard of before. And so we can use our copy to reduce that risk, to build trust right off the bat, and then we can also, mm-hmm. really let people know what their experience is gonna be so we can kind of prime them to experience, okay, this is a very zesty pesto sauce, or this is gonna be a very tart raspberry jam.
[00:06:39] Anna Bradshaw: And kind of give them those little cue. They're gonna help them be like, okay, I can tell that this is not gonna be the same as Smucks off the grocery shelf, or I know that I'm gonna like this because I love really tart flavors or whatever. So yeah, it's important for food brands to have that because otherwise you have flat or generic messaging.
[00:06:59] Anna Bradshaw: You're gonna miss those folks who might otherwise purchase, but they just don't have that idea of what your product's really gonna be like.
[00:07:06] Georgiana Dearing: Appetite appeal. That is the thing that is the driving factor in food sales, particularly online. Now, do you extend beyond writing in some of your advice for me, I know that photography is another big piece of digital food marketing, so do you contribute in other ways?
[00:07:26] Anna Bradshaw: I am not personally gifted with the, oh,
[00:07:29] Georgiana Dearing: I mean like recommendations. Yeah. Or things like that.
[00:07:32] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah. Well, I would definitely echo what you just said about photography. It's so important to have really high quality pictures. We eat with our eyes first, and a poorly lit photo is just gonna tank. Even the best copywriting words can't save you if you have unappetizing looking photos.
[00:07:50] Anna Bradshaw: And same goes for design, easy to navigate. Design is key. And so I do give recommendations on new things, like words are easier to read, blocks of text are easier to read if they're left aligned. Studies just show this over and over again than it's much easier for our English reading eyes to start when the text is left in line.
[00:08:12] Anna Bradshaw: Mm-hmm. . And it's really easy to wanna just center everything because centered headlines can look really. But when we get carried away with that centered text, it makes it harder to read the full page. So things like that are breaking up your text so that you don't have huge blocks of it, and using high contrast colors.
[00:08:29] Anna Bradshaw: Those all play into the messaging and make it so much easier for people to just take a look at your page, skim it, read it, and ultimately buy with your online.
[00:08:41] Georgiana Dearing: It's interesting that you said skim it because you're carefully crafting all of those words, but do you find that you have to write in a certain way?
[00:08:51] Georgiana Dearing: I always talk about like streakers strollers and studiers, ugh. Mm-hmm. . There's people who are gonna streak by and just read the headlines and the strollers are gonna go and spend a little more time. And then the studiers are the people like in the grocery store, they're gonna pull it off the shelf, they're gonna flip it.
[00:09:08] Georgiana Dearing: They're gonna read the ingredients , they're gonna get down into the fine print. Do you find yourself writing that way a bit for online copy.
[00:09:17] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah, I love that image and I'd love to hear kind of how you apply that and the content that you work with as well. But yes, I do find that, and some of it varies by client.
[00:09:28] Anna Bradshaw: So if you know that your target market is busy moms on the go all the time, then that might be a message that we craft to be more for skim. Then if you are writing for, let's say, an audience of people who has a lot of food allergies and they have to get in there with the labels and know the ingredients, then that's gonna be a different emphasis that we put on your messaging and format it a little bit differently.
[00:09:52] Anna Bradshaw: But in general, I think it's good to be aware of those. Streakers, as you said, who are gonna streak on by making sure that they can spot the most important messages right away, and then making it really fun to read for the strollers and making sure that we have all the details that those studiers are gonna want to see.
[00:10:13] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah,
[00:10:13] Georgiana Dearing: that's pretty much how we use it. I use it the same way, especially I use that framework when we're talking about package design and then also about anything in print to be really truthful. Even product brochures, we try to make sure that the headlines and subheads, whereas if you were just reading the top level of an outline that got you from beginning to end.
[00:10:33] Georgiana Dearing: Walk you through it in case you're not gonna take the time to read all of those carefully crafted words, but every word is important. . Absolutely
[00:10:42] Anna Bradshaw: Well, yeah, and it's interesting because when you write it that way so that you can just get the main message from looking at the crossheads and the headlines.
[00:10:51] Anna Bradshaw: You can craft them in such a way that they draw attention and might actually create interest in someone to go back and read the full text when otherwise they would've skipped it. Yeah. You can do them to one, satisfy the needs of those people who just like, just gimme the headlines, like, I don't care about details.
[00:11:08] Anna Bradshaw: and you can use it to make it more interesting so that more people see the details, which I think is so important for craft food brands when the quality of your product and what makes your food so much better is in those smaller details.
[00:11:21] Georgiana Dearing: Mm-hmm. ? Yes. Mm-hmm. , you don't work just with food brands. So I wanna ask, what types of brands do you work with?
[00:11:29] Georgiana Dearing: And then I'm gonna flip back to some other questions that would apply to food. But who do you work with beyond the food? Yeah,
[00:11:36] Anna Bradshaw: so I mainly focus on consumer packaged goods, so food, beverages. Also, I had a coffee substitute client recently, which has a really fun beverage brand as well as skincare and beauty.
[00:11:50] Anna Bradshaw: So I've written for like a grass fed, tall based skincare brand. So I love that. That's sort of my sweet. We've also written for other product brands like apparel, jewelry, and events in b2b, which is an interesting challenge cause it's a whole different business model and type of animal. But in the end it's the same thing.
[00:12:10] Anna Bradshaw: It's writing a message that someone's gonna wanna read and gonna take action based, based on that message. Okay,
[00:12:16] Georgiana Dearing: good, because I was trying to figure out the whole experience. I've worked with other industries, but I bring sort of nuggets of what I know from the way people interact, with content. Now that I'm really focused on craft food brands, I just try and bring all that other experience together and I was curious of what yours was beyond this.
[00:12:36] Georgiana Dearing: And I ask because my next question is about landing page. We've talked about product descriptions, but do you write landing pages and can you talk about their role in product sales?
[00:12:48] Anna Bradshaw: Yes. So landing pages are super important. It's kind of a broad term that could apply to any page on your website that someone is landing on.
[00:12:58] Anna Bradshaw: If that's the first page they're landing on, then that's their landing page. But it also refers to specific pages that people. To go with certain campaigns. So if you're running a certain ad campaign, then you're gonna create a landing page that those ads direct people to. So someone sees an ad, they click a button, they end up on the landing page, and that's sort of the gateway to your brand in general.
[00:13:22] Anna Bradshaw: There are some principles to guide landing pages. You want them to be super crystal. And you want them to align as closely as possible with the message that brought someone to that page. So it's called message matching. If we have an ad that says, best apple pie filling ever , then we want the landing page to say, best apple pie filling ever.
[00:13:48] Anna Bradshaw: Because if it doesn't say that someone's gonna land on that page expecting it, and then they're gonna see cherry pie filling or applesauce and be like, oh, that's a disappointment to me. I'm gonna bounce away. And not only do you lose that person, but affects your metrics. And so it can affect performance of the next time someone sees that ad or the next time someone learns on that page, so, oh, okay.
[00:14:10] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah. So whenever you can create like a really cohesive messaging experience, that's the best. You want each landing page as much as possible to have one key message. So like I said, in the apple pie filling, that's what you're gonna focus on on that page. You're not gonna use all the flavors all at once or all the Apple products all at once.
[00:14:32] Anna Bradshaw: And then you want them to have one thing to do. So you want them to buy a sample pack or purchase a case or sign up for your emails, maybe. The one thing you want them to do on that page, but one really clear thing to do now, I think people get overwhelmed. Do I need to create 30 landing pages right now?
[00:14:52] Anna Bradshaw: One for every SKU that I sell, and I would say no. Because remember, every time you create a page, I wanna hear your take on this too. Cause it might be a little bit different. But every page that you create is now live on your site and you have to remember to update. You have to re remember who's being driven there.
[00:15:10] Anna Bradshaw: Is anyone seeing this? If not, do you need to sort of put it to sleep? But remember, you don't wanna just delete pages cause that creates an error. So you never want someone to run into that error that we all see. That 4 0 4 yes page is missing error. So you have to take, you know, you have to redirect those.
[00:15:29] Anna Bradshaw: It just creates more work for you if you have a whole bunch of landing page. So generally I work with clients on optimizing their existing pages, so their homepage, their category pages, those collections, and then product pages. And if we can make those into good landing pages, then. I think that's a more approachable strategy, but I wanna hear what your take is
too.
[00:15:53] Georgiana Dearing: Well, I would say making a landing page needs to be very specific to the strategy and the campaign that you're running. Mm-hmm. , because if you're making a landing page for that best apple pie filling ever. You still have one more click before they can buy it, , right? And so you want to be very purposeful about what you're doing.
[00:16:15] Georgiana Dearing: And so I like that you mentioned that it's really category pages or collection pages that's sort of the entree into the product line. And unless of course you're doing something very, very specific that you want to be selling something that you can put on sort of drip forever. In my mind, I'm thinking of the very craft brands who might be selling an experience or a lesson or a tutorial or something like that.
[00:16:42] Georgiana Dearing: That's like an entree into the whole brand experience. If it's a high touch sort of product sale, then you wanna kind of get people hooked in and connected into your content really quickly and easily. Yeah, that's a
[00:16:55] Anna Bradshaw: great point. That's a good example. And like you said, it has to be driven by the big picture strategy.
[00:17:01] Anna Bradshaw: I love that that's what you help brands with, is figuring out that strategy and then what pieces they need to fit into that.
[00:17:08] Georgiana Dearing: So you mentioned other parts of the brand's website that are important that you wanna optimize. So can you just give some examples of like what you would be doing to optimize maybe a homepage or an about page?
[00:17:20] Georgiana Dearing: Yeah,
[00:17:20] Anna Bradshaw: so there are a few elements that I see so many brands miss, unfortunately. So on the homepage, one thing, I think home beaches can be tricky because we don't know exactly what they're supposed to do. , they sit there, every website has one, but what do they do for. And so really what I wanna turn it into is a great landing page for your brand.
[00:17:42] Anna Bradshaw: Yes. So when in doubt, you can just give people that main address or they'll Google it and find that main address. And then really tell them right off the bat what you're selling. When we get into craft brands, it's easy to have and it's really wonderful to have like a vision of maybe a lifestyle that you fit into or your core values that you put into making your product.
[00:18:06] Anna Bradshaw: And sort of share those instead of telling people upfront what you're selling. Or on the other hand, you sort of skip the message altogether and just put pictures of what you're selling and that creates issues. You know, if someone's browser doesn't load or if they have site impairment, they might be missing those photos.
[00:18:25] Anna Bradshaw: And if you just talk about your own values or your lifestyle, but you're not saying what you're selling, then people are gonna be like, what am I supposed to do with this? ? Exactly. So you really wanna just lead off the bat with what are you selling? Let people know what they can buy from you, and then make it easy for them to do that.
[00:18:45] Anna Bradshaw: And along the. Something that's really helpful in encouraging sales is having social proof, which basically, yay.
[00:18:53] Georgiana Dearing: Yeah. I wanna , I was waiting for you to talk about that, so Go ahead. Social proof .
[00:18:58] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah. So I'm gonna be more likely to buy that kind of apple pie filling if I know that you've already purchased it and loved it.
[00:19:05] Anna Bradshaw: Yes. Right. So reviews, just customer reviews are a great form of social proof and most businesses set up their product pages to show reviews and that's great. They're great on your product page, but not many brands put those reviews on their homepage and it's a great thing to put on your homepage to show, hey, we're popular.
[00:19:29] Anna Bradshaw: Not in like a popularity contest way, but in a, Hey, people are buying from us and they like our products. It encourages me then to try and, like I mentioned earlier, there's a little bit of a risky feeling to try and keep brand online. That helps reduce the risk as well when I see other people are trying 'em and liking 'em.
[00:19:48] Anna Bradshaw: Same thing goes if you get local press mentions or any press mentions, but if your local newspaper has done a review or a feature of any kind, put those quotes and even the logos by themselves. You can make them small. They don't have to be huge and take up all your. But those are forms of social proof that are really great to put on a homepage.
[00:20:09] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah,
[00:20:10] Georgiana Dearing: those are great. I was thinking of social proof back earlier when you were talking about the risk involved in purchasing, because when you're standing in the farmer's market, there's a little back and forth conversation happening there that your website has to kind of do for the brand in your absence.
[00:20:29] Georgiana Dearing: So having other people speak for you. Great. It's a great addition on that homepage. And I agree. I think the issue with homepages is even though we've been on computers in our phones forever and ever, it's still sort of an abstract experience as opposed to the 3D world when we pick up a brochure. Yes.
[00:20:48] Georgiana Dearing: And everybody thinks of that homepage as the cover. Which is like, oh, it's alluring flip, and you move over to the next page. People don't do that on the web. They don't go, oh, I'm so curious. Let me click more . They wanna know, why are we there? Like why am I here? Okay, I need to go on and watch this. TikTok instead
[00:21:09] Georgiana Dearing: Yeah,
[00:21:10] Anna Bradshaw: it's true. Every page needs to have value, especially one that people are likely landing on. I don't know what you've seen as the latest statistics, but I often cite is a Microsoft study done a few years back that showed you have eight seconds to capture someone's attention on your website. Oh, so you can't just create a cute design and then expect people to scroll, scroll, scroll, and click through a whole bunch of pages.
[00:21:34] Anna Bradshaw: You really have to get them right away and just let them know what value you're offering.
[00:21:39] Georgiana Dearing: Oh, I feel that number's gonna get even shorter. If you watch anything on YouTube, it'll say, get rid of this ad in four seconds. And I don't know how many ads I have seen. I thought you are wasting these four seconds
[00:21:53] Georgiana Dearing: I'm just waiting to click .
[00:21:55] Anna Bradshaw: Yes, yes. They really need to make the ad just be seconds long to Yeah. get my attention and sell me in that time before I'm gonna click out.
[00:22:04] Georgiana Dearing: Yeah. Yeah. It's just so easy. It's so easy to move. Goodness. Well, is there any other advice that you can think of for copy on a shopping website for food?
[00:22:15] Georgiana Dearing: Well, one
[00:22:16] Anna Bradshaw: other thing I would say is that you're about page is important too, especially as a craft brand. Yeah. So as a craft brand, you're gonna have an amazing story. Even if you don't think that you do, you do. So people wanna hear your story. They wanna hear the story behind your products, how you make them, what makes them special.
[00:22:34] Anna Bradshaw: And so don't be afraid to have a great about page and really optimize it with the things I talked about where you're gonna break up those long chunks of text. Add great photos. If you're comfortable with it, people love seeing photos of the brand owners and founders and team members and like you had said, make those headlines bold.
[00:22:53] Anna Bradshaw: Those lines as you go down the page. Use bold text to help the skimmers along. And then this is the thing that I see so many food brands miss, is having a call to action on your about page. So every page on your website should be, you know, it's your store. It's all about purchasing your product and making it easy for people to buy.
[00:23:14] Anna Bradshaw: So make sure that you have at least one button on your about page so that people can go directly to a product page and purchase. And it might be tempting to just sort of let people browse your whole collection, but I'm interested if you have thoughts on this, but I think it's easier for you and your customers if you sort of pave a path and say, Hey, most of our first time customers like this.
[00:23:40] Anna Bradshaw: If you're selling different salsas with different flavors and degrees of heat, just direct people to the most popular one right off the bat, what's the one that you know is they're gonna like it, direct them there. Or since you probably have to ship these products, put together a bundle that's a higher price point to make it more cost effective for you and the customer.
[00:23:59] Anna Bradshaw: So just highlight those products and put buttons throughout your site, including on that about page to get people back to the point of
[00:24:06] Georgiana Dearing: sale. Oh, I love that advice. I don't think that I'd really thought about having a call to action on the about page. It always felt a little bit like study or copy, but that's great advice.
[00:24:17] Georgiana Dearing: I'm gonna do that. I have like three people. I'm gonna say, do this right now. .
[00:24:22] Anna Bradshaw: Well, otherwise it kind of can create a dead end. A little bit of like a hold a s sac that people go down. This about Paige love learning about your story. But as you just said, we're so distracted and so and hurry these days.
[00:24:34] Anna Bradshaw: It's really easy to just be. I'll come back to this brand later, but instead of giving them that out, put that button at the end of the page so they don't have to scroll back and find your product pages. Just make it easy for people to buy. So I
[00:24:48] Georgiana Dearing: got a question about product descriptions online. How long do you think they
[00:24:53] Anna Bradshaw: should be?
[00:24:54] Anna Bradshaw: If I could answer that question with one simple answer, , that would be easier. I think the key thing is making them easy to grasp and making it easy for people to buy, making sure that they have enough information to do that. So for some products, And it varies I think by the product type, the price point, and the brand.
[00:25:17] Anna Bradshaw: So if I'm familiar with a product, let's say it's a gourmet applesauce. I'm really stuck on this Apple idea right now. Sure, that's fine. It's fine. It's fall. Apple season . Mm-hmm. this. This is a gourmet apple sauce. I know what applesauce is, right? So I don't need a page to explain to me what applesauce is.
[00:25:36] Anna Bradshaw: But if yours is significantly more expensive than any other brand that I'd find at my local Harris Teeter, yes, I might need you to tell me that you slow roast your apples or that they're all organic apples. Or tell me about the sources you use for your spices, that kind of thing. That's information that's gonna help me.
[00:25:58] Anna Bradshaw: If you were selling a totally new kind of product or one that's really not familiar on the market, you may also need to explain what it is. If you are selling a product that is free from a lot of common allergens, you need to call those out really specifically on each and every product page. Even if you're like, well, we are not free across the board, you still need to make sure it's seen on every product page.
[00:26:22] Anna Bradshaw: Because people in a hurry were stricken by everything and then we come to a halt, right? Where we're like, oh wait, is this not free? I thought the other page said it was, I'm not sure. So just make sure that you include that info. And I think ingredient information is really important for craft food brands, like both.
[00:26:38] Anna Bradshaw: What's in it? What's not in it, and then what's special about what is in it. So if you're using local Virginia Apples , then make sure that you mention that in your product description. And the bigger budget you have, the more you can do with your product pages. But it's not just copy, it's designed because the longer the description become, The more you need design elements to break it up.
[00:27:04] Anna Bradshaw: And even Shopify, Shopify 2.0, their free templates are giving you more and more freedom to do this on your own. So it's getting easier and easier. But you wanna use bullet points. You want to use bolded text, and then if you bring in a custom designer, you can go even further. You can show a picture of the actual apples you use a picture of the spices you use.
[00:27:28] Anna Bradshaw: Make it more interesting that
[00:27:29] Georgiana Dearing: way. I have two things. Did you say folded texts? So you mean like you arrow down to get the rest of the story? Oh, I meant bolded, folded, bolded, sorry. Okay. Because I do have a question that one of the newer things is you can in Shopify that you can do these nested things like have tabs.
[00:27:46] Georgiana Dearing: Mm-hmm. within the product description. That
[00:27:48] Anna Bradshaw: is a great way to give shoppers more information without overwhelming. Mm-hmm. the people who don't need it. Okay. So I'm generally for it, but I will say I do see brands hide too much info, build your site and then watch people while they use it. Can it cheat your friend or your next door?
[00:28:10] Anna Bradshaw: Say, Hey, can I just watch you like shop my site? Yeah. Because you'll see a lot of people don't bother to open those tabs. They don't bother with the dropdown menu. And this is especially true of horizontal tabs. So there have been studies done. I sometimes you'll see like horizontal tabs on a product page and one might say shipping.
[00:28:34] Anna Bradshaw: And people literally stare at the page and say, I don't know. I don't know how long it'll take to get here. I can't find the shipping information
[00:28:41] Georgiana Dearing: anywhere. And you say horizontal when they're across the
[00:28:44] Anna Bradshaw: top? Yeah. When they're across the top or across. Right under that add to cart button. You'll see tabs going left to right across and people just go a little blind to them.
[00:28:55] Anna Bradshaw: It's really interesting, but that's
[00:28:58] Georgiana Dearing: funny. I mean, that's really interesting. Designing for the web is so different than print and also very, very different from packaging. Yes. Yeah. These are great insights. I've learned some things today or been reminded of a few things too. So you are a solopreneur. I wanna talk to you a little bit about your business and what it's like working with you.
[00:29:18] Georgiana Dearing: What's your best client relationship like?
[00:29:21] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah. Well, my best clients come to me knowing that they have wonderful products, loving their products, loving their customers, and. Knowing that they need to tell their story in a better way with really clear messaging. And I think the best business relationships are always built on trust.
[00:29:38] Anna Bradshaw: So it starts out with trust that, hey, we need a writer to do this for us. We're not gonna be DIYing this anymore. We just want you to take the reins and create this message. And then the first step kind of depends on how established the brand is. So if we're established and they have a customer base, I love to start with an email survey where we really get to ask some questions and get to know their customers a little bit better.
[00:30:04] Anna Bradshaw: And as a copywriter, I have specific questions that I ask, but I'm always looking for their wording, the way that customers word their answers to a couple open-ended question. Because I can then use those words in the copy to reflect back the customers what they're experiencing. So as business owners, we're so close to the product and we can say, oh, this is a super, you know, our cake mix is super sweet.
[00:30:30] Anna Bradshaw: And then customers are like, it's actually way less sweet than anything else in the market. And so it's just really helpful to get that fresh perspective of how our customers perceive us, right? Yes, . And then that's useful for marketing because we can make sure that we're telling the truth about our products and the truth as our customers will experience it.
[00:30:51] Anna Bradshaw: I love doing that for brands. If we're brand new, then there's other forms of research looking at what's out there in the market, the way customers have reviewed similar products from competitors or. But that message finding is sort of the first step. And from there I write the copy and the client gets to look it over.
[00:31:10] Anna Bradshaw: And I always offer custom clients the resource of having me look at it after it's in the design, because design and copy have to really support each other. So I'm always happy to say, okay, actually here's a couple things we can adjust to make sure that they're supporting
[00:31:25] Georgiana Dearing: each. Yes, you have to view it in context.
[00:31:29] Georgiana Dearing: It always something always you go, oh yeah, that's not what I intended. .
[00:31:33] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah, exactly. Yes. So I love having that extra follow up step, but I also offer v I P days, which is a way for clients to get copy done fast. And so that's great if you already know who your customers are and what your brand voice and tone.
[00:31:49] Anna Bradshaw: Because then I can just take that info you already have and run with it and, and give you website or email copy that I start using right away. A v
[00:31:57] Georgiana Dearing: i P day. What does
[00:31:58] Anna Bradshaw: that mean? Yeah, it's like the v i p experience for clients. They become the v I P for that day and I closed out my email. Don't do any other client work.
[00:32:08] Anna Bradshaw: It's just a day all about them. And of course there's a little prep work to make sure I'm ready to go and I follow up with them. They get a full video walkthrough at the end of the. You showing sort of the why and the how behind the copy, but it's really great if you're like, I really wanna launch this new site by the end of this month, or I'm doing this holiday campaign.
[00:32:28] Anna Bradshaw: I need some email copy asap. It's a great way to get it faster.
[00:32:32] Georgiana Dearing: Oh, that's a great idea. That's excellent.
[00:32:35] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah, it's really fun for
[00:32:36] Georgiana Dearing: me. It sounds like fun too. It's like, oh, a day to create all day. That's my job today. That sounds. As a solopreneur, what's next for your business? There's a point where we can only do so much as ourselves.
[00:32:49] Georgiana Dearing: So what is next for you? What do you think is the next step for Anna Bradshaw copywriting? Oh, that's a good
[00:32:55] Anna Bradshaw: question. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, , and I'm not sure. So one of the things I really like about working on my own is getting to interact with my clients at every step of the way, and writing all the copy myself.
[00:33:10] Anna Bradshaw: I'm a little selfish. But I think to grow usually becomes sort of a creative director where you outsource some of that copy to mm-hmm. other writers. So I don't know if that's something that'll come in the future or not in building something right now that's new that allows me to reach more clients.
[00:33:29] Anna Bradshaw: It's a monthly membership. Or people can join and get more of a q and a style of support or miniature copy reviews. So if they're writing their own copy, we just want a copywriter's eyes on it. That's a new kind of resource to let me scale a little bit without having to go full agency model there. But yeah.
[00:33:50] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah,
[00:33:50] Georgiana Dearing: that's an agency's commitment. Speaking is one who's had one and does not. Now. It's a very different set of challenges. . Could you please tell our listeners where they can find you?
[00:34:03] Anna Bradshaw: Yeah, my website is anna k bradshaw.com. I'm on Instagram. If you just search Anna Bradshaw copywriting, you'll find me, and those are probably the easiest ways to find me.
[00:34:15] Anna Bradshaw: But yeah, you can reach me through email, anna k bradshaw.com. I always love connecting with food brands and other people in the industry. I always love hearing from people and answering any questions or being a resource where I.
[00:34:28] Georgiana Dearing: So I have to ask, are you open for taking on new clients now or not now that I've told people how to find you.
[00:34:35] Anna Bradshaw: I do have some openings in the next couple months. So yeah, I'd love to help write and create great copy that it sells more online. That's great. Well, I
[00:34:43] Georgiana Dearing: really appreciate that you took time out of your busy day to talk to me about your writing for products. I just think it's really important. I speak a lot to my brands about e-commerce and probably I would say the mistake I see people make the most is they think, well, if I just put the name of it in a brief description, that's enough.
[00:35:05] Georgiana Dearing: Now you actually really do have to sell it. ,
[00:35:08] Anna Bradshaw: yes, if someone just put it up there,
[00:35:13] Georgiana Dearing: someone like you would be really, really helpful for these startups, I think. So thank you for sharing your time with me. I enjoyed talking to you and I'm sure, I am sure that we are gonna connect soon on something else.
[00:35:25] Anna Bradshaw: Yes.
[00:35:26] Anna Bradshaw: Well, thank you so much for having me. This has been so fun, and I hope it's been helpful.
[00:35:30] Georgiana Dearing: It has. And listeners, if you liked this episode, then please like the episode and downloaded and s. That's what keeps us going here and for today. That's a wrap. Thanks for listening. And if you wanna learn more about how to grow your own food brand, then click on Grow My brand@vafoodie.com.
[00:35:52] Georgiana Dearing: If you're a lover of local food, then be sure to follow us. We are at VA Foodie on Instagram, Facebook, and. Join the conversation and tell us about your adventures with good food, good people, and good brands.