Spring Cleaning Checklist: Copy Edition

It’s that time of year where the sun starts to shine a bit brighter, flowers start to bloom and all parts of life start to feel refreshed after a long winter season.

A few days ago I walked outside to what once was a beautiful, green backyard and I was quickly reminded that even though the season is changing, we’ve neglected this space for so long, so now it’s messy and it’s going to require some hard work to get it back into the shape that we prefer. 

As I was gazing at the weeds and shrubs that desperately need my attention, I was reminded of how often this happens in business. 

We have great ideas. We create big goals. We set out to do huge projects.

And all of it *sounds* really nice at the time, especially when we’re thinking about the result that will come from the idea, goal or project. 

Just like having a nice backyard with the perfect furniture and the ultimate spot to sit outside and soak up the sunshine with your favorite beverage *sounds* nice. 

But when you start doing the work to create that picture, it gets hard. You get tired. You start to lose sight of the result you once pictured and start settling for “good enough.”

You say you’ll come back to refine later, but you never do… and then the weeds start growing. 

Weeds in your business can look like unfinished projects. First drafts of website copy. “Good enough” lead magnets. Inconsistent presence on social media or through your email list.

And while you definitely can get by with all of these things and keep yourself afloat, it always feels much better when the weeds are pulled and you’ve made room for beautiful flowers to bloom. 

But in order for that to really happen, you have to look at the ROOTS – and the roots start with YOU! 

Your energy. Your messaging. Your offers (aka how you want to help people). 

Lately I’ve personally been doing this uprooting of sorts and it’s helping me see what needs to change and what can stay the same. By doing this, I’m making room for the new and allowing myself to get rid of the old. 

And I want to help YOU do it too, so that you can experience the refreshed feeling that’s possible!

As a copy strategist that works with 6- and 7-figure business owners to launch offers that produce thousands (and millions) in revenue, I’ve noticed that many people tend to focus on the wrong things in business, especially when launching. 

They tend to get caught up in the design of their website or landing page or creating the perfect Instagram feed and while all of those things are great, what needs your attention more than anything (no matter what you’re doing in your business) is your COPY!

The truth is that your copy can either be the bottleneck or the rocket fuel for your business success and the reason for that is because copy is the mechanism that leads to the results you desire. 

Want to have a 7-figure launch? You need good copy. 

Want to sell out your group coaching program? You need good copy. 

Want to convince someone to join your email list? You need good copy. 

Want to get registrants for your masterclass? You need good copy.

You can have the BEST offer in the world, but copy that’s missing the genius of persuasion can make or break your results.

This is why learning how to do it well is a business owner non-negotiable and there’s a lot that goes into it.

For now, let’s take a look at what I’m calling the Spring Cleaning Checklist: Copy Edition.

• Sales Page

If you have a sales page for your offers (which you typically should), it’s time to revisit it and make sure it’s up to date with enrollment details, fresh testimonials, new hooks, and maybe even a few new photos. 

The cool part about launching an offer is that once you get your messaging right, you can recycle your landing pages, sales pages and even your email sequences, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them a small refresh every now and then. 

Just like you might refresh a part of your home as the season changes, you want to do the same for your main sales page so that it feels new, even if it isn’t!

• Opt-in Pages

Same goes for your opt in pages for your lead magnets or evergreen funnels. Many people think that this part of their business gets to be a “set it and forget it” type of thing, but I firmly believe that all parts of your business need a few tweaks or updates in different seasons. 

If you have an evergreen funnel that works or if you have a lead magnet that brings in multiple subscribers daily, then that might be a different story.

But if your funnel isn’t bringing the results you really want and your email list isn’t growing like you thought it would, it might be time to adjust the messaging that you’re using on your opt-in page.

The audience you were speaking to when you first created these pages could be totally different from who you’re trying to speak to now, so make this a priority on your to-do list! 

• Lead Magnet

Remember when someone told you that you needed to create a lead magnet to grow your email list so you spent weeks crafting the perfect PDF on Canva?

Well, how many times have you personally looked at that PDF since? Yes, I’m lovingly calling you out, friend, because we ALL do this – including me.

We obsess over the thing that someone told us we had to have, just for it to become buried deep in our Google Drive folders and in our minds.

A lead magnet IS important in your business and truly can generate tons of new subscribers for your email list, but it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t take the time to update it every now and then… just like everything else I’ve previously mentioned. 

Again, if it’s working and people are loving it – great! You can probably leave it alone. 

But if your lead magnet isn’t doing its job (aka attracting people 🧲) then that’s probably a sign you need to a) refresh your messaging behind it and b) refresh the actual thing that people receive.  

• Welcome Sequence

Another common “set it and forget it” aspect that I see people forgetting about is their welcome sequence. Now, I’m not saying you need to review your welcome sequence and make tweaks every single week.

But there’s a chance this sequence is something you wrote at the very early stages of your business or when you first started your email list, which means there’s very likely some changes that need to be made. 

The point of a welcome sequence in your business is to well… welcome people to your side of the Internet and tell them what they can expect now that they are in your world. 

And the way that looked in the beginning versus how it looks now is probably a bit different. 

So, take the time to review what people receive when they join your email list and make sure your story is updated, how they can work with you is relevant and your overall messaging is clear. 

• Overall Messaging

By now you’ve heard me say “messaging” quite a bit and I want to make sure that the concept of messaging is clear. This last piece of the Copy Spring Cleaning Checklist is really all encompassing.

“Messaging” is one of those words that’s thrown around a lot in the marketing world and you might not be 100% clear on what it really means. 

Put simply, your messaging is essentially how you communicate with your audience and it’s not only the words you use, but also the feelings, emotions, and overall vibe that come with your words in order to convey your beliefs and your value as a business. 

The key to your overall messaging is that it’s consistent throughout everything that you do so that your audience is never confused about who you’re talking to.

Throughout the life of your business, your messaging will probably change multiple times depending on WHO you want to serve. 

Different audiences require different messaging based on their pain points, so taking the time to examine who exactly you want to speak to and making tweaks based on that will set you up for success in your copy.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into the different pieces that I’ve touched on today, but for now I encourage you to truly carve out the time to examine these parts of your business.

After you review what you have, decide if they need to be refreshed, tweaked or totally made over. Once you decide that, you can create an actual plan to take action!

Happy spring cleaning. 🌸