.png)
Market This | Local Business Marketing, Content Marketing & Website Copywriting
Are you a local business owner who's spent money on marketing and still isn't seeing results? You might not have a strategy problem. You might have a messaging problem.
Market This is the podcast that helps local service businesses fix what they're saying so their marketing actually works.
I'm Lindsay! A messaging strategist and website copywriter with 20+ years in journalism and advertising. I've written for CBC Radio and copy for million-dollar campaigns, and now I help local business owners compete on clarity, not budget.
Each week, you'll get practical marketing strategy and content marketing tips you can actually use, like how to write website copy that converts, what to say (and stop saying) in your marketing, and how to build a local business strategy around messaging that's clear, not complicated.
Inside each episode, you’ll learn:
⚡️How to write website copy that actually converts
⚡️How to build a marketing strategy that fits a local business
⚡️What to say (and cut) from your homepage, about page, and social content
⚡️Simple content marketing that doesn't eat your whole week
⚡️When to DIY your copy and when to bring in help
If you’re ready to stop second-guessing your words and start using copy that actually sells, hit subscribe and follow along. And come hang out with me on Instagram too: @lindsaysmithcreative
And if you want expert eyes on your website, you can book your copy audit here:
https://www.lindsaysmithcreative.ca/audit
Let’s turn your words into your hardest-working salesperson.
Market This | Local Business Marketing, Content Marketing & Website Copywriting
S1 #28: Your Website Copywriting Problem Isn’t Your Design. It’s Your Headline.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Most local business owners spend weeks perfecting their website's look, the colours, the fonts, the layout, and then slap on a headline like "Helping you achieve financial freedom" and call it done.
However, if someone lands on your site and bounces, it's almost never because of the design. It's because your headline didn't stop them.
In this episode, I break down why generic headlines are silently killing your website's performance, using a real example from a recent website copy audit I did for a financial planner.
Her site looked great. Her business was solid. But her headline could have belonged to literally anyone, a bank, a coach, an app, a newsletter. And that's exactly the problem.
I walk you through what a strong headline actually does (spoiler: it's not about being clever), the three things every good headline needs to include, and how to rework yours even if you're not a writer.
As a website copywriter who's looked at hundreds of homepages, I can tell you, the fix is almost never a full rewrite. It's just saying the right thing more clearly. I also get into something most people miss: the connection between your headline and search intent, and why clarity builds trust faster than design ever will.
If you've been wondering why your website isn't converting the way it should, this episode is a good place to start.
In this episode, I cover:
- Why "professional-sounding" headlines are usually the weakest part of a local business website
- The real-life audit example that shows exactly what a vague headline costs you
- The one question I asked that completely changed this client's messaging
- What your headline actually needs to do (it's simpler than you think)
- The search intent layer most business owners overlook
- A quick framework you can use to rewrite your own headline today
If you want a professional's eyes on your website copy, book a website copy audit at: lindsaysmithcreatie.ca/audit.
This episode was mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio.