Going Up! How to Write a Powerful Elevator Pitch

Your elevator pitch is a key part of your marketing strategy. It’s also commonly referred to as your purpose statement. It’s your billboard telling people what you do so they can decide if they need you or know someone who might. If it’s not memorable or clear, you’ll miss a lot of opportunities.

An elevator pitch for your online business needs to be power-packed because attention spans are short while skimming online and click rates are high. Essentially, you have three to five seconds to grab attention when someone is reading your social media profile or website heading, which typically contain a version of your elevator pitch. 

If your visitor is not seeing what she wants, she’s going to keep clicking. This is why your elevator pitch is so vital. So save your typical, longer elevator pitches for the real (not virtual) world and networking events. To stand out and make some noise in the online world, focus on writing a 10 to 12-word elevator pitch.

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7 Steps to Writing a Powerful Elevator Pitch for Your Online Business

By starting with a little brain dumping and reflection, you can create an attention-grabbing elevator pitch that aligns you and your passion with the clients who need you. This process works wonders whether you are reworking an elevator pitch or not yet sure what you are offering. As always, taking pen to paper will increase your creativity.

1. Specify what you offer or do.
2. List who you serve (or want to serve).
3. Write out why you do this exact job or business. If you’re a health coach, why this area of health coaching. Or if you’re a business service provider, why this business service? If a retailer, why this specialty? More often than not, there’s a story behind it. Your story matters in this key strategy piece, whether you choose to share it fully or not.
4. Journal your heart away, writing down the milestones throughout your life. Though this may sound like overkill, when you do it, you will likely see dots that connect and heightened clarity of the path you’ve been on. 
5. Revisit what you’ve listed out so far and narrow it down. See the big picture of where you’ve been led and who you’ve been led to serve. Is it all in alignment? If not, you probably won’t have to start all over. But you may need to get back in your lane, tweak your language or specify who you’re serving. 
6. Write about why she should hire you. Why should she choose you? Even write 100 reasons why somebody should hire you and build up your confidence! 
7. Pull it all together in 10 to 12 words. Start with 15-20 words if you need. But then edit out repetitiveness or too much explanation of how you do it since you can talk about that in a later conversation. Massage your words. You may have to set it aside and come back to it tomorrow. That is the nature of creative writing! 

If you skip these steps when writing an elevator pitch for your business, you could end up spinning your wheels, doing all the things you’ve learned to grow your business yet not seeing the results you want. Or you might not feel fully aligned with your business, which stifles your happiness, too.

Instead, invest time up front and use these steps to get to the heart of what you’re doing and why. More naturally deliver your concise, powerful elevator pitch. Feel more enthused and confident about your business. Grab the undivided attention of your could-be clients!