How to write a one-liner business profile that attracts the right clients

“So what’s your business all about?”

Ever been caught off-guard by this question at a gathering? It’s funny how we business owners know our brand so well — it’s our baby after all — but it’s sometimes so tough to communicate what it’s all about to someone who doesn’t know.

Not knowing how to answer the question in 20 seconds can lose you a lot of potential business opportunities. Answering it vaguely — “I’m a graphic designer” — is equally dangerous; it either becomes forgettable, or people ask you if you’re interested in an upcoming project that REALLY isn’t your niche.

Having a super-clear, specific idea of what you do and for whom is very important. It’ll not only help you describe what you do swiftly and accurately, it’ll help you make branding, marketing, and sales decisions down the line.

Some call this an elevator pitch, though I very much prefer to just call it a one-liner introduction.

This one-liner isn’t just useful for describing what you do at a networking event, it’s also great for your social media bio, posting a comment on a Facebook group, or placing on your website’s home page to make it clear what you do.

Creating your one-liner

Your one-liner should comprise three segments:

Who your ideal client is
What you do
Your unique selling point

Let me explain each in detail.

1) Your Ideal Client

Who are you making your product for? Do you have a clear image of this person in your mind?

Things like what they care about, which brands they shop for, their age, their sense of humour, what they’re afraid of — this is the level of detail you should aim for when imagining your ideal client. It can be as specific as a single person you already know; in fact, whenever I write my emails, I imagine I’m writing to one of my good friends who’s the perfect description of my target audience.

Next, after you’ve visualised your ideal client, pick out 1 - 2 distinctive qualities of this person that you think are what attracts them to your brand. This could be a demographic (e.g. women in their 20s), a behavioural factor (e.g. office workers who have a limited lunch time), or a motivation (e.g. people who care about saving the earth). We’ll need this for later.

2) What you do

In other words, your industry, and the segment of the market you serve.

This might not be clear when you’re just starting out. You might accept every project that comes your way when you’re just striking out as a graphic designer, for instance. But over time, as you weed out the projects that you don’t feel like you’re a good fit for, you’ll develop a niche, like wedding stationery or packaging design.

3) Your unique selling point

What sets you apart from the others? This should never be price — competing on price only results in burnout and being taken for granted — but something that you’re really good at in your business. It could be thoughtful design, a very fast turnaround time, uniquely hand-drawn illustrations, etc.

If you’re stuck, a good method of finding your USP is to look at the reviews your clients have been sending you. Are there any patterns? What’s been brought up again and again? If you don’t have reviews yet, talk to your happiest clients (you know who they are), tell them you’re gathering feedback, and ask them what they liked most about your work.

Putting it together

Once you have the three parts all sorted, it’s time to string them together in a format along the lines of:

“I (what you do + unique selling point) for clients who (ideal client description)”.

It doesn’t have to follow that format exactly — you can change up the sentence structure, just make sure all three segments are still present. Here are a couple of examples:

We provide fast yet effective lunchtime beauty treatments for busy women who want to look their best.
Creating thoughtfully-designed, environmentally sustainable packaging for product-based businesses in Singapore.
Making lessons fun and engaging via game-based online Math tuition classes, for students who need extra motivation.

Lessons in wording

I recently saw this real-life example in a Facebook group. Someone was asking which description would be better:

A) Helping 9-5 employees break the golden handcuffs by + income stream

B) Helping working professionals break the income ceiling by launching successful businesses

Which one would you prefer?

If it were me, it would be a mix of the two: Helping 9-5 employees break the income ceiling by launching successful businesses.

Why?

Firstly, we should ask ourselves how the ideal client would identify themselves. Something that would make them read your line and go “Hey! That’s me!” In this case, it’s more likely that people would identify themselves as 9 - 5 employees rather than working professionals, because how many times have we heard people saying “yeah, I work a 9-5”? Working professionals, on the other hand, sounds like how the government would describe them, not themselves.

Secondly, if you’re using a metaphor, it has to be immediately relatable. “Golden handcuffs” isn’t a very common metaphor, and in fact some people had to ask what that meant, but “breaking the ceiling” is something almost everyone is familiar with. The metaphor’s emotional association is also important: “golden handcuffs” is confusing because that could be either a good or bad thing, but “breaking the ceiling” is almost always associated with freedom, growth, and victory. Good vibes all round.

Lastly, your service should be clear and paint a positive image for the reader. “+ income stream” isn’t very clear (I had to reread it a couple of times) and doesn’t get through immediately because it’s too neutral. But “launching successful businesses”? Heck yeah, I’d sign up for that!

If you’re unsure of your wording, feel free to run it by me — just drop me a message on my Instagram.

The writing process

While you’re writing this, don’t worry if it takes a while — generally, the shorter something is, the harder it is to write because you have to find the right words to capture the essence. Take your time to think about it, write tentative drafts (nobody’s going to see them), and come up with different versions.

One way is to come up with a long description first, then whittle it down bit by bit, as you would carve a sculpture out of marble.

More importantly, embrace the process. It’ll help you think deeply about what you do, and the end product is really just a bonus.

If this post has helped you, I’d love to see your work! Drop me a message on Instagram with your one-liners.

the author

Hi, I’m Melody! I help creative entrepreneurs make money by streamlining their communications and building a brand that their clients like and trust.

About Me