Obsession Eleven Case Study: Christine Rinoldo Event Consulting and Design
Client: Christine Rinoldo Event Consulting and Design | The Project: OBSESSION WRITING for a one-page website
A luxury brand doesn’t have to be stuffy--or take itself so seriously.
A case study in speaking directly to your customer with bold, personality-driven copywriting.
The Situation
Every new business needs two things: a telephone number and a website. When Christine Rinoldo launched her new luxury event consulting and design business in 2018, she came to Obsession Eleven for her website copy.
(Important tip: Believe it or not, writing website copy happens before the website design process. You absolutely need to know this if you’re in the market for a new website!)
Christine designs events for people who want to host truly unforgettable experiences for their guests. So she needed copy for a one-page website that would put her business’s best, Louboutin-clad foot forward...making sure everyone got a glimpse of that iconic red sole.
Creating an obsession-worthy brand
I knew Christine was serious about creating an obsession-worthy brand when she told me her motto was “Go big or go home.”
You know what doesn’t make people obsessed with you?
Playing it safe and small.
Shying away from having an opinion and a point of view.
Trying to make everybody love you.
Christine’s events do none of those things. On our first call, I listened in awe as she described some of the events she’d designed. They were all unique, creative, and riveting.
Then she showed me the pictures of her events and I paused in sadness for Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle and their comparatively ordinary, boring weddings.
Christine’s other motto is taken straight from Coco Chanel: “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
Those were exactly the kind of clients she wanted—classy, fabulous individuals who wanted to dream bigger than the Royal Wedding. We took a deep dive into understanding these clients and what they were looking for from Christine.
Copywriting the website using the Obsession Eleven framework
The Obsession Eleven—my proprietary formula for writing copy that creates an obsession for your customers—has 3 pillars.
Strategy: Nice writers finish last--because readers (and their needs) come first.
Substance: Show a little leg--so they know what they’re buying.
Style: Give ‘em fever--be it Fahrenheit, or Centigrade.
The first two pillars, Strategy and Substance, are not glamorous. They’re ruthlessly practical and functional. Because copywriting needs to convert, and all the pretty words in the world won’t convert leads into customers if you don’t know those things ahead of time.
You have to know who you’re selling to--and write only to them.
You have to know why they want you.
And you have to give them the information they need to make their decision.
Then it was time to give them some fever.
Copywriting with style
If Christine’s brand stands for one thing, it’s for unique, glamour-filled events. But I wanted to be very careful about not repeating words like glamorous and fabulous. So first I hit up thesaurus.com, and then adjectivesstarting.com so I could find more synonyms all starting with the same letter or sound.
Because if I can fit some consonance (a type of alliteration) in there, I’m going to DO it.
Celebrations, singular, sublime. Consonance achieved!
What I decided to do next was compare/contrast. Because knowing what something is is important. But then I want to know to know what it isn’t. Describing both sides (is/isn’t) gives the product or service a shape in the reader’s mind and helps them evaluate whether you’re right for them which is a critical activity for converting readers into customers.
Comparing and contrasting: back to brainstorming
Christine creates celebrations both singular and sublime. So what isn’t singular or sublime?
Tedious, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, monotony, boring--AKA, the traditional wedding format.
★ But first, a note about adjectives (descriptor words). ★
One mistake I see people make when they’re writing their own copy is: They use too many adjectives, or words that describe nouns. Adjectives are summary words. They’re shortcuts, and using shortcuts undermines your ability to sell.
Shortcuts do not make people feel something--and feeling something releases hormones that make people trust you, remember you, LIKE you, and buy from you.
The antidote for shortcuts is describing specific situations that illustrate the shortcut. You unpack the summary word.
In grade school they called this show, don’t tell.
So if I claim the traditional wedding format is boring, I need to show you why.
Which makes you feel just how painful boring is.
Because once I give you the solution (Christine), you will feel the relief!
I had also been re-binging episodes of The Office and Jim and Pam’s wedding was top-of-mind, so I included:
Having the what it is / isn’t statements of Christine Rinoldo Event Consulting & Design meant it was time to write the hook, or opening statement on the page.
Copywriting the hook
What it is statements can be the page hook. I could have led the page copy with the sublime & singular celebrations.
My homepage hook is a what it is statement, although I’d argue it’s engineered pretty carefully to say more than what it is.
But I was already thinking about what Christine’s brand didn’t stand for: tradition. And that’s when the traditional wedding invitation language came to mind. I typed:
We cordially invite you...
I even used Pacifico, a script-style font in Google docs, so I could visualize those wedding invitations.
And then I took it in the opposite direction: asking the reader to burn tradition!
Flipping it like that surprises a reader. And surprise gets attention. Because: our very lazy minds want to auto-fill wherever possible. So when we can surprise the mind we force it to pay attention. ← I owe a big hat-tip to Ash Ambirge, my favorite copywriter ever, for reminding me of this last month.
Here’s the thing about hooks. They have to be a one-two punch of:
Get their attention
Keep their attention
So that’s where I followed up with the statement that would appeal directly to Christine’s ideal client: “You are fabulous, and that’s why you belong here.”
A final note about adjectives
Funnily enough, I included a lot of adjectives in Christine’s copy when I was describing what her ideal client would want.
#1: I did that because I know her ideal client. She’s a woman who uses these adjectives to describe how she wants to be seen, as well as the things that call to her. When she reads these words being used to describe her, she feels seen, special, appreciated, valued—and a strong belief she’ll be in safe hands with Christine.
#2: Later on the page, I do unpack what classy and fabulous look like:
#3: But finally: the copy does not have to do all of the heavy lifting for showing instead of telling. The design is pivotal for “showing”! Her designer, Evan Leah Quinn of SixteenJuly, perfectly captured the luxury of Christine’s events using photography, brush-strokes of gold, the script-style font, and modern black-and-white design.
When I decided to start my events company, I was in search of excellence on all fronts.
“In terms of branding, style, and message, I needed someone who could see my brand and the future of my company as I do. My goal was to attract clients in a luxury market who wanted to create uniquely special events.
“Once I found Obsession Eleven all my worries melted away. The moment I concluded my first consult with Jenn, I knew I had found the one person who could take my goals and dreams and help me put them into an exceptionally well executed vision. She was able to identify my ideal clientele unlike anyone else I had worked with.
“Throughout the whole process, Jenn was incredibly insightful and was able to guide me to my vision by sharing her thoughts and rationale behind her choices. This was a key factor to connecting with one another and getting on the same page. Jenn was able to bring me the classy yet sassy website I’ve only dreamed of to life, and I can never thank her enough for all of the time and effort she put into my project.”
—Christine Rinoldo
The final word: hire Christine if you want to give the Royal Wedding a run for its money
It doesn’t matter where in the world you are: Christine can design a wedding just as gorgeous and fascinating as you are. She also designs parties (engagement, birthday, bachelor, bachelorette, Sweet 16, etc.).
She makes me wish I could get married all over again just to have a wedding she designed.