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The better you understand your audience, the more you help them.
The more you help them, the more you both thrive.
![[The front page of a syllabus for Crushing Imposter Syndrome. Below a picture of whimsically-shaped soap bubbles, it poses the questions, "What does being 'powerfully vulnerable' even mean? What could be powerful about feeling exposed and undefended?"]](https://www.danicastone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-1.17.25-PM.png)
![[A photo of a dog messily and unsuccessfully trying to gobble the spray from a hose, with the caption: "BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO SUCK AT SOMETHING NEW." The dog pic itself is by Jack Geoghegan, via Pexels.]](https://www.danicastone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/be-brave-enough-to-suck-at-something-new.jpg)


Case Study:
Teach Your Brand to Speak
This self-help brand, designed to teach people how to overcome imposter syndrome, sounded like a great idea to everyone who heard about it. The challenge was to avoid the trap of “many fans, no customers.”
I began by drawing up user personas and relatable brand voices, and tested them by approaching 75 target users.
The message architecture:
• casual language and vivid, relatable anecdotes;
• big pictures made up of bite-sized insights;
• optimistic, encouraging, and confident.
In this meme, this brand is definitely “the sisterfriend.”
Thanks to researching and deeply understanding the prospective customer, I was able to hit very high engagement rates from the beginning, both paid and organic.
Successes:
• Bounce rate of only 23% on the landing page.
• 29% click rate in emails; 50% click-to-open-rate.
• 16% reach engagement rate on blog posts (the ratio of users engaged to users reached; 2% is considered high).



Case Study:
the stradivarius of UI/UX
I simplified navigation by asking, “what are our target users looking for, and where do they look for it first?” Then, I made the site accessible for customers with vision challenges, especially focusing on alt text and mobile optimization.
The shop page was a particular focus of this redesign. I used plugins to simplify and pre-fill as much information as possible, and to keep customers on the site throughout the checkout process.
Then I added a ton of the details that classical fans crave, like instruments, reviews, samples, and track listings, and created short, detailed descriptions of what made each album special. Restructuring and redesigning their website to better showcase their music resulted in a 7x increase in sales year-over-year.
And crafting intriguing, well-researched content that resonated with their demographic resulted in an average newsletter open rate of 44%, in an industry with a 19% average.
Copywriting and Design HIGHLIGHTS
Research Highlights
In Health Equity
Thanks in part to the efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, health equity for gay people has greatly improved.
This has paid dividends in everything from mental health to overall income.
Unfortunately, most people don’t know that the bi community still faces outcomes as bad as those of the trans community.
I designed the infographics here to bring the healthcare community up to speed on decades of minority stress research all at once. I presented these at the GLMA 2021 Nursing Summit, as well as the First Annual Bisexual+ Research Conference.
These graphics can also be split up and used separately to educate people on a specific topic, such as sexual violence or mental health.










![What does this mean? The average bisexual is depressed and anxious. There is a gap between straight and gay health. There is an even larger gap between gay and bi health. [Below this header is the same chart again. Now it has neon blue boxes drawn from the mean straight anxiety score to the mean gay one, et cetera, to visibly show the gaps. A starburst of words to one side gives the sizes of each gap. Straight-Gay Gap: Anxiety: 1.35 Depression: 1.84 Gay-Bi Gap: Anxiety: 2.42 Depression: 1.90.]](https://www.danicastone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/16.png)






![TEEN PREGNANCY IS A BI HEALTH GAP. [below this is a graphic of an open notebook, which says] A 2019 study using national data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that bisexual-identified cis girls were [highlighted text] 72% more likely than their straight peers to have had a pregnancy.[end highlighted text] In researcher Heron Greenesmith's words: "It wasn't that the bi-identified girls had higher alcohol use. "They do, it's just not causative. " It wasn't that the bi-identified girls had more male partners than lesbian girls. "They do, it's just not causative. " IT'S LITERALLY JUST BEING BISEXUAL." [Below the notebook, smaller text continues, "The study points to other research showing that about half of the higher pregnancy rates among sexual minority girls is likely related to stigma and childhood victimization. It's unknown what else causes this gap. But perhaps it has to do with the elevated risk of sexual assault, which that study does not examine."]](https://www.danicastone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/22.png)

![Bi+ The Numbers: The surprising truth: Cis bi+ outcomes are most similar to those of the trans community. ][Below this we again have four charts. This time, thy show cis straight, gay, and bi outcomes, and trans outcomes. Each one centers the cis bi+ outcome, and lists the other three alongside it. Disability rate: Cis bi, 33%. Trans, 35.5%. Gay/lesbian, 27%. Straight, 22%. (Please note, however, that these numbers are pre-pandemic.) Poverty rate: Cis bi+, 25%. Trans, 29%. Gay/lesbian, 14%. Straight, 14%. Youth Depression: Cis bi+, 66%. Trans, 53%. Gay/Lesbian: 49%. Straight: 27%. Food insecurity among college students: Cis bi+, 49%. Trans, 47%. Gay/Lesbian, 45%. Straight, 36%.](https://www.danicastone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/21.png)




About Dani Aidan Stone
As a teenager, I worked as a community manager for AOL. After college, I worked in UX testing and digital branding for Ask.com.
Because I essentially grew up online, I have experience with every aspect of online spaces, from obscure niche message boards to Facebook ad optimization.
I’ve spent the past 15 years using these passions to help all of you share yours with more people. My focus is on innovative practices, highly tailored to each brand.
What challenges is your business facing? Where do you want to grow? Drop me a line for a free consultation over email.