Your About Page Isn’t Just About You

Your About page will be one of the top five most important pages on your site. If someone clicked on it, they already have some interest in your services. So don't make it boring boilerplate copy legalese. Take this opportunity to be different, to be YOU! How do you achieve this? Simple. Follow these rules and your site visitor will know if you are the right person to help them!

 1. Write in the first person

Your potential customers are real people so talk to your audience in the first person as if you were actually having a face-to-face conversation. If it's in your personality, write to the customer as a friend standing right next to you. If it's not in your personality, don't worry about it. You want to keep it real and use your real voice. Otherwise, your reader may detect a false sense. But don't ever talk about yourself or your brand in the third person unless you want to bore them to leave in a few seconds. Remember they are real people and you would never talk to someone face to face in the third person would you? Well, unless you are the great baseball player Ricky Henderson 😉

Ok, the user clicked on your About page and the first thing they are looking for is "What can you do for me?"

 2. Know your audience and why they came to your site

Who is your audience? Be certain that you are targeting your audience and focusing on their problem. By focusing on them they will know whether or not you can help them. Surprising as it may seem, they don't care about you yet. Right now, they are checking to see if you speak their language. The easiest way to go about this is to try and put yourself in your clients' shoes.  Most people get this wrong by only thinking about this at a high level.  Instead, you need to dig deep and really know who you serve. Think about your past clients or your ideal client. Who are these people and how can you serve them best? The point is you need to know their problems and solutions.  Salesy?  Yes a little, you are selling your services here.

3. What is their problem? Remember it's about them.

If we ever want to sell your products or services we need to solve our customers' problem(s). Sometimes your customer needs a reminder or a little education about the severity of the problem. Otherwise, they don't have much incentive to look for a solution and will leave your site. So if they found your About page they have shown some interest in you. Take this opportunity to remind your potential customer that they have a problem and explain the severity and consequences if they do nothing.

4. What is your solution?

After you have explained the severity of their problem it's time to offer your solution. If you have something unique or special about your solution or product you should mention it here.

Visitors won't click on your About page unless they have some interest in your product or solution.

It is very important that you list the problem first because if you start with the solution your potential client will see there is a solution and may no longer pay attention to the problem. They may only read the solution and move on.

Make your solution crystal clear. Don't confuse your audience in any way. Meaning, don't use any big words that require a dictionary or encyclopedia. Your clients don't want to have to think.

5. Write a compelling headline, don't call it 'About'

Your About Page should have a headline that provides a benefit - this will set the tone of what your readers will expect and will want to continue reading. This is your chance to grab your visitors attention so don't just title your About page 'About Us'. Instead, think of a compelling headline that gives your potential customer a reason to keep reading!  My personal favorite is to make a promise and include number in your headline.

I will increase your site visitors by 325% by This one Simple Technique

Ok, that isn't true but it probably caught your attention right?  Here I used a combination of two very successful techniques. Making a promise to increase your site visitors and even better, include a number of 325%.  Notice, I didn't include the actual technique in the headline. If I did, chances are your reader will feel satisfied and may not read on.  You want to make it enticing without giving away everything.

Need more help with a headline? Here is an excellent article from Andy Crestodina to get you started.

6. What are your credentials?

Your best bets are testimonials that explain how you solved their problem. This will help calm any fears or doubts your prospects may have about you. The more the better but don't go too crazy here. Just enough to prove your value.

The second best type of credential is an endorsement.  Some may argue that depending on the notoriety of the endorsement this should come first. Personally, I prefer to have a real experience testimonial as my first choice that I would put front and center. You will have to use your judgment on this one.

And if you don't have any testimonials yet? Don't worry about it, even if you are just getting started we all have some type of credential. This could be your law degree and associations. Put those here and as you grow your testimonials add those first.

Having a blog will also show that you know your business and your clients problems. It will also serve as providing free value to your potential client. You can leverage your blog by explaining how a particular post can help your reader.

7. What is your unique selling proposition? Why should they choose you?

You are representing yourself and/or your brand. What is unique about you that not everyone else in your industry could copy?  You might have to think about this for a while and it's perfectly fine to invent your uniqueness. The key is being true to it and be very loud and transparent about it. There is no point in having a unique selling proposition if no one knows about it!  Think of brands and how they have positioned themselves to be unique and bring out emotion.  Apple is known for simple but stylish designs and you feel like you are part of a  special group. Toms is known for giving away a pair of shows for every one purchased and brings out the emotion of doing good and Zappos is known for having the best return policy which makes the customer feel confident in their purchase.  What will you be known for?

8. Now that you have their interest, tell them a little about you.

Great! You have their attention. Now they want to know who you are and why you do what you do. Be conversational and relate to your potential customers if you can. Tell them a personal story about your life, your achievements, even your kids. This is where you finally get to show a candid photo of yourself. You can even be goofy if that's part of your personality.  Remember to keep it real. Real you.

9. Ok, they are interested. Now tell them what to do next!

Your reader is interested if they made it all the way to the bottom of your About page! But no high fives yet! Now it's your turn to ask your potential client to take some type of action.It would be a crime if you didn't have a call-to-action here. Your potential client is now ready to take the next step but they may not know what that is, so please tell them now! If you don't, they will probably think to themselves that was some very helpful information and then leave your site. Don't let that happen to you.

Your call-to-action could be a phone number to call you, an email form, newsletter signup or something entirely different. You need to know what is your main goal when someone visits your About page. You may come up with a list of actions you want your reader to take but I'm afraid that would only confuse them. So choose wisely and only choose your main goal.

Now it's your turn. I am turning it over to you!

I want you to rewrite your About page and make sure that it is focused on your audience, not you! Follow these 9 steps and you will start to see that people actually read your About page and hopefully this leads to more customers.

Do you have a different strategy or approach? What's working for you and what isn't? I would love to hear about it!