If you run your own small business and have a website already, chances are you’ve spent time (too much of it) trying to work out what on earth to add to your about page or you’ve seriously struggled writing anything to go on this trickiest of website pages to create. You’ve spent house typing out a load of things about yourself that you hope your website visitors will connect with you on some level about. You might even have gone as far as to list out some fun stuff about yourself because you feel like what you’ve come up with so far is so boring or you think, well what do I even have to offer? What’s so special about me? Well, it’s time for a rethink.
There is another way you could and should be creating your website’s about page. There are a number of things not to do so that you don’t put your website reader to sleep or sound like you’re listing off your skills and experience in a job interview. The key to remember actually, is that most of your website visitors won’t read the majority of the text on your about page. Instead they will skim read it picking out individual sections and sentences, so the first thing to remember is not to launch into an essay style life story account of yourself.
Any text you do add to your website should also be nicely broken up into manageable chunks, paragraphs, given headwers and separated out with images to make it more manageable too. If you want to know more about how users read on the websites there is a whole guide about that here.
Most people hate even talking about themselves, let alone writing about themselves. It can feel as uncomfortable as that job interview question where you’re asked to list off your strengths and weaknesses. So, with your about page, let’s not go there.
Let’s start by giving you the biggest bit of revelatory advice about creating a great website about page. It’s not actually about you at all. It’s about how you can help them.
That’s right. Actually your about page should serve as another ‘sales’ page on your website that helps your website visitors see how you can take their pain points and turn them around into a way of solving their problem.
1. Talk about your values and beliefs
Your about page should be more than just listing out your achievements CV style. That’s pretty boring to read, right?! You’ll need to try and connect with your website visitors on a much deeper level than that. Instead, your about page should describe who you are in terms of your values and principles. Explain to them why the product or service you offer is important to you. Try and be transparent, open and vulnerable which are qualities that will help people really connect to you.
To help you get to grips with this, it’s important to go back to the reason why you are running your business and why you started it in the first place. Ok, maybe you’re thinking that you started it to make money, of course! But, again you need to dig much deeper than that. Think about how you want to serve and help people with offering them a solution to their problem. This is a great way to connect to your website visitors and help them see why you could be the one to help them over the next supplier.
2. Be human
There’s nothing like some super formal, robotic and awkward website copy to make your website visitors fall asleep. Your website copy should be written to reflect who you are as an individual or team and as a business. This is where you get to inject your personality into the game. Actually an about page is a rare opportunity where you really get to open up and connect to your people on a much deeper level than just telling them how great you are, because that will just feel awkward and a bit cringey. Before you get to work on writing your about page copy make sure you’ve worked out your messaging. Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Instead of thinking about how you should write, also think about how your ideal clients will want to read and take in the information about you and what you have to offer. Make sure it always comes back to them. Every time.
3. How can you solve their problem?
This is where you bring in your benefit proposition. In other words, how can you help them solve their problem. You can list out all the pain points your potential clients have and then tell them exactly how you can solve their problem. Your business might have come about or your big reason why you’re running your business might even be that you ended up creating your business to help someone solve their problem. Tell that story! Rather than listing off your products and services, tell your website visitors about the story and the experience behind your business and brand and again, engage on a personal level.
4. Stop hiding from the world!
People want human connection whether we admit we do or not. In an age of increasing human disconnection, because of our very natures, there is still nothing more powerful than being the person people choose to buy from. We might not realise it but we need human connection to make us feel confident and comfortable and this comes in with buying and selling too. There might be very well established brands who don’t have bosses that show their faces every day and can hide behind their brand visuals. But actually you are what makes your business totally unique and stand out against the others in your industry. Make sure you have images of yourself on your about page. If you have a team, get them on there too. And I don’t just mean rubbishy images taken on your phone on a night out. A personal branding shoot is so valuable and can give you content to put out there for months and even years to come and is a great connector to your audience in a human way. With showing your face, make sure to open up and tell the story of how you got to where you are today.
The photos you feature about you on your website don’t just have to be photos of yourself. Introduce your website visitors to the experience of working with you. Peel back the curtain by taking them through the process of how you work and introduce them to your work space and a bit of behind the scenes. Not only are people lazy so they’ll love this, but it will give them more of an understanding of how you work and a peek in to the experience of working with you, meaning a better and more human connection with you.
5. Why should it be you?
Ok we have talked about how you can solve their problem but why should it be you to do that? In this step, remember to bring it all back to them instead of being a CV writer which it can be tempting to do. For example, instead of listing out the years of experience you have in your field, tell them the transformation stories and case studies you have that helped your clients through the years. You might have been in the business 10 years but what do you have to show for that? How can your ideal clients know you’re the one for them on experience alone? Make sure your about page features reviews, case studies and customer stories for your website visitors to relate to and tell the story of how you have helped people just like them.
So when you’re creating your about page make sure to remember that it’s not really about you at all. Keep bringing it back to your ideal clients and how you can help them solve their problem and why you are the one to do that. Don’t be that person who simply lists off your achievements CV style and make that human connection by being yourself and by being approachable and relatable too.
And if you need some help, guidance and accountability on how you can do this in the best possible way for your business and your goals, get in touch to find out how I can help you improve your about page with one of my website review sessions. You’ll get my eyes on your website and a whole bunch of tips you can use to improve your website’s performance, content and copy to get more conversions and take your business towards your goals. I’ll also keep you accountable so that you can finally get ‘update website’ firmly ticked off that to do list. Find out more about the website review sessions.
