5 Tips For Your About Page To Convert Readers To Customers
About pages are one of the most assumptive web pages.
They are often misunderstood, misused, and underestimated strategies when it comes to DIY’ing your website copy.
But it is important to get your About page right since it is one of the most visited pages on your website.
I will admit when I first wrote my own About page copy as I began my own business journey, I assumed that as a personal brand, I was supposed to share about myself — how much I love coffee, where I live, and how I came to start my business.
While some of that can be helpful, your About page isn’t supposed to focus on you and your accomplishments and hobbies. It’s supposed to connect with your aligned, right audience. To draw them into to better understanding the values and mission behind your brand.
So here’s the scoop:
Your About page copy is supposed to be all about how your offers solve your customer’s problems.
This means you need to position yourself as the expert and the trustworthy go-to biz.
Sharing a bit of your own experience about what life was like before your discovery (problem) and what it was like after your discovery (solution) is one way of doing this.
But keep in mind, your About page copy is not all about your life story and your hobbies and your favorite color- although there are ways to sprinkle your personality into the About page that can share some tidbits about you as a person that aren’t so off-putting or meaningless.
The point of your About page copy is to tell your reader about how your brand came to be, the purpose for it, what you value, and how it’s the best choice to solve their problems and build that authority and trust so that they buy from you.
This includes positioning your customer as the hero of the story, not your product or service, which can be a little tricky, but once you do it, is very effective.
Here are 5 tips to help guide you to write your own effective website copy for your about page.
Start with the most pressing problems that your service or product is solving for your customer.
Treat all of these tips as an opportunity for a brain dump onto a Google doc or sheet of paper, starting by listing out your ideal client’s problems.
Perhaps you’re a web designer and your client’s problems are that they are frustrated and overwhelmed by the process of building a beautiful website.
List as many of these problems as you can. Keep asking yourself why to get to the core of the issue.
Why does your client feel frustrated?
Maybe they hate feeling inadequate or like they don’t know something.
Why does your client feel overwhelmed?
Perhaps they’re launching a brand new business and are getting all of the systems in place, learning their craft, and planning their marketing strategy while still raising a family and working their full-time job.
2. Write about your offer and how it solves that problem.
Now that you have all of the problems listed, it’s time to write about how your offer solves each of their problems.
For the example above, the web designer’s solution could be her done-for-you design services that take the burden of building off of the client’s plate.
List out as many of these solutions as you can. And when you consider the solutions, go deeper than simply the features of your product or service. Get to the core benefits that your customers get from using it.
3. Brainstorm: What are your customers objecting to about the offer?
Now, take a look at each one of your offers and list out the ways your ideal client could object to it.
Objections might be:
It’s too expensive
It takes too long
It’s not as custom as they need
It’s not the right time
Ask the why for each objection to get down to the core reason for their hesitation.
If you have customer research to refer to, here is the time to do so. If you have correspondence with warm leads that have rejected your offer, research the language they used to tell you why.
Go beyond the words they use to uncover the real, deep-seated meaning of their objections.
4. write about Why your audience should trust you to solve their problem
So here is where you should include evidence of the results your clients have experienced after working with you or using your product.
You can include data, testimonials, case studies, or video demos.
And you don’t have to include it all or even a ton. If you’re new to the business and don’t yet have a lot of testimonials, share what you do have.
Be sure to share what matters to your audience- and what matters to them is having their core problems solved.
So if your testimonial talks about what a nice person you are, if that doesn’t solve your customer’s core problem, don’t include it here. Instead, include the testimonials or a section of your client’s review that does refer to the problem that you solved for them.
Now here’s the switch away from reader-focused copy.
5. Write about yourself, but with intention.
This isn’t an invitation to go on and on about yourself. There are other ways (and times) to share some of those juicy stories that others might enjoy hearing about.
Instead, think about a relatable event that triggered the creation of your business, any specialized training that's useful in solving their problems, or a powerful origin story that intersects with your audience's needs.
When writing your origin story or bio, brainstorm a list of your credentials, accomplishments, biographical details, job experience, relevant differentiators (what sets you apart from the competition), and anything else that you think would help your reader trust you.
Be sure to remove anything that has already been covered in your testimonials or body copy. You want to avoid repeating the same info.
Write your short bio section with the intention of solving your ideal client’s problems that include details or information not found in other parts of the page. As you write it, keep asking yourself if this information offers a reason for your audience to trust you.
Like in all website copy, keep the bio section concise, aiming for content that’s no longer than three paragraphs.
The Wrap Up
If you follow these tips, your About section will connect with your audience and help position your brand as a trustworthy and legit service or product, and help you sell! And if you are a personal brand, showing a little more personality is never a bad thing.
No matter if you’re a personal brand or business, maintain the Brand Voice throughout the text. Even if you are going for a personal touch and including a favorites section (aka My Favorite Things), be sure that it still sounds like all the other pages on your site.
And if you are still unsure about writing your own About page, let’s talk! I am a brand strategist specializing in refinding your brand story by leveraging your personal experiences to attract your aligned audience and leave a memorable impression.
