Sorry, But Your Website About Us Page Isn’t About You

NOTE: Bots help to auto-transcribe the Talk Copy to Me episodes. We strive to do our best to make corrections, but please forgive us for any typos or confusing phases below. Erin Ollila 0:04 Hey friends, welcome to the Talk Copy To Me podcast. Here we empower small business owners to step into the spotlight with their marketing and messaging. I’m your host, Erin Ollila. Let’s get started and talk copy. Imagine this, someone new finds your website, whether it’s a blog that they found when they were searching on Google for something that they needed, maybe they were referred to your site by one of their family or friends. Or maybe they saw your social media content, and they decided they wanted to learn more about you. And now that they have their curiosity is piqued. So where do you think the most natural place for them to go on your website would be? If you guess the about page, you’re right, when people have decided that they’re interested in learning more about you, as a business owner, or what your business offers, they’re going to find their way to your about page. Here you have the opportunity to give your audience insight into who you are, what your business is all about, and why they should stick around and potentially even hire you or buy a product that you’re offering. Similar to the Services page and about page is a place where people get to make a firm decision about how they feel about you and your business. Everyone thinks that it’s the Services page that convinces people to work with you. But that’s not really the case. The About page plays a large role in a consumers decision making process. And that is especially true in the case of online business owners and service providers. your about page is going to give your audience members the chance to figure out what’s in it for me like we’ve talked about before, and whether you are the right person for their needs. See, everyone looks an about page and they think that the about page is about them. Now I’m going to try to refrain here from singing. I bet you thought your about page was about you in the same tune to Carly Simon’s you’re so vain. But I want you to know it’s killing me inside not to sing it on this podcast. All jokes aside, your about page isn’t actually about you. That’s one of the biggest misnomers that exist. Everyone assumes that an about page is strictly a place to share a mini memoir, or oversized autobiography for their audience. And it’s not. The mission of an about page is to convince your audience that you understand their needs, and that you are the precise person that they should hire or purchase from in order to meet those needs. your about page is a chance for you to use those marketing skills that you have to build that like know and trust factor. It’s a place where you can share information about yourself and your business. But doing it in a way that really meets the needs of your consumers think back to the very first episode of the Topkapi to me podcast. Remember that I told you that there are two questions that everyone asks when they consume content? And yes, everyone including you. They want to know what’s in it for me. So when someone lands on your about page, they’re still asking them themself that question, what’s in it for me? How can this person or this business meet the needs that I have? And that is exactly what you’re going to answer with your about page content. Now, one of the questions that I get all the time when it comes to about pages is how long do they need to be? Because like I mentioned in a joke before, everyone seems to think that they should put like a memoir sized amount of content on their about page. And I get that frustration and confusion, right? What do you share what is relevant here, your brand story, what is relevant that your customers will want to know to know that you’re the right person to work with them? It seems like a massive overtaking. So it feels like the amount of content you need to share also needs to be massive. But that’s not necessarily the case. Some of my clients are very short about pages, and some of them have very long and the answer to what you should have really depends on your own business and your own needs. But I can tell you one thing, you do not need to include every single detail about your personal story, your business’s trajectory, and how you have transformed as a human in order to meet these needs of your website viewers. All you have to do is get them to understand that you know what it is that they need, and you have the skills and ability to get that for them. If you’re able to do that concisely great if it takes a little bit longer and a little bit more explaining about why you are the expert that they should hire Then use the extra space that you need in order to do that, to tell your brand story and make a connection with the people who want to work with you. But if it’s as simple as one quick paragraph about what their needs are, and one quick paragraph about why you’re the right person, then your about page really truly only needs a very short amount of copy. So don’t waste their time with facts that won’t matter. You know, I hear sometimes people tell these stories about like a childhood moment that completely transformed them, or a moment where they had an epiphany as they became an adult. And unless that directly relates back to what it is that you offer, and what your business is about, it doesn’t belong on your about page. But I think here is where people get tripped up the most. Because when I work with my copy coaching clients, what I usually tell everyone is write as much as you can down, it is so much easier to cut copy than it is to determine what you need to include and figure out how to include that information in copy that’s already well written. So when you sit down to work on your about page, get everything out to a blank document, and then edit it later. One thing that I think is helpful for the people who are writing their own copy, and they feel like they have so much that they need to share with their audience is to do what I just said, get everything on paper, but then take that content out that does not belong there. That is not vital to what it is you’re trying to inform your audience of and make a blog post instead. So what happens is maybe you have a blog post about your education. And then you talk about the colleges you’ve attended, or the certification programs that you have mastered and why they changed you and why they make you an expert. What you can do on your about page is just link out to that blog post. So you’re building internal links on your website, which is very helpful for SEO. And it’s also giving the people who don’t want to read a memoir, the opportunity to still get all of the relevant and important details on the about page. And then those people who need a little bit more encouraging, who really want to build more of a relationship and learn about you the opportunity to click over to that blog post and get that information. You know, they can research you for as long as they’d like to research you if you’re sharing it. But you don’t have to put it all on an about page for it to get lost. When people are bogged down with unnecessary details, what do they start to do they skim? Especially if your website about page has a paragraph format. This is something I see all the time when I do website audits, paragraph after paragraph after paragraph of text copy that is not broken up with any headers or subheadings, which makes it so hard for someone to sit down and intake in the information that’s being shared. You know, design is just as important as words when it comes to websites. And I will always say that website copy is what drives designs. But you have to consider it in how your audience member is receiving the information that you’re sharing with them. So it’s helpful if you break things down in bullet points. Or if you have subheadings and headings that will maybe adjust transitions between things that you’re sharing your about page. But when we want to figure out what it is to share, I really just want to drive home that if you have a lot of information that you think is very relevant, but it doesn’t necessarily have to go on the about page, write them as blog post, or maybe you make them YouTube videos, or podcast if you have them, and then link out to those things. Linking will help you with SEO, especially if your link interlinking throughout your own site. And it gives those people the opportunity to really dive in and learn about you that want it but it does not weigh down the rest of your readers. Alright, I’ve obviously really driven home. What an about page is really for that it is not just about showcasing who you are, what you can do to get your thoughts out on the about page and how you can use that extra information and how you can lay out the page. But there’s one more thing that I get asked all the time. And that’s whether people should use the first person or the third person on their about page. Now if you’re not a grammar nerd like me, you might not be sure what those quote unquote persons are. So basically the first person is just speaking and using the word AI when you describe yourself, and the third person would be using your name. So for example, on my own website, I use the first person so I mentioned things like Hi I’m Erin. If I were to use the third person, what I would be writing instead or stating would be Erin Ollila is a website copywriter. blah, blah, blah. Okay, so that’s the difference between the first and third person. And there are many reasons why some businesses would use one over the other. But for the most part, if you are an online business, a personal brand, a solopreneur, or at least if you’re the face of your small business, you’re probably going to want to use the first person on your about page. Using the first person I allows your reader to feel like they’re actually getting to know you. Third person is often used in professional fields. And it works well to make people seem like an expert. But it puts a distance between the website reader and the person that’s being featured, there is good reason why you might want to use it. For example, maybe you work with people in the corporate world, and they’re expecting you to have a third person bio. But in most instances, the first person bio is the best choice for Anabella page. So now that we’ve talked about some of the most important aspects of the page, and questions that I get asked about them, let’s consider how we approach writing or rewriting about pages. The first thing I ask everyone to do when I work with them from a copy coaching perspective, or even my own clients, when I’m the one who’s writing their copy, I asked them, What do you want from your website, or your company in the future? And how do you want to portray that on your site, right now, usually, when people sit and they think about writing their site, or hiring someone to do it for them, they think about their immediate needs, their business in the present, and they want to portray that on their website. That being said, it’s not the best idea, you want your website to grow with you, of course, you’re going to need to update it. web copy is not something that is permanent, it gets adjusted over time and for good reason. But you want to know that your about page is going to portray you in the light that you want to be seen in the future, and how you want your audience to be able to see your business grow. So what do you hope to communicate to your customers? How do you want to be seen, this is where brand messaging is vital. And I will say this to all of my customers, it is why I spend so much time doing research on their clients, research about their competitors, and asking them questions about their personality, their wants their needs, their values, their mission. Because when we understand the positioning of our brand, it’s easy for us to jump in and portray that brand on our site. And on our about page, I was just having a conversation yesterday with a client about how it’s so tough to write your own copy. Because we all have this general idea of who it is that we want to be and what our business can offer our clients. You know, most of us in this entrepreneurial world are high achievers, and we have high expectations for ourselves. And then suddenly, when faced with a blank page, it’s very overwhelming that we can’t just put those perfect words on the page, the words that really exemplify why we’re the right person to get hired, right. So if you have a brand messaging, and if you have a position value, and if you know your clients, it will be so much easier to just step into that brand story that you’ve created for yourself. And live that on your about page, you’ll know exactly what it is that you want to share. Because you’ll have identified how much personality goes into that copy what type of content you’re willing to share, maybe about your personal life, or maybe how heavily you lean on the professional experiences that you have, in the words that you’re using on your about page. Now, if you’re not sure how to go about doing this, here are a few questions to get you started. One, what needs do your audience have? So you have these products? Or you have these services? But where are your clients coming to you? What is the mind frame that they’re in? Where’s the confusion? How can you help them that’s going to be able to help you get that hero section of your about page written because you’re going to want to be able to show them that you understand where they are at this moment in time. It doesn’t mean we need to harp on pain points at all. It could be that we’re using aspirational terms and phrases to get them to understand that we understand them. But think about where your clients are coming to you in this process and how they’re finding you. Okay, question number two How do you want the people who read your websites to feel when they’ve gotten done with your about page you know, I like to tell some of my clients my done for you clients to come up with some adjectives that really ring true to them like the feeling that they want to give to people is informed? Could it be connected? Intrigued? Would they like to inspire someone or empower someone? Would they like to educate someone or lifts you know, lift someone up, knowing this helps you figure out the tone that you use in your writing? Okay, so let’s move on to how you understand their need. So think about question number one, and what you came up with for your audience’s needs. Now, question number three is, how are you the right person to solve those needs? What skills do you have? What experience do you have? How can your products better help them to move past that need? Question number four, how are you different from your competitors? What makes you stand out? What have you done in your own personal or professional history? That makes you the ideal person to help your audience? Okay, question number five, I think, what would you like to share to show some personality? Now I’ll get to this when we talk through all of the different sections that you might want to have an about page, but it’s good idea to start thinking about how you want to show up in business. From a personal perspective, I’m so tired of this theme that’s come up of the online marketing world that you have to present yourself as this one particular way in order to attract clients and then make the sales because that’s absolutely not not true at all. What you want to do is to be yourself, because one of the biggest things I believe about copywriting and marketing, in general, is that you want to repel the people who are not right for you. Yes, I’ve said it, you do not want to attract everyone, your about page is the absolute perfect place to repel the people that you do not want to work with. Because you don’t want to get into a working relationship with someone or sell products to someone who really doesn’t like you, or doesn’t have the same vibe as you or can’t respect you. You want to be able to show up in the way that you are most unabashedly yourself, so that you can attract the right people who will be excited to work with you, the people who will sing your praises to their network, their friends, their family members. And by being your true self, you will attract those people, and you will repel the ones that just aren’t right for you. And that’s okay. So sit down and think about the tone, the message that you want to share, and decide how you’re going to show up. And what it is that you’re going to share about yourself that will help get the point across of who you are, what you value and what you stand for. Alright guys, it’s time for me to stop lecturing and we’re going to jump into what goes on in about page in just one second. But before we do that, I want to take a second to say a great big thank you to Angela TaiG left a five star review on Apple podcast for the talk copy to me podcast. She says I’ve been a small business owner for years and I’m picking up excellent, actionable tips to spruce up my website, copy and reflect on how I run my business. I enjoy Aaron’s relatable examples and Industry Insight, a must listen for anyone who needs to market themselves. Thank you so much Angie for taking the time to write that review for us. And I appreciate those five stars. While I have you here I do want to remind you that I am doing free mini website reviews for my podcast listeners. If you head over to bi T dot L y slash TC TM review, you can get your free website review. And if you didn’t take a second to memorize those letters that I just shared with you, you can find them in the show notes for just a one click access to get your website review. Okay, so let’s dive in and talk about the elements of your website’s about page. So similar to the homepage, like we talked about last week, you’re going to open up your about page to a hero section. In this hero section, you will likely have a large image that has a heading and potentially a subheading. Now what I see all of the time that I am begging you all not to do is do not write about us for your heading or about your name for the heading. It is the absolute worst way to start and about page. We know it’s about you. We just clicked on that about button on your website. So we know we’re going to get information about you and your business. We do not need to be reminded of that with your h1 font on your website. We want to remind our audience is that we understand why they’re there, right? You can have a great big, bold opening statement that hooks your reader in and lets them understand that you get, how to help them. Right. So think about a photography business for an example. And most people don’t have a problem when they’re looking for a photographer. And I say this because I’m, you know, as much as pain points are valuable. And I mentioned that you want to figure out what it is that your client needs, when before you sit down and write, I want to point out, you don’t need to have a pain point to move forward with that big bold statement. In fact, a pain point might not even be helpful at all. But what you want to do is showcase you understand their need. So let’s take a photographer, for example, when people are looking for photographers, they don’t have this horrible problem that they’re trying to get solved, right? If anything, most of the time, people are looking for photographers for a celebratory reason. They know that the exact thing they need is pictures, they want someone to take pictures of something, whether it be a baby that was just born a wedding, maybe it’s brand photography for a business, the bottom line is they need images. So there’s no need to talk about pain points here, what a photographer can do is maybe mention a value that they have, or what it is they love about being a photographer, they could mention something that their clients get as a transformation or a way that they’re excited to work with clients. So if we’re talking about that impact statement of the hero section of an about page, a brand photographer might want to say something like, you might catch me with a camera in my hand, but I’m really the hype woman for your business. And then they might continue talking about how they love to spotlight their customers and show them in the best light, right? Because that’s what people want, when they are looking for brand photos. They want to be seen as a professional, they want to be taken seriously. So they want to attract clients to them. And what better thing than having a hype woman who can stand there and capture an image of you that will showcase you as the true professional that you are continuing with this example of a brand photographer, think about what that audience member who’s viewing the website thinks when they see the first thing on the about page is that brand photographer feels so passionate about capturing images of her clients that she considers herself a personal hype woman, lack gets them excited, right? That gets them feeling that, oh, yeah, I want a hype woman, I want someone who can help me attract the right people. And that’s what’s going to be what motivates them to keep scrolling down the page and reading more. So after we’ve done the hero section of the about page, I always tell people, we want to make sure that we’re continuing whatever thought it is that we shared in that heading. This is where I see a lot of errors, people will make a really great passionate statement in their about hero section. But they don’t continue with it, they jump into a different topic or they introduce themselves immediately. But I want you to linger here for a minute. So let’s pretend we’re talking about the brand photographer again, when we move down into the text section of her copy what she could share there. And I started saying a little bit of this in my example is she could share why being a hype woman is important to her, or why showcasing people at their finest in brand photography is important. And then she can share that she gets it. She understands where these professionals are coming from from wanting these awesome images of themselves. Because she too is a business owner. And she knows the value of having, you know, clean, crisp smart photos on her site, and how images can convince people to work with them. Right. So this section, if you’ve noticed, I kind of transitioned a bit. This section is the I get it section here is where we tell our audience that we understand whatever need it is, whether it is a pain point that we’re talking about, or whether it’s just a precise need, like this example of a photographer, we explained we understand it and why we’re the expert who can help them. So what is it that you can do that helps your clients? How can you meet those needs? Why are you the right person in comparison to all of the rest of the people that they can work with? You know, this section is a little bit tougher to write. It’s the copy section where you get to introduce yourself sharing not only how you help people, but how you got here. What was the turning point or aha moment you had? What are obstacles are complex. Did you overcome? Did you have any big career transitions. And when I say all this, I really just want to remind you, you don’t need to share paragraph after paragraph about this. But just showing your audience that you understand where they’re coming from, you are an expert, and you got here from these very important reasons, creates empathy builds connection, and gives them an insight into who you are and what your journey was. So another way to look at this section could be your big why, you know, why do you do what you do? What you stand for? You don’t have to have a wild and crazy story about you’re starting your business. I know I sure don’t. I started my business because I wanted to be a writer, I previously worked in the marketing world as a writer, and I just wanted to work at home and write for myself, right? I didn’t have this crazy story about this major life moment that all of a sudden catapulted me into my entrepreneurial career. I just wanted to do it. So I did. So if you feel like maybe you’re in the same situation where you don’t have like a major aha moment to share, what you could do is talk about your values or your mission, your why, you know, what do you want to have the vision of your business be? Why are you trying to help people in this way. And then once you’ve done that, it’s a chance for you to have that credential building. So follow up whatever it is that you share about yourself with the notables. Here’s your opportunity to build that immediate credibility with your audience. So your notables could be any merits that you have certifications education experience, if you’ve been featured in any articles, magazines, television, it could be stats. So for example, who are your clients? Who is your audience? You know, for some people, it might be that they have a huge amount of social media followers. I also like to get my clients, especially the done for you clients to answer a question, and that is, what is your superpower? This is a great thing to have on your about page. For me personally, one of my superpowers is that I am great at generating ideas. In fact, one of my clients even deemed me the Ideator Yes, like the Terminator, except someone who just comes out with a ton of ideas instead of killing people. And I’m also not a robot, just let’s make that clear here. But they gave me that nickname, because they saw my superpower and my strength as being able to help them generate ideas that not only help them with their website, but their marketing and their business as a whole. So what’s your superpower? Finding a way to answer that on your about page is a great way to build that, like know and trust factor, right? It’s a creative way to show up and show off, you know, well, one thing I want to talk about in this credential building section is to make sure that the credentials that you’re sharing are understandable. I see this all the time with my clients, especially those who worked in the professional sphere. And they might be entering you know, self employment. In starting a small business. They don’t realize that all of those credentials that come after their name, or the types of certifications that they have, that it’s really just a bunch of letters from the alphabet are unrecognizable to the people who want to hire them. So if you have something where you’re sharing a bunch of acronyms, or maybe it’s very technical language based on what it is that you do, try to break that down in a way that your clients will understand it. And then if you are unsure or feeling anxious about bragging, or if you’re worried that you’re showing off too much, in easy way to check yourself is just to ask this question. Is this a complete brag? Or is this information helping someone make a decision about working with me, it is absolutely fine. Actually not even fine. It is important to show off on your website about us page, you know, you have to realize that you are an incredible skilled entrepreneur and you want your about page to showcase that you want people to know that you have all of the experience, drive and determination to get them the results or the products that you’re offering to them. So it’s fine to show off. But if you’re feeling insecure about this, just remember, if you do it correctly, you’re helping people make a decision, it is not showing off. So let’s talk about bringing the personal into the about page because this is often a big concern or question or even exciting thing for some of my clients. People like to show up as themselves and like I told you, it’s great to do that because you want to be able to repel or attract the people that are right or wrong for you. So one thing you can do in order to bring in some personal facts about yourself is to talk about what you do when you’re not working. Maybe you mentioned that you have a family or you travel or if there’s any quirky side projects that you’re a part of. You can also accomplish this by sharing some fun facts about yourself and lots of Have people have the opportunity to connect with you here. I mean, this section won’t make someone completely change their mind about you, but it might make them like you more. So let’s say that in your five fun facts section, you talk about your love of dogs, or what you do when you’re not working. Maybe you volunteer for a dog shelter. If you have someone reviewing your about page that also loves dogs, they’re automatically going to feel like a kindred spirit, right? They’re going to be like, Oh, someone who loves dogs, this is great, because they’re going to want to work with you because they’ve connected. So bringing a little bit of personality is a great opportunity to kind of solidify the deal. And again, if someone doesn’t love dogs, they’re not going most likely not going to not want to work with you, just because you talk about your love of dogs. And if they do, I mean, that’s kind of strange, right? Like, wouldn’t you not want to work with a person who hated dogs, I can tell you for sure, right now, I probably would not want to work with anyone who despise dogs, like it’s okay, dogs don’t have to be your thing. But if you hate them, you and I probably aren’t going to be the right fit, right. And that’s what bringing personality onto an about page can do for you. Now, if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, oh, Erin, I really do not want to talk about my family. I do not have any quirky things about me. And I’m just not a fun facts person. No, that that is totally okay. You can humanize yourself in a different way on your site, just by sharing your story of your professional experience. And why this business is important to you, you do not have to lay on the personality factor here. Be true to yourself and share what you’re comfortable with. Okay, moving on from the personal connection area, there’s more that you can have on an about page. And one thing that’s so simple to put on there. And such a great helpful section is a testimonial. If you have a testimonial that doesn’t fit perfectly with the services that you offer, but showcases you in a great way, throw that on your about page. And don’t stop there, there’s a little bit more you can share. Think about the final section of your about page as what is the next step that you want them to take, right? How do you want your audience member to get involved with whatever it is you’re trying to achieve or sell. That might mean that you’re putting your lead magnet there and you’re asking them to opt into your lead magnet. So you can grow that list, you might directly ask them to book a discovery call with you. So you can talk to them about what you offer. And who you are. Maybe you ask them to take a quiz that’s kind of both right? Like it helps to build your email list. And it helps to nurture them to learn more about wanting to work with them. But whatever you do, don’t leave your about page readers to their own devices. The user experience is meant to be designed by you. So however you end your about page, you want to ask them to take an action, maybe you move them over to your services page, and you say like, Hey, let’s work together. Here’s how much and maybe you do one of those other examples that I shared with you. But just make them commit to something. Because think about it, if they’ve built this trust with you, if they’re starting to feel exciting, excited to work with you. And then all of a sudden, we end it at the fun facts. They don’t do anything like they’re not asked to take part in this relationship that we’ve just built. So if we encourage them to connect with us, they will remember before I talk to you about making sure that you considered the design and the layout of your page as just as important as the copy that you’re sharing with them. Since we talked about all of the copy that could potentially go on your about page and how to lay it out. I want to encourage you now to stop before you completely finish your about page and consider the design. How is it laid out? What I think you need is to break up the text. Again, I mentioned before you can add bullet points here. Maybe you have icons. And the final thing that you can do and you should do is include pictures. So get those images on there, get pictures of you working get pictures of just your face, the images you share will make you real, they will make you be a real person and not just this random business owner. So get images on your about page. So if there’s anything you’ve learned from this episode, I really want you to take home the fact that your about page while it is about you. It’s not just about you, it’s about making your audience feel that you are the right person to help them with whatever it is that they need. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Top copy to me. If you enjoyed spending your time with me today. I would be so honored if you could subscribe to the show and leave a review. Want to continue the conversation? Head on over to Instagram and follow me at @ErinOllila Until next time friends.