The conventional wisdom is that an About page should be about you. That’s wrong.
Your About page isn’t really about you, it’s about your potential customer. It needs to do just two simple things:
- Explain to your potential customer why they should read the page in the first place, and
- Tell them why they should give you their money.
It’s time to ditch that “just OK” About page and pivot to a strategy that helps you sell, sell, sell!
Before we discuss how, let’s talk about why. A comprehensive and compelling Much Ado About You!™ strategy:
- Demonstrates that you know your audience, and you understand your prospective customers
- Confirms that you know the specific unique benefits you provide, and why they matter to your audience
- Articulates how you can help
- Demonstrates how you’ve provided solutions for others
- Shows why you can be trusted
- Gives a sense of what it’s like to work with you
- Shares your values, letting people know who you really are and what you believe
- Tells the story of your professional journey, explaining how you got to where you are today
- Establishes how it is that you know what you know
Don’t start with your bio, start with your USP
USP, you say? What’s that?
Simply put, your USP — your Unique Selling Proposition — is the attribute (or set of attributes) differentiating your product or service from the competition, by virtue of the benefits it brings to your customers. In addition to being the compelling reason that potential customers must choose you over all others…
Your USP highlights the specific and unique benefits in choosing you, and resonates with why customers care about these benefits
Our challenge is to present your USP in a way that turns readers into customers. My deep dive collaborative process with you crafts a series of simple-yet-elegant bullet points consolidating the best you have to offer, while presenting it as benefits to your potential customer. Check out my Why Choose Me page to see this in action.
Craft your About page to demonstrate the value you provide
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Your About page has just two objectives:
- Explain why they should read the page in the first place, and
- Tell them why they should give you their money.
I’ve defined a process that molds a bunch of disconnected factoids into something focused on meeting these objectives. It’s all centered around how you provide value, and the incredible benefits customers reap when choosing to work with you.
Leverage these results to create additional content
Once the key messaging is nailed down, it’s straightforward to extend that to other pages on your site. For example:
- Frequently Asked Questions: Answer key questions highlighting your solutions and expertise, reinforcing why they should choose you.
- Case Studies: Provide real-customer proof that your services (products, methodology, approach, process…) work.
- Products and Services: Demonstrate how your offerings solve their problems — and don’t just solve them, but solve them better than the competition.
- Press/News: Highlight announcements and news about your organization that specifically focus on your USP.
- Career Opportunities: Shift the “Why Choose Me?” focus to “Why Work Here?”
- Membership Organizations: Move from “Why Choose Me? to “Why Join Us?”