I bet you never thought about the fact that an About Page could be unsuccessful. It was just some facts about you, your business, and what you do. No big deal, nothing to stress out about.
The thing is, humans are naturally curious creatures. That’s why there’s such a gapers delay on the highway when we see flashing lights ahead. It’s why I know things about my next-door neighbor’s grandchild that I don’t care about, but asked about anyway.
Which brings me to the point that when someone is visiting your website they are going to your About page not just for your credentials, but to learn more about you, to assuage their curiosity.
With that in mind, I give you 5 tips for writing a successful About Page:
1. Find the right mix of business and personal
As a small business you want to talk about your business, but you also want to give readers a taste of the personality behind the business. An About Page isn’t business writing 101, give the cold, hard facts with personality.
2. Tell a story
Explaining how you, or your company, got to where it is today is very important. If you give this information in story form, people are going to connect to it more and stick around for longer because they’re interested. Make it the difference between reading a textbook and reading a creative non-fiction book.
3. Lead with the interesting parts
Start out your About Page with the personal stuff, the story, and the interesting tidbits. Even if you have a ton of awards and qualifications you want to mention, don’t start with those, push them to the end so that a.) you don’t look arrogant and b.) people stick with you for longer because you’re entertaining them at the beginning.
4. Make it about your customer
Sure it’s an About Page, and that means it’s about you, but if you can make it so it’s also about your potential and current customers, you’re going to really wow. Writing the page in a way that connects what you do, your skills and talents with what customers need from you is a great way to up the ante.
5. Be relevant
This kind of goes against some of the above, but it’s really just an addendum to the first 4 steps. Tell a story, but make sure it’s relevant to your business. Put in the personal stuff, as long as it has some sort of connection to what you do. If you sell paper, don’t go on a fly-fishing tangent, but you can tell a story about the first time you saw The Office (since they sell paper at Dunder Mifflin).
An About Page is a tricky thing to write. It needs to walk a fine line between being too personal and too business-minded.
What is your About Page like? Does it follow any of these rules? Are you going to re-write it?
If you realize it does need a re-write, feel free to contact me for some help. I’d love to make your About Page shine.