How to Create Your About Page

Your About page is the perfect place to indicate in more detail your journey to the present... Remember, your reader has likely already viewed at least a few important pages on your website, such as your HOME page and possibly an article or two... They want more information.

This is the perfect place to give your readers a deeper insight into you and your business. Telling a brief "backstory" is the perfect way to maintain that important problem-solving focus and still let your reader see your journey.

Every journey will be different, but here are some things to include:

• Your own path to overcome specific obstacles along your journey to NOW: what those struggles were, how you overcame them, what uphill challenges you encountered, etc. These help to create a connection with your reader, while helping to establish that you understand their current challenges because "you've been there!"
• Who you primarily serve & why (this is essential: you need to explicitly inform your readers if they are NOT in your key demographic... Example: you have a "boutique consulting firm" that delivers premium consulting — and a dedicated client consultant (providing a fair amount of 'hand-holding') — so your prices are going to reflect that premium service level & likely wouldn't be suited to mid- to low-pricing structure
• What differentiates you from others in your niche: how you work, how quickly results are delivered, personal attention, a dedicated team (PRO TIP: don't make this a pricing war! If you position yourself in regard to the value you provide you will be lightyears ahead of the competition...because there will ALWAYS be someone who comes in "cheaper" than you... That's a losing battle!)
• Your personal & business values: your own personal WHY... (Why are you in business, why you do the work you do)
• What causes you support (think Starbucks, Tom's Shoes, & Bomba Socks)

NOTE: Your own "Manifesto" is also perfect for this type of content... You can view my Manifesto here. If your journey has been fairly direct and brief — not too many twists & turns along the way — you may want to combine your Manifesto with your About page... I have chosen to create a separate Manifesto, but there is no hard and fast rule about this.

BONUS TIP:

If this is your first experience at writing your About page, you might be tempted to get sidetracked by which client/customer challenges or obstacles to address in your About page. Here's a simple way to keep your focus:

• Identify the top 3 problems/obstacles/challenges your clients typically express to you. Don't spend time on every possible problem.
• Now, put them in some type of order that makes sense to your niche/client base... This could be the severity or urgency of the problem. Alternatively, it could be a "beginner" problem, beyond which the client can make no progress or take any new action.
• Finally, provide examples — using the content strategies in this section — to illustrate just how you have solved those questions for others!

A great process is to ask new clients about their top 3 challenges when you first have an individual meeting with them. Then, keep track of these in a note-taking app such as Evernote or Google Keep. Over time, you will learn exactly what problems to focus on in your future marketing. This is also a great way to build an FAQ over time...

If you publish success stories on your website, linking to them within your About page is a great way to demonstrate exactly how you have helped other clients.

f you have a significant client history — and you are not currently publishing such examples on your website, you may want to consider doing so.

Make sure you have explicit (& written) client permission for publishing such information. One way to encourage client participation is to feature them in your published case study, with a photo or two & include a link to their business. Of course, you'd only want to do this with non-competitive businesses...

An excellent way to generate trust and authority is to include photos of you giving presentations, teaching classes or seminars, or giving TED talks.

These work very well, because you are illustrating that other organizations have confidence & trust in you and your authority in your niche.

And, you can demonstrate these with minimal fanfare, just by including an event photo with an explicit and descriptive caption: name the event, provide a date, name the organization, etc.