I’ve been hearing a lot lately from people who are struggling to write their About Page. Which I can completely understand. It should be the easiest page on your website to write: I mean who knows you better than you? One of the problems, in my opinion, is that we know ourselves a little too well. We know what we tell ourselves in the dead of night: that we’re not good enough, that nobody will buy what we sell, that nobody wants to hear what we have to say. But we are good enough, people will buy what we sell, and what we have to say is important. But we have to say it in order for it to be heard. I think we block ourselves because of self-doubt and early lessons in boastfulness: that wicked trait, beaten out of us by parents, teachers, and mocking peers at a young age. So what to do? Well, in this post, I’m sharing my five-step plan to get over yourself and write a wicked About Page. Ready? Good! Let’s go!
One: let’s get over the whole ‘I’m not good enough’ thing.
In the centre of a bit of paper each, write down ‘Experience’, ‘Skills & Attributes’, and ‘Why’.
Around the word ‘Experience’, jot down the jobs you’ve done, projects you’ve been part of, lessons you’ve learned along the way. And from each of these, draw a line and make a note of your key achievement(s) from each one. Take some time to remember all of those achievements and what it felt like at the time. Circle any experiences that help you in your current work, or that your ideal customer will relate to.
Around ‘Skills & Attributes’, jot down the key skills you’ve learned, whether through formal learning or through experience. Think of the skills you use for the work you do now, and the skills you learned in the past: which ones have you transferred into your current work? (My transferrable skills include the ability to learn about a business quickly and convey that information so that someone who’s never heard of it before, will be able to make a decision about it. These days, that decision is whether to buy from it, but the skill was honed when the decision was whether to lend it millions of pounds.) When it comes to your best attributes, a great exercise is to contact your friends, associates, customers, and ask them what they would say are your three best attributes. It can take some courage to press send, but everyone who does it receives a massive confidence boost. If you choose to do it, add those attributes to this part of the exercise.
Around the word ‘Why’, answer the questions: why are you doing this? and why is this important to you? This is a key area of connection between you and your ideal customer.
When you’ve finished this exercise you will have pages of reasons to be confident about what you’re doing and what you bring to your customers. Look how awesome you are!!!
Two: let’s help your customer connect to you, part one.
On another bit of paper, answer the following questions.
- What’s your ideal customer’s main problem?
- What are they underlying reasons for that problem?
- What bit do you help them solve?
- How do these problems affect your ideal customer?
- What does it feel like to them?
- What do they tell themselves about it?
- What do they tell other people about it?
- What does it stop them from doing?
Three: let’s help your customer connect with you, part two.
Now answer these questions.
- How do you help them solve their problem?
- What exactly do you do for them?
- What’s different about how you solve their problem?
- What do they get from you that they don’t get anywhere else?
- What does it mean to them that their problem is solved?
- What does it mean to them that it’s solved the way you solve it?
- What can they do as a result?
- How do they feel as a result?
Four: now let’s write the story of your business!
Now it’s time to write the story of how you and your business help people to solve their problem in the particular way that you solve it! The best About Pages are written in the first person, as if they’re talking to the reader. So let’s not get caught up in formal, report writing here. You’re going to be telling your readers your story, almost like in a friendly letter.
First of all you’re going to use the information from part two to help your ideal customer see that you understand them and their problem. So write about the pain they’re feeling and what they’re not doing as a result of the problem you solve. Use the words that they use, both to themselves and other people, to build up a picture of that understanding.
Now use the information from part three to help your ideal customer see that you not only understand their problem, but that you solve it too. And talk about the benefits of that solution and why it’s the solution that helps them the best.
Thirdly, use the information on part one to demonstrate why you’re the person they should trust when it comes to solving their problem. Talk about your relevant experiences and where you learnt your skills. Tell them why you’re doing this, and why it’s so important to you. Show them that you’re not just someone who woke up one day and thought ‘that would be an easy sell’. And the great thing about all that information from part one, is that you can weave it throughout your About Page, as proof that you understand them, and proof that you’re the one for them.
Finally, finish with a sum-up sentence that says what problem you solve, how you solve it, and why you’re the person to trust.
Five: the spit and polish.
The final part of your About Page is the spit and polish. Leave it to sit for a day or so and then come back to it. Edit it to make it read more easily – when I write my first drafts they tend to have a lot of ‘I would’ or ‘I have’ type phrasing, which I change to ‘I’d’ and ‘I’ve’ to make it more relaxed. You may want to move things around a bit, or rewrite bits. Once you’re happy with the copy, look at any phrases you think would particularly resonate with your ideal customer and highlight them in bold or colour. And finally, add a decent photograph of yourself. People like to know who they’re dealing with.
I hope that helps! Let me know how you get on 🙂