A bit about me: How to write great About pages

Have you sat in front of the screen for a long time and struggled to write an About page? You’re not alone. From hundreds of clients I’ve worked with in the past year, it’s evident that writing About pages is one of the hardest things for business owners. So, I decided to tell you how I write About pages and help you refine your writing and get you out of the boring and generic About pages that everyone knows.

Honestly, I don’t understand why writing About pages is something people hate to do. I don’t know if it’s related to “the cobbler’s children have no shoes,” lack of cohesion, or just a fear of expressing oneself in writing. But it’s clear – people don’t like to write About pages.

About is our opportunity to tell our story from an interesting angle, add a personal interpretation, and even control others’ narratives about us. It’s every business’s dream.

When one of my clients described me as the “queen of all About pages” after I wrote amazing and precise About pages for her, I decided to give up all the money in the world related to About pages – I just want to give others the tools to write about themselves as needed.

So here are some points that will help you refine your About page.

Use them and don’t forget to share the results with me.

What do we want to tell?

You are more interesting than you think.

Many times I encounter people who seriously say, “I have no story” or “I have nothing to tell.”

I encourage you to contemplate what you wish to convey about yourself. What message do you want to impart regarding your actions, beliefs, and the quality of your services?

This process of narrowing down will assist you in discerning what truly aligns with your brand’s essence from the multitude of potential messages you could communicate.

Crafting an About section commences with a focused understanding that refines and translates all potential messages into something tangible and coherent.

In a recent project with an international investment firm, their brand narrative emphasized their reliability and expertise. You might initially think, “Fantastic, I’d like to engage with this firm.”

However, the issue arises when we simply assert ourselves as trustworthy and competent; it’s somewhat generic. After all, no organization or individual in business desires to be perceived as untrustworthy or incompetent.

It’s crucial to delve deeply into what we aim to convey to our audience—what serves as the guiding principle behind our About page. For instance, the previously mentioned investment firm sought to communicate its unwavering commitment to its investors. 

Even if their decisions occasionally diverged from conventional business logic, their primary focus remained to ensure investor satisfaction and foster trust. Now, that’s something to work with.

Where does our story begin?

Writing About pages cannot start with “holds a master’s degree in organizational consulting” or with “lecturer, coach, and business mentor.” Besides the fact that this is a very boring and repulsive start, it blurs our story and does not encourage others to read our story.

I encourage you to think about how you got into what you do. Or if it’s a project, how it was advanced, and what the idea behind it is. People connect to processes, to changes we went through, and generally to a goal that seems more lofty.

If we can tell the world why we chose to do what we chose and how we changed others’ perceptions, reality, or even lives, that’s a story worth telling.

I chose to open my About with the words “My story began when I was little and my parents told me ‘no.’ I decided to connect something related to my childhood and the perception that was rooted in me and how I developed it into a positive place of excellence in sales later on.

Mapping out a scenario, a statement, or a specific perception and developing it into the story of your About page will make all the difference between generic About pages and memorable ones that will do the job. Remember, storytelling works.

Who are we talking to?

It’s crucial to establish at the start of creating a digital asset (a website, landing page, or business page) who our intended audience is. This not only helps in shaping the content but also in crafting the overall perception of our brand.

When we write to different audiences, we need to use words they would resonate with or even better – words they would use. We must understand their experiences and feelings so we can build trust with them and be relevant.  

Is the target audience comprised of academics, involving a writing style accompanied by elevated language? Is it a specific function within organizations, demanding language rich in industry-specific jargon? Or does the audience have a diverse range of individuals with specific preferences, such as vegans, thereby requiring language aligned with other content domains like sustainability, health, and nutrition?

Strive to understand who your audience is and what sets them apart. Are there additional content domains, specialized terms, or significant considerations to incorporate into the writing?

My recommendation is to remove third-person narration and consistently use a first-person approach. Whether representing an individual brand or a large organization, utilizing first-person singular/plural invariably fosters a stronger connection and enables us to engage with our audience on a more personal level.

Brand Voice

Brand Voice is our means of giving our brand a voice and style using only four parameters.

This is an exercise that is no less than amazing in my eyes because it truly provides the framework for creating digital assets in general and about specifics.

The first parameter is character or in other words personality.

Try to think about the character of your brand, or if you are the brand, what personality traits you would like others to infer about you.

Are you meticulous, playful, or inspiring? Perhaps you are both playful and inspiring – great. Write it clearly and let your character take part in writing your About.

The second parameter is tone.

You need to decide how you write and create consistency. For example, I write in a personal, honest tone and inject some playfulness and slang into my writing. I found a unique tone that guides me in all my writing and gets a place of honor in my About section too.

The third parameter is language or the language you choose.

The language connects to the previous section, to our target audience. Will the language be academic, elaborate, and precise, or perhaps overall light, simple, and easy to understand?

The language helps us understand how we should construct our approach and complements the overall tone of our “About Page”.

And the last parameter – purpose.

Why are we writing? What action do we want to motivate from our content? The purpose can be to engage, to educate, and even to sell.

Yet, when we talk of writing about us, the sole purpose is to instill trust. We want readers to connect with us and understand that we are the right choice for them. 

And so, while we write our story, we will try to understand what will instill confidence and trust in our target audience.

All four parameters, of course, connect together to our brand voice and allow us to write about as close to perfect as possible.

Call to Action

From the site of Maria Forleo https://www.marieforleo.com/

Our About or “our story” if you’d like,  is an amazing opportunity to encourage our audience to take action.

Many people confuse Call To Action with an attempt to sell. CTA is not equal to a purchase offer. I really love the call to action in the About sections that invite me to send a message. Or ones that present a video for viewing with a click of a button to deepen familiarity or even those that give me a small gift for download just because I read them about.

All these calls to action are designed to deepen the connection between the readers and the brand and to instill trust. Their goals are to be part of the customer journey we created and to provide some pleasant spark, something that will initiate a meaningful connection between our audience and us.

Picture

Put an interesting picture of yourself, or at least one that truly tells who you are.

Yes, it’s clear that if you are a lawyer and your brand voice is more elaborate, then choose a professional picture.

But even a professional picture doesn’t have to be a duplicate of every other lawyer’s picture we’ve ever seen. It can be different.

A picture that exposes a mischievous gaze, a genuine smile, or is taken in nature, will help encourage more people to connect with you. If you seem approachable in your picture, it will be much easier to reach out to you. And that’s the goal – to turn the readers on our site into potential customers who want to reach out to us.

In summary,

Writing about is a process that takes time. About is not disconnected from the rest of our brand, its values, and messages. It’s important to do preliminary work and understand exactly what we want to convey, and especially – what we want others to think and infer about us.

About is the ultimate opportunity to fly on our own, without others realizing that we are doing it, and of course to control what they will think. About includes a story, a brand voice, the call to action, and everything, of course, takes shape when they see our smiling and authentic picture.

If you still need help writing about and finding your story, I invite you to check out this short course that will leave you with a written story about – your brand’s foundation.