This is part two of my Write Your Site Series: A 6-part guide to writing your core website pages (Home, About, Services, and Contact), followed by a step-by-step checklist to launching and marketing your new site. Today’s post is about how to write your About page.
You’ve probably heard before that your About page isn’t actually about YOU.
And while I agree to an extent, I also don’t.
BECAUSE…
People are probably paying you a decent chunk of change to work your magic for their business.
And while we want to know what’s in it for us (aka we’re selfish) when we read a website…
We also want to work with humans. REAL, living, breathing humans behind the screen.
Early on in my business, I paid $4,000 to a service provider and NOT ONCE did we have a conversation outside of email. 😳
I never saw her face. And we never talked on the phone or even in one of those awkward let’s-meet-on-Zoom-but-not-turn-on-our-cameras meetings.
Even though the work she did was great, by the end of the experience I felt myself wishing I had gotten to know her — or at least had the chance to have a 1:1 conversation with her.
(Listen, I’m an introvert at heart and a homebody to my core. But don’t let anyone pay you four figures and then never show them your face or let them hear your voice. It won’t make you memorable and it definitely won’t make you refer-able.)
So if you’re wondering how to write your About page, here are 5 must-have sections to capture attention, build a connection, and convert:
01. Establish Trust
First and foremost, your About page needs to show your reader why they should trust you. (Like I said earlier, we’re selfish by nature. So start by making it about them.)
Take their most pressing problem as it relates to the transformation you help them achieve, and reiterate it to them.
A few prompts to get you started are:
- Ever wish you could just [thing they really want to accomplish that would transform their business]?
- Get them thinking, “YES I wish that! Tell me more.”
- We can all agree that [pain point/annoyance/problem they’re currently dealing with], right?
- Get them thinking, “She’s speaking my language.”
- We do [X], but the difference is [primary differentiator].
- Get them thinking, “Ok—I’m in the right place AND there’s a unique approach?! I’m intrigued.”
Set a timer for 10 minutes and write 10-20 iterations of your About page headline. NO EDITING YET! Think of it as a journal exercise. Focus less on being grammatically correct and more on letting the words flow.
02. Show Understanding
You don’t want to address their problem and then leave it at that…
Let them know that you understand what they’re feeling.
Can you speak from experience? Show them you’ve been where they are. Then tell them how you got to where you are now (aka where they hope to be!).
Can you support the point you made above by showing how you live out that belief?
Is there a specific journey or process you take your clients/customers through that shows how efficient, unique, or detailed you are?
No matter how you build upon your About page headline, this is the part of the page where you can transition from you-focused copy (copy about your reader) to me-focused copy (copy about yourself).
03. Back It Up
You’re starting to prove that you’re the one for the job. But you need a bit more to back it up.
Here are some ideas of what you can include to accomplish this:
- Testimonials that speak to your character or value
- Your brand mission statement and why it matters to you
- Your core values or non-negotiables when it comes to how you run your business
- Where you or your clients have been featured
- Analytics on results you’ve specifically contributed to for your clients
- Analytics on results your area of expertise can provide for your clients (not direct results you’ve gotten, but more like stats on the marketplace)
04. Say Hello
Now that you’ve shown your qualifications, go big on the *human* element. And I know, it’s hard to write about yourself. Your life is boring. Blah, blah, blah.
But think of it this way: Do you watch reality TV? Or YouTube vloggers?
YouTube vlogs are my guilty pleasure of choice. And one day I realized that most of them are literally just a person taking their audience through their day.
On camera, they get ready for the day, they workout, they eat breakfast, they work a bit or share their grocery order… I mean this is not groundbreaking stuff, guys.
But it’s freaking entertaining as heck to watch how someone else spends their days. Why?
I don’t really have an answer for that, but I think in this digital age, it helps us feel connected to people.
So don’t get caught up on how uninteresting you think you are.
Think about your everyday habits, your coffee order, the meal you could eat 3x a day, your nightly rituals, or organizations you’re passionate about and involved in.
Maybe your friends are always asking you for advice on something: interior design, fashion, non-toxic product swaps, fiction books, or new workouts to try.
Whatever you choose, be specific enough about it that you aren’t just saying you love to read or are a self-care goddess.
Instead, say you never end a day without devouring a few pages of the latest mystery thriller on your Kindle while soaking in an Epsom salt bath.
A bit more memorable than “loves to curl up with a good book”, right?
Here are some other ways to add some extra personality to your page:
BUILD A FUN FACTS SECTION
I love this example from the Northfolk website. It’s short, it’s easy to put together, it’s fun to read, and the best part is that you can make up your own prompts so you can showcase exactly what you want to.
SHOW YOUR LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK
Jenna Kutcher does this (& everything, honestly) beautifully. There’s a section of her About page dedicated to all the titles she has in her life, from CEO to mama to author and more.
SHARE A TIMELINE OF YOUR BUSINESS
A timeline of your life and business is another way to show that transformation you talked about earlier while adding in personal details or pivots you’ve made along the way.
(Tonic actually has a $50 Showit template with SEVEN different timeline layouts and designs that you can drop right into your website. My code ‘UPSTAIRSSTUDIO’ always gets you 15% off everything at Tonic if you’re interested in scooping up this fun website add-on.)
05. Tell Them Where to Go Next
You can’t end a page on your website without telling your reader where to go next. Ya just can’t.
Your call to action on your About page can be many things. But at this point, they’re probably interested in learning about your services now that they’ve had a chance to get to know, like, and trust you.
First, write a headline that helps them picture themselves in their dream state or shows them what they could be feeling if they let you work your magic in their business.
(Maybe you were torn between two that you wrote for the first section of this page? If so, drop the other one here and you’re done!)
And finish it off with a button linked to your Services page.
Easy peasy.
There you have it! How to write your about page with 5 must-have sections.
If you’re looking for more guidance on how to write your website copy, read about my easy homepage formula.
Want to hand it all off to a copy pro instead? Work with me to write your brand messaging and website copy for you.
