6 Ingredients for an About Page that Connects & Converts

Your website’s About Page can be very powerful in building trust, credibility and connection with your audience.
Unfortunately, many people aren’t giving it the attention it deserves. As a result, most About Pages are sitting around collecting dust, instead of taking a website visitor closer to becoming a client.
I get it, writing the About Page is often tricky…
It’s about you, and it’s NOT about you.
You’ve to communicate your experience, skills and credentials, without making it dry and boring like a crusty ol’ resume (reminder: boring doesn’t sell.)
You’ve to tell your story, without navel-gazing.
You’ve to share your success and achievement – written in first person – without overtly tooting your own horn.
Here’s the hardest part:
Your About Page is about YOU.
You’ve to be brutally honest and vulnerable.
It’s a distillation of the sum total of you – your vision, values, convictions, personality, skills, experiences, superpowers… woven into an intriguing story, fit into a page short enough that your readers don’t fall asleep.
There’s no products, services or programs to hide behind. You’re presenting YOU.
You’re putting yourself out there, making the personal and emotional connection necessary for clients to say yes to YOU.
And that’s scary.
Work needs to be done on overcoming the fears of not being good enough, of not worthy of being seen and heard, of being judged or criticized, of rejection and of missing out.
You’ve to make your About Page personal, without taking it personally.

Talking about YOU is the vehicle to find the people who resonate with YOU – which means you’ve to relate to your audience through your story.
There’s no one definitive way to write an effective About Page, because your life’s arch is one of a kind.
I’ve written many About Pages for my clients…
The process always focuses on honoring the clients’ unique path, rather than squeezing them into a template.

Instead of giving you some 5-step process, a bunch of storytelling formulas or a series of techniques (all of which you can pull from the Google in less than 5 sec,) I’m going to share 6 insights I’ve gleaned over the years on what goes behind an intriguing personal story that pulls the heartstring and creates connection and resonance with readers:
 
1. Treat writing your About Page as a process toward Clarity and Confidence
It’s more than a writing exercise. It’s more than coughing up some stuff to fill your website.
When you tell your story to a well-defined audience, speaking in a way that’s intriguing to them, you’re essentially articulating why YOU matter to your niche.
Through the process of articulating why your audience needs to pay attention to what you’ve to offer, you’re telling them how your values, beliefs, convictions, experiences and skills are RELEVANT to them.
They won’t give a crap if you aren’t relevant to them.
When you approach the nurturing of this connection with your audience (your niche) as a process of defining your place in the community, you’ve to step up and own “why YOU matter.”
When you do so, you gain confidence in your communications – and this affects how you show up in your business…
If you don’t fully show up in your business, how can you expect your audience to show up for you?
 
2. Tell your story as an evolution of your POV, the seed of Trust and Credibility
A good About Page tells the readers how you get to where you are within the context of how you can help them.
Along the way, through the lessons learned and the experiences gained, you’ve developed your unique point of view on the subject matter.
By sharing the evolution of that POV in your story, you give it substance.
Crystalize your POV into a captivating bold statement that evokes an emotional and aspirational response in your readers.
Why share your POV?
It’s close to impossible to develop a POV unless you know the subject matter well. When you state it with confidence and certainty, you communicate credibility, establishthought leadership and build trust with your audience (which of course is essential to conversion.)
 
3. Don’t turn your About Page into a Resume
Your readers aren’t interested in that laundry list of alphabets behind your name unless your credentials are relevant to how you can help them.
Listing out your credential like it’s a CV is not going to cut it. It’s BORING and boring doesn’t sell.
Instead, weave the development of your skills and credentials into your story, and tell your readers how the acquisition of the skills and expertise is part of the journey of you helping them achieve results.
You don’t have to be overt about it.
 
4. Don’t Navel-Gaze; Speak to a Larger Context
Your goal is to aspire your audience to take the next step through relating to you personally and emotionally through your story.
You’ve to evoke empathy by making your story about them.
Your readers need to see themselves in your story, and project themselves into your POV, transformation, and success.
Even though your story is about you, using too many “I” “me” etc. can make the perspective myopic.
Zoom out once in a while, and turn the table to relate the story to your audience. Help them see how your experience sits within a larger context, and evoke feelings and emotions that speak to the bigger picture of human conditions.
 
5. Communicate a “Shared Identity” right off the bet
Your audience will be more interested in your story if they can identify with you.
To draw them in right away, you can start with something that only “insiders” would know to communicate that you’re “one of them.”
You can also paint a few vivid pictures of shared experiences so your readers feel that you’re a real person with real experiences to which they can relate.
These shared experiences often say more than anything else to make your audience feel that you really, truly understand what they’re going through. It helps you cultivate a deep level of trust.
 
6. Make your Ending about them
Most stories end with the hero (you) overcoming challenges and achieving goals.
Your happy ending should mirror your audience’s desired outcomes in your area of expertise so they can project themselves into your story, relate to your success and see how it’s also possible for them.
Paint the scenario: what does it look like when your audience achieves success with your help?
Evoke the emotions: how would they feel when they overcome their challenges?
The end of your story is not the end of your About Page.
Often times a conclusion can serve to reinforce your POV (+ the resulting trust and credibility) and put the focus back onto your readers.
Remind them that your hero’s journey is a reflection of their circumstances and their potential success.
Reiterate your POV and what matters to you in reference to how they’re relevant to your niche.
Aspire them to an identity conducive to taking the next step with you.
 
BONUS TIP :: Don’t let your About Page collect dust
You can refer back to this riveting story again and again to build trust and relationship with folks who dig your content and want to learn more about you.
Your blog posts may not be the best place to tell the long story, however, you can hint at a snippet of your journey that’s most relevant to the content and link to your About Page.
Your website sidebar is a good place to put a teaser of your story or an “elevator pitch” with a “read more” link pointing back to your About Page.
You can also leverage your About Page content to pitch media opportunities – there’re many websites and publications looking for experts’ first-hand journeys and experiences. By getting featured, you can not only share your story to inspire others, but also gain exposure to a brand new audience.