Tell me about yourself without telling me about yourself
You’re at a networking event and someone comes up and introduces themselves. They say, “so tell me about yourself.” You pause to think about your response. Should you say you’re a mum of 2 who works in the corporate world but has a website business on the side? This is what most people would say, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Naturally, our first instinct is to say who we are in relation to others (mum / wife / partner etc) and what we do for a living. That’s great in a social setting, but should we also introduce ourselves this way in a business setting, or even on our website?
When it comes to writing about ourselves, particularly the About Me (or About Us) page of a website, we tend to write about our professional background, education, qualifications, achievements, success stories and why we’re the best at what we do. There’s nothing wrong with introducing ourselves this way. It’s a great way to let the other person know who we are. But when it comes to a website, how do we write about ourselves?
According to Hubspot 52% of website users want to see an About Us page, and 31% of consumers consider the About Us page the most important element of a website. So with strong statistics like these, it’s important to nail your About Us page.
How to write about “me”
The purpose of the About Me page is to let your customers know who you are. This is important because it creates trust between you and your potential customer.
When writing the About Me page, think about your audience and how you are a good fit for them.
A good About Me page should tell your potential customer:
- who you are (to foster familiarity)
- why you do what you do (your mission and values)
- how your business can benefit them (a glimpse of what working with you would be like)
- how you stand out from your competitors (your single value proposition)
In other words, you are still talking about yourself, but you are tailoring the information in the eyes of your target market. You only have roughly 5 seconds to grab the attention of your reader, so information must be select, precise, and relevant to what they want to know (not what you want to put out there).
Here are my tips on how to nail your About Me page.
Who you are
This is your chance to showcase your expertise and experience. Why are you the person to offer this product or service?
Your values and mission
This is a great place to state what your values and your mission are. This helps you to be relatable and helps attract the right customers to you – your “tribe”, if you will.
But beware of using “buzz” words like “integrity” or “teamwork” as so many businesses use these as their values that it starts to lose its impact on the audience. This is the time to really think deep about what you really stand for and what your passions are. Customers are drawn to businesses who are authentic, so take some time to think through your values and your mission. Read more on how to write your values and mission statements.
Your benefits as a business
Customers who visit your website are looking for a particular solution to their problem. What problem are you trying to solve for them? This is one of the most important statements to include in your About Us page. But don’t just talk about how you solve the problem, but what benefit it would bring to the customer. Show the customer the end goal of what working with you would be like.
Your single value proposition
This is where you can showcase what sets you apart from your competitors. For example, don’t just say you’re a bridal make-up artist, but a sought-after, award-winning bridal makeup artist for brides who want the natural, inner glow look. This is closely tied to your benefits statement stated above – when it comes to your benefits and what sets you apart it can sound very much the same, but pick the one overarching characteristic that makes you, you.
It would be ideal at this point to have a link to your services page where you will go into more detail about your services offerings and any prices attached to them. Read more about what should go in your Services Page. Read more about how to promote yourself.
Need help with writing your web copy?
If you need help with writing your web copy, drop me a line in the Contact Me form and let’s chat.
