How do you create a good About page? If you’ve been following me for long, you know that you are not the hero of your story. Your customers are the hero, but that can make your About page really difficult.
How do you create an About page that doesn’t make you the hero? My name’s Ryan Toth. I’m the CEO of ClearBrand, and in this post I’m going to show you exactly how I create About pages that win.
I’m going to show you a couple of my favorite examples of real About pages.
When somebody clicks on your About page, they’re not looking for a list of your goals and all the ways that you treat your employees.
Clients Are Not On Your Website To Learn About You
They’re on your website because they have a problem and they’re looking to solve it, and your personal goals or revenue potential don’t matter to their story. It does not help them get where they’re trying to go.
So keep in mind that your customers are on your website because they’ve got a problem that they’re looking to solve. This changes your perspective of why people go to your About page.
It’s not to read a novel about your business.
Instead, what people are really looking for is whether they can trust you or not. So the big question is how can you help your customers learn about you in a way that establishes trust so they feel comfortable moving forward on their journey with you? And just like everything that I talk about, it all comes back to story.
Stories have been around for thousands and thousands of years and they’ve been engaging and compelling the human brain the entire time.
What this means for you, your brand, and your About page is that when we tell a story, our customers engage with it on a deeper level. It’s way better than just creating a brochure as a webpage that has all the information you could possibly offer your customer.
Instead, when you invite your customers into a story, not only do they learn a little bit about you, but they also trust you and they have an experience that excites them about doing business with you.
So I’m going to walk through a brief overview of storytelling, and I’m going to tell you exactly how it applies to your About page.
Let’s get started.
Act 1: The Setup
Starting off in Act 1, we’ve got two parts. The first thing that Act 1, the Setup, has to do is establish what the hero of the story wants. What is it that they’re striving for, that they desire? For you, the hero of your story is your customer. So I want you to ask, what is it that your customer wants as it relates to your product or service?
If you sell running shoes, maybe your customers want to run faster, maybe they want to run farther, or maybe they want waterproof running shoes, if that’s what you specialize in. So as you’re going through this, I want you to write down what your customer wants.
Then we’re going to move on to the second part of Act 1, which is the problem. Something gets in the way. It prevents your customer from getting what they want. What is the problem they’re experiencing? Write that down.
Act 2: The Action
We know what the hero wants, what your customers want, and the problem getting in their way.
Act 2 is where you come in. In a story, the problem is generally big enough that the hero can’t solve it on their own. So storytellers invented another character called The Guide. And the Guide’s job is to help the hero win the day, to help them solve their problem.
That’s why the Guide is in the story, and that’s you! You are your customer’s guide. You are going to help them solve their problem and you’re going to do it with your product or service, which we’re going to talk about in a second.
This section is important because this is where we really get into talking about you and there are three things that I want you to write down about yourself that you’re going to mention on your About page.
The first thing is why do you care? Write down your why.
The second thing I want you to talk about is how are you similar to your customers? Have you been through something like them? How is it that you understand what they’re going through?
And the third thing I want you to write down for yourself is why can your customers trust you to solve their problem? Write those things down in this section of your website.
Next we have the solution. This is the second part of Act two, right? And this is really where the rubber meets the road and the guide provides the hero with a solution. This is your product or your company. How is it that you help people solve their problem?
Act 3: The Resolution
Now we get to Act 3, where two things happen.
The first thing is you as the guide are calling your hero to action. You’re calling your customers to act. “Hey, don’t just stay there. You’ve got to do something, if you want to change your life. You’ve got to do something, if you want to solve this problem.” So you’re calling into a specific action, Generally, that action is Buy my product.
The last thing is the results, and this is really where we see how the hero’s life has changed. They wanted something and the problem got in their way. Now in the results we’re saying, did they get what they want? And when they got what they wanted, how has their life gotten better? Talk about it.
All right, so that’s how you tell an incredible story. We’ve got three acts. You’ve got two parts of each act. Now how do we apply that to your About page?
Well, there are two main ways to do that. The first way to do that is really just to take the story that you created. We’ve got your customers and what they want. We’ve got a problem that’s in the way we’re trying to write it out and you’re just going to show up in the guide and the solution sections, and that’s okay.
And the Guide Section, like I said, we’re talking about how you are similar, why you care and why people can trust you.
So really, this is what most people are on your About page for. And that section is going to answer that and the rest of the story is just going to compel them to act, to take that call to action that you have in there and buy your products so that they see the results that they’re looking for.
Now there’s another way that you can go about writing your About page. It’s a, it’s similar but it’s a little different. Let me explain: Instead of writing down your customers and what they want and the promise in there, you can instead write your entire story to follow the exact same framework, but the entire thing is going to be in terms of your empathy.
When you identify what your customers want and the problem that’s getting in their way on this version of your About page, what you’re going to do is write down how and when did you want the same thing and we’re going to look at the problem and you’re going to talk about how and when did you experience that same problem that prevented you from getting what you wanted? And the first version of this, what you would say is most of our customers want to run faster. The problem is their shoes just can’t keep up.
In this second version, what you’re going to do instead is you would say, my whole life I wanted to run faster, but the problem was my shoes wouldn’t keep up. So now we’ve taken your customer story and we’re telling it through your eyes. So your entire About page turns into a page of empathy and connection and when your customers read your story, they’re actually seeing their story and the entire time they’re connecting with you.
I really like talking about pages this way because of the opportunity for connection and that comradery between you and your customers.
Now, if you have not experienced the story that your customers are living that we just identified, when you say what your customers want, if you didn’t want that or what is the problem that got in their way? If you didn’t experience that problem, don’t lie on your About page just for the sake of that connection.
However, if you had the same desires and experienced the same problems and then set out to solve them, this is a great place to tell that story and I would do it in this way. Telling your story in this way where you’re actually connecting with what your customers want and the problem that they experienced keeps your website and your marketing focused on your customers.
Even though we’re looking at this particular web page through your eyes, your customers will still see their own story, and that’s what we want. Because when your customers see their story, they trust you more. They feel like you understand what they’re going through and you can help them solve their problem, which means they buy more from you and your company grows.
Real Life Examples
This is Dr. Joe Simon. This is one of the websites we built here. This is his About page, so we’re going to see here this story:
If you’re like most physical therapists, I know you’re already working hard to help make people around you healthier, so this is what its customers want. Wise customers are physical therapists and they want the people around them healthier.
There’s a testimonial in there, and then we have the problem: But it’s not as easy as it sounds. We’re running a successful physical therapy practice is hard work, so now we have the problem. Then we’ve got his guide section. Let’s see how he connects with his customers and establishes his authority for why they can trust him.
I started my own practice years ago. He’s saying, “I went through what you’ve gone through. I was about to out a business, but then I created a marketing and business strategy that brought in 90 clients in one month.”
He’s connecting with the way that they’ve struggled.
“Since then, I’ve been in business for 18 years,” as trust. “I’ve made nine business profitable,” more trust. “I bring in 10 million in revenue every year.” More trust.
And this just continues with more reasons to trust him. Now we’ve got his solution section. So here are two ways he helps his customers win: He’ll buy the practice or he’ll help them start a practice.
So two different groups there, but both good solutions. And then, “Will I have the privilege of working with you next?” So we’ve got here, success. The results. You don’t have to wonder how you’ll retire from your physical therapy practice anymore. You can sell it and live the life you want. You don’t have to dream about starting your own private practice one day. You can own a successful physical therapy practice.
Now let’s get started. Schedule your evaluation. So you see here we had the results and we have a Call to action right there together. This is a fantastic example of a solid About page.
Here’s another client that we had. This is Learn To Make A Product. They help you take your idea for a product from idea all the way through the entire process of finding a factory, manufacturing it and selling it.
Let’s see how they put together their About page. So this is the owner and she’s telling her story here: “So many moons ago I launched one of the first companies to make reusable shopping bags.” So she’s saying I created a product just like you’re doing. “I had lots of enthusiasm and a strong work ethic would have zero experience in design, manufacturing or marketing. The first few years were exciting but rough. We sold hundreds of thousands of units of product but somehow lost money.”
So now we have her establishing what she wanted, which is the same thing her customers want. And the problem, which is the same problem her customers are having: they’re not actually making money.
And she continues to tell her story and really gets into the problem, “Suppliers disappeared with our money. We’d ship product to customers, only to discover an embarrassing quality problem like broken handles or upside-down labels. Deliveries were always late.”
So she’s listing off a lot of the problems that her customers experience. And she’s doing it through her own eyes. Now she gets the guide section to tell you why you can trust her to solve your problem:
“Learn to make a product asserting to makers from all over the world. Our workshops, digital products and support packages have reached over 5,000 people. And I’ve educated groups at MIT, Babson, General Assembly, and beyond.” What trust? Those are some big names! That’s so awesome.
So go do the About page on your website. And when you do, send us a message and tell us how it goes!
