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How to write the perfect About page (COPY RECIPE + REVIEW)

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drmichaela michaela bucchianeri health and wellness copy coach how to write the perfect about page (COPY RECIPE + REVIEW)

Want to stand out online and create a powerful website About Page that captures the attention of your target audience? Then you've come to the right place! In this video, I'll show you how to write your perfect About Page using my simple A.B.O.U.T. page recipe. (PLUS: We'll review a real business owner's About page copy to see how she can make it even more effective!)

 

Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. VIDEO: How to Write The Perfect About Page (COPY RECIPE + REVIEW)
  3. Question from Erin
  4. A.B.O.U.T. page recipe
  5. Reviewing Erin's About page
  6. FREE Copy Challenge
  7. What are "power phrases"?
  8. Recommended resources
  9. Let's take action
  10. Share this post

 

Intro

About pages, am I right? If you struggle with this all-important yet very tricky page of your website, you're not alone. Today, you're in luck because I'm going to share a super simple About page recipe that you can follow. I will also review some real-life About page copy from one of my subscribers. 

Read on for my simple recipe to help you with your About page:

Please note: You can support my blog by using the affiliate links below! If you go on to make a purchase, I'll receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you! 

 

VIDEO: How to Write The Perfect About Page (COPY RECIPE + REVIEW)

 

Question from Erin

Our copy question comes to us from Erin of Fascia Fix. Erin is an email subscriber and a subscriber to my YouTube channel. 

Erin writes, “I'm still working on my About page. Well, not really working on it, but thinking about how it needs to be better.” Can you relate to that at all? I know I can.

Erin goes on to say she might be switching up the format of her website and moving over to a different platform. There will likely be changes on the horizon, but she knows that she could probably improve her About page copy in the meantime. 

Thank you to Erin for her question. So, I thought this would be the perfect time to share this simple About page recipe.

 

A.B.O.U.T. page recipe

I use the word recipe instead of formula because unlike, a chemical compound that might go into a medication, I believe recipes are a loose structure, a solid foundation from which you can exercise all your creativity and pull in new pieces and explore and improvise over time. 

That's how I think about About pages. You do want some key elements in place to make it as effective as it can be. There are zillions of different ways to present yourself on your About page. So, I'm sharing this recipe because I know sometimes a structure, can feel really supportive. It's a helpful place to begin. 

First up, we want to arouse the attention of the person landing on your About page. This means starting with a really strong, clear, and compelling headline. Something that lets them know, ooh, I'm in the right place. I didn't just take a wrong turn online. I am supposed to be here, and I'm locked in.  

From there you want to write copy that bridges the gap between where your site visitor is right now and where they want to get to. You want to speak to the discrepancy between what they're currently experiencing, what's difficult for them, and what's challenging them. They may have questions about how they envision themselves in the future, what they desire, or where they want to get to. 

We're not talking loads of copy here. Just a couple of sentences that acknowledge what they're currently dealing with. Let them know I get you, doing some future casting about what is possible for them. You're instilling some encouragement and some hope about their future. Importantly, you are positioning yourself as the bridge between the two.  

Next, on the About page, it's helpful to offer a really brief intro to who you are and how you can help them. This could be a mini bio section. This is the about you portion of your About page. Or it could even be just a few lines sharing your name, your credentials, and any relevant information that they absolutely need to understand that you can help them. 

Now, you want to unveil a little preview, just a little taste of what it would be like to work with you. If you have a place where you're creating really excellent content online, a blog, a YouTube channel, or a podcast, this would be a great place to share some of your greatest hits. 

You can include a high-quality testimonial from one of the dream clients you've worked with already, who can speak to what it feels like to work with you. You also absolutely should highlight how they can work with you and what you have on offer, what are your signature services or products you have to share.

Finally, so you don't just leave them hanging. You want to tell them what to do next. Give them one clear call to action. We talk about this a lot, I know, but it's so, so important. Every single page should have one next step that you have in mind. Of course, they're free to navigate your site in whatever order they like. But usually at the end of the About page, assuming you've shared previews of how they can work with you earlier on in the page, a helpful next step is going straight to a sales page or your work with me or services page.

You know, your dream client and your website best. So, as with everything I share, take what works for you and leave the rest. But if you can follow this really basic recipe, you will be way ahead of where most people are on their About page. It can be a really tricky page to write, but it doesn't have to be. 

 

Reviewing Erin's About page

Let's look at Erin's sight. Now, Erin is an expert in fascia, that complex web of connective tissue that holds our bodies in place. On her site, she offers courses, free resources, and private sessions. She also has an active YouTube channel and creates content on other platforms as well, so she's got a lot going on. Let's dive into her About page. 

At the top, she's got a nice, clear hero or heroine image along with the page headline “About Erin”. Then she's got a smaller heading, a bio section, another great photo, and then she closes with some testimonials scrolling at the bottom. 

To keep this review nice and punchy, I thought we'd tackle this first piece of our About page recipe. The headline, arousing your site visitor's attention when they land on your site. 

Erin's current headline on this page is “About Erin”. This is a really common default that people will start with on their About page, but it doesn't do much to meet that first aim of our recipe, right? If we want to arouse people's attention, we really want to grab them and when it comes to choosing copy to occupy that prime piece of real estate on our websites, many of us overlook the copy gems that are hiding in plain sight right there on other parts of our website. 

Two common reasons for this are, first of all, we just forget what we've written on our own websites. Oftentimes, we're so eager to get our website up, live and operational, that we don't take a lot of time to revisit it in the future. So, we might forget that there's a piece of gold sitting right there on another page of our site that might be usable on our About page, for example. 

A second related reason this can happen is that we tend to divide our copy into different categories. We automatically assume, okay, I've written this for my services page, and so this is copy that must live forever on my services page. Or this is a testimonial I shared on social media, and so it has to stay on social media. But the truth is, any copy you write, any words you've ever drafted for your business can be reimagined, repurposed, and reused in a different part of your business. 

 

FREE Copy Challenge

We talk about this a ton, by the way, inside my free copy bank challenge. And so if you would like help spotting the pieces of copy you've already written that can be given new life in a different part of your marketing to save yourself the headache of having to write a zillion new things from scratch every single time, you're most welcome to join us inside there. There's lots of support. You'll get direct feedback from me on your copy, and it's just a really good time. So go ahead and sign up at the link below and I'd love to see you inside. 

 

What are "power phrases"?

Ok back to Erin. As I was exploring her site, I stumbled upon several examples of what I call power phrases. These are pieces of copy that are either buried or underutilized in their current position or placed on a website or are just so dang good that they deserve a little more shine on the website. They can either be promoted to headline status or echoed on multiple pages. Let me show you what I mean. 

In the bio section of her about page, Erin shares some of her own personal experiences trying to heal from injury. She says, “I tried everything to find real long-term relief. Nothing worked until I discovered activated movement. 10 minutes of work changed my scar tissue and life forever”. This, I believe, is one of Erin's power phrases. She's got lots of them on her website right now. This little sentence is really powerful, but because of where it's currently positioned in the narrative of her story, it might be missed by people who really need to see it. 

One option to help bring this to the forefront might be to copy it and reiterate it up top as the headline of her bio section. So instead of "Meet Erin", it would say, "10 minutes of work changed my scar tissue and my life forever". And then she goes into, "Hi, I'm Erin", and she tells the story in its entirety. You see how that's a hook that can really draw people into this section and want to know more about how she got there? 

Another option might be to tweak this a little bit and promote it to the headline of one of the pages on her site. “10 minutes of work can change your life forever”, or “Give me 10 minutes of work and I'll change your life forever”. You see how compelling that is. It really gets you on an emotional level and it just has that ring to it, like a bold font copy. 

I found more power phrases in some of the client testimonials on Erin's site. For instance, this one, “Erin, is so good at teaching the concepts that the stretches immediately become intuitive”. At first glance, it might seem simple, but in a really clear and compelling way, it's doing a couple of important jobs for Erin on her site. First, it is lending very real social proof to the experience of her teaching style. She helps make brand-new paradigm-shifting stretches feel intuitive. That's huge. 

The second is that it's addressing maybe an unspoken objection that folks landing on her site might have. Like, "you know your stuff, but will I actually be able to do it"? This is actually a testimonial. I'd recommend extracting it from the slider on the slideshow of testimonials and just letting it live as a static piece of social proof.  

Here's another one I found on her homepage. "I see Erin and her fascia fix as the way of the future, keeping me as young of body as I am of spirit". It's so exuberant, it's so genuine and joyful. This is another one that I would pull out and make sure that it has some really good placement on her website. This one's also ripe for splitting up and repurposing. You could use that second phrase as a headline somewhere. "Feel as young of body as you are of spirit" or "enjoy a body as young as your spirit". Start to view every single piece of copy as ripe for reimagining, and you will just be bowled over by what's been there all along.

I had a ball looking around Erin's sight and one of the most powerful power phrases I uncovered there was actually over on her private sessions page. There, she poses the question, “have we been stretching all wrong"? Erin, it's your world. It's your website. I'm just brainstorming, but I believe with minor tweaks, this could be one supremely excellent About page headline. 

First of all, it's ethically provocative. It's getting people to stop and pay attention by hinting at a conspiracy. You have been operating under misinformation, and there's a better way, and I'm here to share it. Second, it leads beautifully into what Erin has to share. The message of Fascia Fix.

I could see this flowing into that before and after with her positioned as the bridge, introducing herself in that bio section, maybe moving into a new headline that says, "An innovative new way to heal the body and prevent injury". Then moving into a preview of how she can help them.

As far as the tweaks I'd suggest, as it's currently written, she's coming alongside her site visitor and posing a question, "have we been stretching all wrong?" Now, the answer to this, I'm assuming is yes, because that's Erin's whole entire message. I think she can be even more direct. Drop the question and make it a declarative statement.

Now, the kind of old-school marketing temptation here is to make it a you statement. "You've been doing it wrong", but that's not Erin's vibe. I know that that's not how she's approaching her work so I think a nice compromise could be to rework it as a declarative statement but retain that language so that it conveys, that Erin has been on that same journey. They have a moment of realizing, oh, I have been misled, I've been misinformed, and there's a better way, and now Erin is here to help them experience it too.

I believe swapping out the headline on the About page is one simple way to make it more effective in very little time. Then using the rest of the About page recipe, I think you'll be well on your way to making that page of your site work really well for you no matter how you choose to change your website in the future.

Now your assignment should you choose to accept it is to go hunting for buried treasure right there on your own website. See how many power phrases you can find, and then brainstorm different ways that you can use them to make your website more compelling.

A big thanks to Erin for offering up your copy for our review. If you'd like my eyes on your copy, go ahead and send me an email, and I just might include it in a future review.

Finally, if you're craving more real-life copy examples, be sure to sign up for my email list. 

 

Recommended resources

Want to explore more ways to update your copy? Check out these blog posts:

                                                                                            

Let's take action!

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  1. Choose 1 of the tips in this post and test it out in your business.
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