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Episode 115: About Page Dos and Don'ts
224 Plays4 years ago
Krista is back on the podcast and we're talking about one of the biggest obstacles people face as they build their websites: the about page.
For the show notes, visit https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-episode-115/
Recommended
Transcript
Client Pain Points & Aspirations
00:00:05
Speaker
Yes, you want to make sure that, especially, I mean, depending on what you're doing, right? You want to tap into the pain points, but then you also want to show people, hey, this is what investing in my service or investing in my product can help you become, right? Tapping into those aspirations as well.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands That Book Show, where we help creative service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
Challenges of About Pages
00:00:34
Speaker
Davey and Krista is back on the podcast and we're talking about one of the biggest obstacles people face as they build their websites, the about page. Be sure to check out the show notes at daveyandchrista.com for the resources we mentioned in the episode and we want to hear from you. Let us know what kind of content you'd like to see on the Brands That Book podcast as we move forward. To leave your feedback, just send us a DM on Instagram at daveyandchrista. Now onto the episode.
Snowstorm & Snowman Talk
00:01:02
Speaker
All right, we are back with another episode of the brands that book podcast recording on this bright and early. Nothing about this morning is bright. It's still very dark. It's wintery, but we are expecting our first snowstorm of the year. I mean, I guess, well, yes, our first snowstorm. We got a flurry.
00:01:19
Speaker
Yeah, we got a dusting already this year, which was exciting, but now our first substantial snowstorm. And really by substantial, I mean, I think we're expecting between three and seven inches. Yeah, so people who live in real places where it snows are like laughing at us right now. Yes, but I think enough that we should be able to do some fun stuff like hopefully some sledding. Jack last time really wanted to make a snowman, but there was not enough snow to make a snowman.
00:01:44
Speaker
hopefully we get enough to make a snowman. That's a pretty intense endeavor. It takes a while to make a snowman, but I think he's going to love it. Davey went out yesterday morning and he got sleds at the grocery store because we live in the perfect sledding area, so it should be a lot of fun.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully I didn't jinx it by going out and getting sleds. But who knows, we'll see, we'll update you all. I know you all are very interested in whether it snows here or not. Also, questions about why it's an intense endeavor to make a snowman. Because you have to like put all that snow together and roll it up and then it gets really dirty so then it's not like a pretty- I don't, I mean obviously we need to revisit this later today because I am not sure of all intense endeavors that snowman making makes the list. You mean the most intense.
Why About Pages Are Difficult
00:02:29
Speaker
Moving on, moving on. Today we are talking about about pages. We created quite a bit of content about about pages over the last few months and few years. I think in part because the about page is a place where people really get stuck. I'm not sure why. I guess I have few guesses as to why people get stuck with the about page.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to know what to say because it's easy to look around and see what other people are doing and not understand whether you should be writing about yourself, whether you should be writing about your ideal client. It's hard to figure out what to put on that page that is going to both convey your brand and attract your ideal client. And so I think a lot of people end up just pulling little pieces of ideas from all over the place and then putting something together that feels a little disjointed and includes a lot of irrelevant information.
00:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a lot of confusion too around just
Pressure & Personal Connections
00:03:20
Speaker
the advice. I mean, oftentimes the people that were watching in the industry, right, have these big personal brands. And so, you know, there's this, I think sort of undue pressure around, oh, you want to make sure that you're really connecting with people on a personal level and, you know, all of this. And so I think we get in our head about, okay, we have to do something really creative with this about page. And if
00:03:42
Speaker
you know, people really don't connect with us on a personal level. They're never going to book from us or they're never going to purchase from us. And I just don't think that's the case. I think that if you look at, you know, just next time as you're browsing the web and you're on a company's website, check how many times the about page isn't even in the top level navigation. Oh yeah. I mean, on most of the stores you shop on, it's not there because it's not one of those most important pages of a site.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm not trying to make the argument that the about page for a solopreneur or a small team is not important. I do think it's important.
Crafting Concise About Pages
00:04:17
Speaker
However, I think that there's just a lot of pressure there and there really shouldn't be.
00:04:23
Speaker
And if you do, I mean look around and a lot of times it's gonna be in the footer of the website and you're still gonna shop from a certain place or purchase from a certain place because or book somebody even when they're about pages is maybe in the footer or not readily available because they build trust in other ways.
00:04:39
Speaker
So I think that because of that pressure, sometimes we do things with our about page that just don't help us at the end of the day. We try to be maybe a little bit too creative or just try to do too much with it. So I'm excited to dive into this little bit, hopefully demystify the about page for people who are really, really struggling with it.
00:04:59
Speaker
So we're going to go through a few do's and don'ts of the about page and share some kind of clever examples that aren't too overly cutesy that convey the right brand message and the right personality without feeling disjointed or like too much.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And Krista actually put together a roundup of some fun about pages, you know, people who just did a good job in our opinion. Again, like Krista said, doing stuff that is very much in line with their brand and boost their brand. And if you want to check that out, you can go to the show notes for this episode. We'll make sure we include a link to this. It's a blog post. It's a blog post, right? It is. Yeah. So it's a blog post that you can check out at davianchrista.com forward slash blog. So let's dive in.
00:05:45
Speaker
So tip number one, do this. Tell the beginning of the story, not that.
Personal Stories & Brand Alignment
00:05:50
Speaker
Don't tell people the whole story. Yeah, absolutely. So basically, I think sometimes when we create an about page, we want to tell people everything about us. And I don't think that's wise in most situations. I don't think you have to tell the whole story in the about page. I think in many ways for people going to the about page, it's going to be because they don't know anything about you. Maybe it's their first impression of you.
00:06:14
Speaker
So think about the information that you share in a first encounter with somebody. That's kind of the context that you should go into with the about page. You know, the framework, I think, for the about page. Don't be an overshare. Yeah, you don't need to share every job that you've ever had that led you to where you are right now. If you go to our about page, there's nothing about my first job working for a nonprofit. There's nothing about Davey teaching high school or coaching lacrosse for several years.
00:06:41
Speaker
We jump right into what is actually relevant and what is gonna communicate our strengths to our audience. Yeah, and I think more than that, you know, the beginning of the story that we're telling is already a story that includes hopefully our potential client, right? So somebody who's coming in and learning a little bit about us. So if you head to our about page in the very first line, actually the very first
00:07:02
Speaker
Two sections are not about us. Yeah, there's no mention of us, you know, as Dave and Krista or the Dave and Krista team. It's all about, you know, hopefully telling the beginning of the story that includes our potential client. Right. So, and I forget, you know, how it starts off the top of my head, but it's like, are you looking for more freedom, more flexibility, something along those lines, and then starts to dive into how, you know, a good website and a good brand can help you with those things.
00:07:29
Speaker
So when we say tell the beginning of the story, tell the beginning of the story that includes your ideal customer or client. I think that the summary there is don't try to force the entire relationship in the about page.
Empathy in About Pages
00:07:43
Speaker
Set the stage, start telling that story, make sure that story includes your ideal client or customer.
00:07:49
Speaker
Which is actually point number two to this, share about yourself, but don't make it all about you, not that. Avoid random lists of favorite things. I think that when you feel really stuck on your about page, it can be really easy to resort to like a list of things about you that you want people to know. Like you like shopping at Target, you like coffee, you like sweatpants and yoga.
00:08:12
Speaker
I don't know, whatever it is that makes you a you, because it's easy to think that those things are going to help us connect with our ideal client. But at the end of the day, it's actually our client's pain points that help them feel connected to us. It's us showing that we empathize with what they're feeling.
00:08:31
Speaker
If they're a bride or a groom, we understand that they're probably overwhelmed, that they want beautiful moments captured that will become timeless keepsakes. There's all sorts of things that they're feeling outside of loving coffee and Target.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And it's not that necessarily those things are bad things, but just think about what's building your brand versus what's not, right? There's lots of things, I think, about me, right? That probably shouldn't go on our website. However, they could be fun things to share in other places that maybe are a little bit more casual, which, you know, as people get to know me a little bit more, you know, through things like Instastories, you know? So I think about an example, and I've probably shared this on the podcast before,
00:09:12
Speaker
where we used to go to McDonald's after every wedding, so that was kind of like when I- So classy. Yeah, when I started shooting weddings with you, I was like, okay, well, we're ending every night by going and getting a McFlurry at McDonald's. And that's nothing that we shared on our website, but we shared it enough on Instastories that I remember one groom gave me a gift card at the end of the night, he's like, hey, you can use this at McDonald's later tonight. And so he knew, he followed along, but it was nothing that we included on our website. And I think it's one of those things that,
00:09:40
Speaker
You know, just, I mean, going back to our last point where you're sharing information along, you know, within the relationship, you know, that people kind of learn in conversations further down the line with you. So just be careful about favorite things list. Make sure that, you know, there's a reason behind including each of those items in the list and that, you know, especially for like a luxury brand and you're talking about non luxury things, like think about how those things are or are not building your brand.
Personal Stories & Brand Coherence
00:10:07
Speaker
So we talked about our love of pizza on our photography website and we told the story of how one of our friends who actually know as a part of our team, Sarah, gave us a do-it-yourself pizza kit. So she gave us two personal pizza pans for our wedding and that became a part of our weekly traditions.
00:10:25
Speaker
But we told the story of that and starting new traditions together and we tied that into the photography process and that became a part of our Krista Jones photography brand. We really liked that example because pizza is something that everyone loves. It can be really casual.
00:10:43
Speaker
but it can also be elevated and it can be kind of boutiquey and upscale and you can get a more like fancy artist and pizza. And so we liked that it was approachable, but yeah, it could also rise up to a certain like level.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that just for contrast as an example, you know, it's not like we're, you know, we didn't incorporate that into our about page being like, Oh, we love Domino's. Oh, yeah. It's like pizza. That's our favorite place, you know, or something like that, right? Like even the imagery that we use was, you know, of us making sort of this like craft pizza together. So again, thinking about things that are really going to build your brand versus things that are not going to build your brand. I think Krista also talked about, you know, how we connect with or how people are going to start feeling like they connect with us.
00:11:25
Speaker
not only through pain points, but through aspirations too. So I think it's both ends of that continuum. Like, yes, you want to make sure that, especially, I mean, depending on what you're doing, you want to tap into the pain points, but then you also want to show people, hey, this is what investing in my service or investing in my product can help you become, right? Tapping into those aspirations as well. And this is how I can help get you there.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so even in that story that we were just telling right towards the end, like talking about, hey, as a married couple, like you're going to be able to create all these new fun traditions. A few other people who I think do this really well, you know, Jester Dana, I really like on her website. She has the blinking cursor, you know, and I think that's something she's a copywriter. She's been on the podcast. So for those of you who listen, you've heard from Jess before. And if you haven't heard from Jess before, you should go back and check out those episodes.
00:12:15
Speaker
but the blinking cursor, right? Like that's a pain point. You know, even just visually looking at that and being like, oh, you know, I've experienced that when writing copy when you're starting with nothing. Okay. So she has this really, you know, kind of fun way of outlining like how she can help you. And she does some other stuff on her about page as well.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah. So she has this fun, like minute to win it style quiz that helps people get to know her. So it's a really playful way to introduce her personality and say that she's obsessed with friends. I guess she has friends quotes all over the website that I don't catch because I've only watched friends when I was little, but she loves friends. She's a cat person. She's an Enneagram four and that she likes fun cocktails. And so you click through the different, the quiz and you get to know Jess.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And Alicia Crossley does some things as well on her website. You want to talk about this? Yeah. So she shares her favorite intimate moment. And not only does Alicia do it, all the members of her team do that as well. And so it's just this tiny, really subtle way of saying that she and her team are paying attention to moments that are often missed on a wedding day. And I like that it says she's detail oriented without just like out coming out and saying it.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. On the Till website, we do a few things. And again, I think in more subtle ways, again, the emphasis is not around the fact that we like settlers who can, but it is, you know, sort of in the background, even in how you design the website, right? You sort of see the pieces in the background. Once you click into each of our bios, right? It talks about what we do within the organization.
00:13:46
Speaker
But then it also, you know, shares what our favorite board game is, right? And I think, again, it plays into it well because our about page and the site in general and Facebook ads, a lot about strategy. And so you have kind of this board game in the back, which is a very, you know, strategic board game. And again, it's also part of your origin story. So like the way that your friendship kind of came about.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah, but I think it's all merged together in a really coherent way, in a way that makes sense within the backdrop of our brand, right? Because it's not about settlers again. And that's what I want to emphasize is I think that, you know, if you are struggling thinking about some of these ways that you can more creatively, you know, add to your your about page, there's just a few like you can keep it very simple, you know, you can share just a
Focus on Conversion Goals
00:14:30
Speaker
little bit about
00:14:30
Speaker
who you are, you know, any sort of social proof that you have, right? And I mean, I've seen about pages on websites of huge photographers that are paragraph long. And I don't know about Jose's in particular, but, and obviously that does the trick, right? So the about page, I mean, and I talked about this in another episode with Vanessa about bridging the trust gap, right? I mean, the gap between somebody knowing you and booking you or purchasing from you, right? And how you bridge that trust gap.
00:14:58
Speaker
The about page is just one step along the way, right? And so I think if you're going to err on one side or the other, you know, do maybe a little less with your about page instead of doing too much where people are like, okay, you know, that was a lot. Yeah. You don't want people to be bored by the time they get to the bottom of it or feel overwhelmed by how much there is.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah, or just take away from your brand, right? I mean, or just feel completely disjointed. So, you know, I think that when in doubt, make sure that your about page is not a distraction. Right. All right. And I think that brings us to our next point, which is, you know, do this focus on conversion rather than distracting from the primary goals of your website.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's really easy to just throw a bunch of stuff in there like we've kind of said and take away from the fact that at the end of the day, you probably want people to book your services by your product. And so if you spend too much time talking about yourself or your background, it can be easy for people to miss the point of the website.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, again, you want to make sure, like you're not trying to win a popularity contest, right? That's not the point of your website. I think a lot of times when we think about, I think a lot of times we wrongly go into a website project wanting to sort of beat out our peers, you know, like I'm going to have the most creative, unique website and I'm really going to stand out in that way. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. All right. So again, not what I'm saying. I'm not saying don't be creative with your website.
00:16:31
Speaker
But what I am saying is that your website has a very specific goal, and you wanna make sure that everything is working towards that goal. For service-based businesses, that's generally getting people either to schedule a call or fill out an inquiry form. And for e-commerce businesses, that's getting people to purchase. So you wanna make sure that everything is pointing people towards that, all right? So calls to action, just as important on your about page as they are on any other page. You wanna make sure that
00:17:01
Speaker
on your about page you're leading people to wherever they should go next. Right and part of the way that you can do that too is by including social proof which you've talked about a little bit and then definitely at the end of the page have some sort of next step so like you've learned about me like what do you do next like do you go to a services page and learn more about your services is there inquiry form there like how do you get to the next place
Headshots & Brand Aesthetics
00:17:23
Speaker
Absolutely. You know, speaking of social proof, definitely should be on an about page. If you've won awards before, you know, share those on your about page. Testimonials, share those on your about page. Anything that you think is going to help build trust with your audience, make sure that you share those things on your about page. Great place to put this. Yeah. All right. Next step, do this. Get a professional headshot that matches your brand, not that. Avoid images that don't match your brand either in quality or aesthetic.
00:17:52
Speaker
So I think that there is something to be said for being authentic at the same time you want to make sure that you look professional as well. Oh yeah. I think that you're doing yourself a disservice if you have this beautiful website, especially if you're a photographer and then people see your headshot and the colors in it, the style of editing are not consistent with your work.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I think just from a aesthetic standpoint, making sure that your headshots, your team headshots match the rest of your brand is important. And I mean, especially since we're in sort of the winter months now, which is typically a favorite time of people to update their websites, that is a easy way to sort of level up your website is just by going back and refreshing images, you know, and making sure that your images match the rest of your site.
00:18:42
Speaker
Right. And so if you are going to do a headshot, I would make sure that you're looking at the camera, that people can see your faces or your face, your team's faces. And you also want to make sure that the background is pretty clean and consistent with your aesthetic and that the clothes and attire you're wearing are consistent with your brand aesthetic. So if your brand is light and airy, I probably wouldn't wear a black elegant ball gown. I'd make sure that my outfit is consistent with that aesthetic.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, I will say, though, that some of our favorite images ever were taken by Anna Marie. And I will say, so some of my favorite images ever, there is a section of images where I'm in like this salmon coat.
00:19:26
Speaker
Which you picked out at the store. No, I did not. You are retelling, you have completely over the years revised this story as if I picked this outfit out. You originally bought it from the store and it was in your closet. Yes, but again, it was the entire outfit, not just this coat. I still love that coat. But this entire outfit, like if you go to, I think it's probably, there's probably still some of those images on our photography website. And so if you find that and wearing sort of the salmon like pinkish coat, that is way more formal
00:19:55
Speaker
than I'll ever be. He is currently in sweatpants with a blanket wrapped around him. Oh, you are as well. It's 6.30 in the morning and it's about to snow. This is just how we look in the morning. And that's not the point. Again, my point is you say that, but those images on our website, definitely not reflective of how we generally dress.
00:20:17
Speaker
Oh yeah, but they do reflect the client that we were trying to attract. No, no. The other set of images within those that Anna took were way more in line with how, you know, kind of our normal vibe.
00:20:29
Speaker
Anyways, sorry. Pardon our brief argument here. On to the next. Yeah, on to the next one. So do this. Be clear and concise. Simple usually gets the job done. Not that. Don't be cutesy for the sake of being cutesy. And we talked about this a little bit, so I don't think we have to belabor this point. But no one ever said to us, hey, we love your work, but your about-page isn't creative enough. Oh, yeah.
00:20:52
Speaker
If you look at our photography page, it's super simple. We do talk about our photography process and related to the process of making a homemade pizza. But overall, there's not a lot to it. And so I don't think that you have to do a crazy amount on your about page in order to book your ideal client.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I think, I don't know how much more there is to be said about that, you know, just some social proof, a little bit about you. And then from there, you can iterate on it. And you'll kind of, a lot of this stuff will be revealed to you, I think, as you hear more client feedback, just naturally in conversation and throughout, you know, working with clients and hearing from customers. And that's, I mean, all of, I'm thinking back on pretty much all of our websites. I mean, Krista Jones Photography, Davey and Krista, Till Agency,
00:21:37
Speaker
All of those have been very iterative projects. And so as we've heard from more clients and kind of grown into our brand, our about page has also evolved. So don't put undue pressure on yourself there. Right, you figure out the questions that people are asking you and you figure out the comments that people make on you and your services and then you figure out ways to add those to your about page.
00:21:58
Speaker
And as important as your about page is, right, it's not the only way to share your personality. My guess is that people are going to learn more about you through something like InstaStories than, you know, your about page. So the about page, in my opinion, more of a handshake, whereas something like a medium like InstaStories is more of like the, you know, I'm actually sitting down and hanging out with you and getting to know you a little bit more.
00:22:25
Speaker
Right. So think about, you know, kind of what you're sharing across those different mediums and how they fit. And I think that leads us into our final point here, which is do this assess how important about page is for your business.
Significance of About Pages
00:22:38
Speaker
Not that don't let your about page stop you from moving forward.
00:22:42
Speaker
I think that like we said, if you're an e-commerce business and your focus is not on selling your services and AboutPage can be really minimal, we're working on a website for a jewelry company right now and so their AboutPage isn't even in the main navigation because their focus is on selling their products and most people who come to the site to buy a set of earrings, they don't really care about the founder and how the company came to be.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's sort of a harsh way to put it. But I think true in a lot of ways, you know, and we're not talking about this specific case, of course, but in general, right? You know, I mean, I'm just thinking about even stuff is software that I purchased yesterday. You know, I don't know who founded the company, right? You know, I ordered our Christmas cards and we know nothing about minted and how they started or who owns the company. We just bought our Christmas cards.
00:23:30
Speaker
Exactly. And so I think that, and of course, a lot of the examples that we're using when it comes to having your about page in the footer are much bigger businesses, but in some cases they're not. And so even for till agency, we talked a little bit about where we want the about page, do we want the about page in the footer is important to be in the top level navigation.
00:23:48
Speaker
And I think that because we're fulfilling service work on a one-on-one basis, like the clients who work with us hear from us regularly, it was important for it to end up being in the top level navigation. But we wanted to make sure that we're not taken away from, it's not about us individually, it's about the brand, it's about the business.
00:24:09
Speaker
So that's an important, I think exercise for people to go through. And I think at the end of the day, you don't want to keep the about or let the about page keep you from launching a website. All right. It's something like pretty much everything else in business that can be iterated on as you grow.
00:24:24
Speaker
It's much better to launch with a simple, more minimal about page than to delay your launch or to just put so much together that it doesn't convey the right meaning and the right message.
Resources for Effective About Pages
00:24:36
Speaker
Absolutely. So, like we mentioned, there are quite a few resources on about pages on our website and we can link to a couple other resources that might be helpful as well. We talked about Jester Dana a little bit in this episode. She has an about page promptlet, which is basically like a
00:24:51
Speaker
set of prompts to help you think through your about page and actually write copy for your about page. And she has some video lessons in there too, giving advice. So you go through and you answer all these questions and that helps you like pool together your about page copy. And I've looked at it and it's really great. So I think it focuses on the benefits and your ideal client as opposed to just writing about yourself.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. There's really no reason to start from scratch when it comes to anything website, but certainly not even your copy. So I hope this helpful. If you have questions that we didn't get to in this episode, the best ways to ask those questions are through DM on Instagram at Dave and Krista, or jump into the show notes, leave us a comment on the post and we'll make sure in a future episode to cover it. Thanks for joining us.
00:25:40
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.