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Back to Basics- The biggest problem with your about page

Clients are still confused about their about pages–below is a repost to help clear some of the brain (and about page) clutter.

“It’s not you; it’s me.”

Those words are probably some of the most frustrating to couples and would-be exclusive relationships worldwide, but those same words are also indirectly costing you clients.

Friends, (may I call you ‘friends’?) a misconception has infiltrated the internet and plagued entrepreneurs with an ‘it’s not you; it’s me’ mentality. This misconception? That about pages are actually about you.

A little small business 411—nothing on your website is really about you.

Nothing.

Because, online, people like it when things are about them. Otherwise they get…

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And if you’re suffering a ‘that was way harsh, Ty*’ moment from that sobering piece of knowledge, let’s put it a different way.

You’re on a blind date.

You look gorgeous in your sequined tank that features just a whisper of cleavage but not so much that your date forgets he’s a gentleman and attempts to get handsy. Your two best friends are having dinner across the restaurant, ready to pounce with stilettos in hand in case said date turns out to be a serial killer.

Luckily, he isn’t.

However, you do notice that he hasn’t stopped talking for at least 10 minutes.

He’s going on and on about his degrees, frat brothers, how good he is at his job, and that time he did this really funny thing that everybody thought was really funny. And because he hasn’t addressed anything you care about, (or you, for that matter), you lose interest and start to tune him out.

That’s exactly how potential clients feel when they go to your about page (and they will go to it) and are bombarded with a rundown of your credentials. Except, they aren’t forced to sit across a table from you for the next hour; potential clients can simply click themselves away for good.

How are you going to remedy this? Make your about page about you, but only as it relates to your target audience.

-Let them know up front exactly how you can make their lives better

-Tell a compelling story—one that, yes, is technically about you, but that your ideal clients can relate to making them feel like you totally get them

-Leave the boring stuff (e.g. degrees and certifications) for last if you need them at all. People are much more interested in making connections and are no longer as easily wooed by the acronyms behind your name

How do you make your about page appeal to your ideal clients?

*Clueless

For more help on writing your about page, check out the Say What? Workbook.

How to get readers to take action

Create a sense of urgency. (How’s that for getting right to the point?)

Your readers like you, they’re into you, they get a little happy in the pants when they see your new post or newsletter pop up in their inbox.

Your readers are engaged, inspired, and overall crushing hard on you and your products and services.

They may even have worked with you before—and you want to make that happen again. This isn’t the time to play coy, bat your eyelashes, and hope they notice. It’s not the 50’s, and this isn’t Mad Men.

This is the time to take an action to inspire an action.

Case in point: Kristen Lawlor of Little Laws Prints

Kristen’s been a client from the beginning. I adore her brand—she’s fun, sassy, and isn’t afraid to highlight these attributes in her business. It’s what her right people love most about her.

When clients receive their custom prints from Kristen, they also get her business card with a promo code for a percentage off of purchases. But they were missing it and, after seeing my last post, she decided to create a separate postcard for it.

She told me the gist of the postcard and that she wanted to offer her clients a percentage off of all future purchases. In other words, the offer was always open.

My crazy response to this?

“If people know they can use something whenever they’ll be less likely to use it. But if it has an expiration there’s a sense of urgency. Kind of like how a man might start to act right if he thinks you’re going to leave him.”

Don’t ask. Sometimes my brain just goes there.

Here’s what I came up with for the back of thecard:

(this isn't the actual card)

I’ll let you know how it works out for Kristen.

How can you take action to inspire action (and urgency) for your right people today?

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How not to get thrown in the trash

You know how you go to a conference or networking event and come home with a load of paper (e.g. business cards, postcards, flyers) that you barely look at then throw in the trash?

Yeah. People are doing the same thing to your stuff too.

(Or adding your information, without your permission, to their newsletter or marketing list. Two words for this: NOT COOL.)

Let’s stop spending the money you’ve earned in your fantastic business on marketing materials that barely see the light of day. Because your lone business card or postcard will reap little reward at the bottom of a trash can.

It’s not that people don’t like you. (I mean, who could resist that face.) But while going through all of their newly acquired conference swag, people are faced with one simple question: What am I supposed to do with all of this?

And if your stuff—whatever piece of promotional material it might be—doesn’t provide an immediate solution and/or a connection, then it will likely be on the curb with last night’s takeout cartons and a week’s worth of dirty diapers come trash day.

So when I was preparing for an upcoming conference, I wanted to make sure I had something other than a business card that might entice people to hang onto it.

Here’s what I came up with:

It’s a postcard.

The front has the I-need-attention-so-look-at-me! ‘about me’ and a promo code exclusively for conference attendees. The back of the card has a few tips for writing an About Me page followed by a discount on copy services using the promo code on the front.

Women in the market for hiring a copywriter could jump all over this.

Women who can’t hire a copywriter yet but are looking for some tips will like this too.

It just might make the desk…or cork board, or ‘good to know’ file. Either way, it should definitely avoid the takeout cartons and dirty diaper party longer than a business card or a postcard with solely my info on it would.

Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Instastory 2- In This Sound

Instastories are very short stories I’ve written inspired by photos I’ve seen on Instagram. The stories are fiction and in no way represent the photographer’s actual life.

The story below was inspired by the two pictures above. It is based on a woman who accidentally takes pictures of her feet as she’s walking and the memories these pictures bring forth. The story bounces in and out of an internal dialogue with her daughter about these memories.

Photos by Summer.

In This Sound

Sometimes I accidentally take pictures of my feet as I’m walking.

The photos clutter my phone. Lopsided, blurred images of making it through the day—shoes mid-stride and diligent against the pavement like lock-jawed soldiers trudging forward.

I think it’s my subconscious pointing out how artistic I could be if only I would stop giving a damn about trying to be artistic. Or how beautiful life could be if only I would stop giving a damn about trying to make it beautiful.

Or perhaps it isn’t my subconscious or God or the stars or kismet.

Perhaps I’m simply careless with my thumbs. They push buttons I don’t mean to push from time to time.

Today my shoes are orange. Orange oxfords with chocolate brown laces and too-clicky soles. I sound like a tap dancer as I walk to work—clickety clack, clickety, clack. Like the homeless guy at Canal Street Station who wore short tuxedo pants, his white ankles an unwelcome interruption between his black pants, black tap shoes. Man, he could dance.

“He hasn’t been homeless for long.” That’s what your dad said when we first saw him.

“What makes you say that?”

“He’s still dancing.”

“Oh, c’mon,” I nudged your dad, looped my arm through his as we walked. “There’s always a reason to dance.”

I don’t know what happened to him, the homeless man of tap dancing fame. He slunk away, exited unnoticed. I think of him from time to time when I wear these shoes—clickety clack, clickety clack, clickety clack clack clack—those always-tapping feet.

But this was before your time. Before you were here and before you were gone.

I was wearing these shoes when I found out about you.

Remember? I squatted over the toilet in the ladies’ room on the 12^th floor. Bleach, that acrid and noxious odor, layered the surfaces, sinks and handles, invaded my senses as I hovered.

I peed on the stick. Two gloriously pale and faded blue lines.

“Who takes a pregnancy test at work,” your dad joked. He is always good for a smile.

I was wearing these shoes when I found out about you.

Oh, how the simplest occurrence redirects a life. A right turn instead of a left. Answering a phone instead of letting it ring. Moving instead of standing patient and still.

“Wait right here, sweetheart,” your dad must have told you. “I’ll be just a second.”

Isn’t a second an eternity when you’re four? I can see your bright brown eyes with a glint of amber, sweet pennies with which to swallow the world. How they must have sparked upon spying the meticulous fluff of a cat across the way.

How you must have set off running from the front porch to greet it.

How your dad must have set off running from the house and into the slippery morning as he glimpsed your little legs bounding across the lawn and into the street.

How that dear girl, hardly seventeen, must have wished she’d driven right instead of left.

I’m at a crosswalk. Cars halt. The white silhouette of a man blinks on a lamppost across the street and I am permitted to walk again. Clickety clack, clickety clack. The sound unearths a buried ache and I search the gray, barren sky in hopes of finding you there.

A tree rocks steadily with the wind. A tangle of balloons idles past.

The branches, those tired and bare limbs, reach out towards them. Grabbing at happiness as it floats by.

*Find more fiction here.*

You're out of (good) ideas. So what now?

Know when to say when…

That’s what a guy I hardly knew wrote in my high school senior year book.

He was cute and straight edge, (does anyone besides me remember ‘straight edge’? Am I totally dating myself? Probably.), and so naturally I thought he was being incredibly insightful and profound.

Truth is, ‘know when to say when’ is neither of those things. It’s plain common sense.

As an entrepreneur you inherently possess a crazy gene. A ‘no pain, no gain’ gene. A ‘this makes no freaking sense but I’m going to do it anyway’ gene.

At times, the road most traveled and the straight edge of common sense eludes you.

So when you’re sitting at your laptop feverishly creating then deleting, or in your studio and office reworking the same clay, stitch, or fold for the ninth time, a grand piece of common sense doesn’t seem like an option:

Give up.

(Say what, Tiffany?!)

Yes. Give it up.

Quit.

Know when to say when.

Toiling over the same project for hours on end with nothing but a string of stale ideas isn’t doing you any good, anyway.

Give yourself a few hours (if not the rest of the day) to recharge and relax until your brain starts throwing around the sort of fantastic ideas that got your business up and running to begin with. Once you’ve had some time away, the ideas will start rolling back.

Try:

-Baking/cooking (unless that’s your business)

-Going for a walk or run (it gets the brain working and works off what you just ate—two points for you)

-Read something completely unrelated to your business (my choice is usually fiction)

-Watch a documentary on Netflix (some of my favorites are here, here, and here)

-Meet up with a girlfriend (but don’t talk about work)

-You can also check out this post: 44 Ways to Unplug from Work

What do you do when the ideas aren’t coming?

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