Thoughts on Marketing…

Have you looked at many “About Me” pages? Do they confuse you? Some of them confuse me.

Talking about yourself isn’t easy – at least for most of us it isn’t easy. We’ve been conditioned since childhood not to do that. I don’t mean talking about events in your life the way we do with friends, I mean talking about yourself – especially telling good things about yourself.

Maybe that’s why so many “About” pages are messed up.

The writer starts out saying something like “Mary Jane can attribute her success to the fact that she always puts her customer’s needs first… ” and then half way through the paragraph the voice will switch and it will say “I love nothing better than seeing a young family moving into their first home and knowing that I helped them get there.”

It’s confusing. Is someone talking about Mary Jane, or is Mary Jane talking?

Most of my copywriting clients prefer that their about page be about them – but I don’t think it really matters which way you do it, as long as you stay consistent.

A personal message from the person to his or her customers does have some charm that the other lacks. The problem with it is that at some point, it will become necessary to use the word “I” and we all know you’re not supposed to do that in marketing copy. It’s all about the customer, after all!

But… the about page is different. Your customers go there to learn about you so they can decide if you’re the kind of person they want to do business with. That’s why I encourage everyone to include something personal.

You don’t have to tell your life history, but when you share the fact that you have pets, or your daughter just started college, or you volunteer for a certain non-profit group, you give those customers insight into who you really are and give them a way to recognize ways that you are like them.

People like to do business with others who are “like them” so the more opportunities you give them to find your “alikeness” the better.

By the way, you can combine the “about” and the “from” if you do it correctly. Just introduce your personal message with something along the lines of “Mary Jane says…” and then put your own words in quotations.

So before you write your about page, or before you edit and update it, decide who will be speaking. Is it you, or is it someone talking about you? Once you decide, stick with the voice all the way to the end.

If you’ve decided to pretend you’re someone else and talk about yourself, go back and re-read when you’re finished, looking for spots where you might have switched. It is way too easy to accidentally slide over and start “talking” to people in your own voice.