All of your website’s pages are important. However, some demand a little extra attention to get the online results you’re looking for. While you may think to stress the importance of the home page and services, your “About Us” page could slip under the radar.
Since it’s not directly selling your services, many people assume it’s not integral for gaining sales or clients and don’t spend a lot of time on it. That’s where we often see advisors go wrong when building their websites.
Why Your “About Us” Page is Important
Your “About Us” page is often the most visited on your site, especially in the financial planning industry. With many companies offering similar services, your company culture, experience and personality are what sets you apart.
When you elaborate on education, experience, motivation and the story behind your firm, it helps you stand out. In an industry where forming relationships with your clients is essential, the “About Us” page is your first step. Potential clients can feel more connected to you and therefore be more likely to come to you with their business.
Unfortunately, your about page also probably has the highest bounce rate on your website. This means that your site visitors are leaving after viewing just one page. That’s why it’s especially important to put in the extra work to take it to the next level. To help you out, we put together our five best tips for creating an “About Us” page that’s bound to impress and attract potential clients.
How to Write Your “About Us” Page
1. Lead Your Visitors Towards a Call-to-Action
Including a call-to-action is one of the most important things to remember. When building a website, many fail to consider that, even though it has a slightly different focus, your “About Us” page can still be a way to sell clients on your business.
After you’ve explained your background and story, you can easily transition into your unique services or accomplishments followed by a short form to find out more about you and how you could help them. This creates an opportunity for potential clients to reach out and connect in a way that feels more personal than sales-oriented. It also inspires prospects to take immediate action, especially if they’re impressed or inspired by what they’ve read about you.
You should take every possible opportunity on your site to urge visitors to contact you, join a mailing list or make an appointment, as these are the main end goals of having a website. What you urge them to do may be different for every firm, but you should still have some sort of next step in place. If left with nothing else to do, visitors will likely just leave even if they’ve enjoyed your website.
In the example below, Twenty Over Ten client Mark Sharp, includes three actionable CTAs at the bottom of the “Who We Are” tab on the “About” page. By doing this, they’ve given visitors a natural progression towards taking further steps with their firm – schedule a meeting, learn more about what they provide, or access premium content.
2. Explain Why Your Background Makes You Unique
This is also oftentimes described as integrating your unique selling proposition into the page. Every advisor has a different reason for getting started in the business and your personal story is part of what helps you deliver value to a customer in a way that other competitors can’t provide. Your background, mission, awards won and education all provide details about you, your unique experiences and the skills that set you apart from other advisors.
For this reason, the “About Us” page is particularly connected to your USP so don’t shy away from using it as a header tag or including a variation of it in your description. Your page should be written almost like a narrative leading visitors towards discovering how you’ve ended up creating a useful and unique business for them.
It’s okay (we actually encourage it!) to include marketing aspects when delivering this story. Just make sure you also keep in mind that, because of the personable factor of this page, the copy can be a little more casual and conversational than the rest of your site.
Vistica Wealth Advisors provides a great example of a background connecting to the client experience:
3. Emphasize What Makes Your Firm Different
There’s a reason you felt compelled to start your own financial planning business instead of just joining another firm, and it wasn’t to be exactly like every other financial advisor, right? Ask yourself this – what are your firm’s one or two differentiating factors? Really focus on these throughout your “About Us” page. Your site visitors are there to find out more about what you can deliver to them that other firms can’t. You should be able to answer this in a couple of sentences. The good thing is that there is no right or wrong answer here. Maybe it’s that you offer fee-only services or maybe you place a focus on socially conscious investing.
The great thing about your “About Us” page is that it gives you the chance to elaborate on your firm’s unique qualities in a personal, connected way. Visitors will easily be able to see your firm’s differentiating factors on other parts of your site as well, but showing them through this particular page goes beyond a brief description and into a personal journey that could really resonate with potential clients.
Janet Arnold of ImpactFolio is a great example of using this page to show how her personal hobbies, experiences and goals motivate her towards the company’s goal of investing for good.
4. It’s About the Client
While your “About Us” page does give you the opportunity to describe you, your coworkers and your business, it’s still important for it to be focused on the client. You should still talk about how you started your business and why it interests you, but also relate it back to your clients in a way that helps them see the value in you and your staff as individuals. This means not just focusing on your path and goals, but how these assist in motivating you to help customers and provide quality services.
For example, instead of just saying “I have a passion for environmental sustainability,” you can say “my passion for environmental sustainability drives me to find the most ethical and successful ways for my clients to invest.” This way, a potential client can naturally connect their desire to find a new advisor with positive outcomes unique to your business.
5. Keep It Consistent With Your Brand and Firm’s Personality
The images, copy, colors and design of your site all help establish a certain tone for your business. Whether it’s serious, hopeful or playful, visitors should get a consistent feel for your brand’s personality across the entire site, including your “About Us” page. While this page may be slightly more causal since you’re getting personal, it should still evoke emotion from your site visitors. Otherwise, it could cause a disconnect that creates a confusing image of your firm instead of a strong, cohesive brand association.
Sticking to a particular tone of voice and personality also helps illustrate to potential clients the kind of interactions they can expect when working with you. Some clients may be seeking out a more casual, comfortable advisor to work with while other clients may prefer to work with advisors that are strictly professional. The way you present yourself on this page helps the visitor gain a better understanding of not just what you’ve done but how you’ve done it and how you’ll help them in a similar way.
Northbank Partners does a great job of demonstrating consistency through both the about sections text and imagery:
Wrapping Things Up
Your about page can receive some of the highest traffic across your entire site. And it makes sense, prospects want to know more about who they will be working with. But many advisors don’t consider how much traffic an about page will attract. Keep the list above in mind when designing or editing your site, and get the most out of this traffic.
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