3 Common “About Us” Page Mistakes

As a copywriter, one of the more common assignments I get from clients is helping them rewrite the About Us page for their company’s website. Over the years, I’ve noticed that companies make a few common mistakes when it comes to this all-important page,

Why is this page important?

After the home page, the About Us page is often the reason why someone will consider doing business with you. It must be written in a way that persuades your prospect to call.

Here are 3 three common mistakes people make on the About Us page, and what you can do to correct them:

1. Too much info – The About Us page should not read like “War and Peace.” Keep the content clear and consise. 300-400 words should be plenty to convey who you are, who your target audience is and why someone should do business with YOU!  If you attend networking events, use your 30-60 second elevator speech as a guide.

2. It’s all about YOU – While your About Us page does need to talk about you, don’t mistake that to mean that’s all you talk about! This is not your resume. We don’t need to know the awards you won in high school or college, unless they are relevant to your profession today!

3. No Value Proposition – Remember, people want to know “what’s in it for me.” Your About Us page needs to explain WHY someone should buy from you. What are the benefits your product or service offers? If you don’t offer people something of value, they’re not going to do business with you.

About Us Template

Here are 6 elements that your About Us page should contain to be an effective marketing element of your website:

1.  Answers question, “What do you do?” – The first sentence should be clear and to the point. Example: “I am an expert in…”

2. Answers question, “Who do you serve?” – State who your ideal client is. If you specialize in a certain niche, say so.

3. Professional accomplishments – Don’t go overboard here, but do mention the most important element that backs up what you do.

4. Credibility boosters – Mention any awards, certifications or memberships.

5. Past Projects – Briefly detail any past projects and work that set you apart from your peers.

6. Innovations – List anything novel or innovative that you’re doing in your niche that makes you more attractive to your target audience.

 

How to Ensure Your Video Sales Letter Converts

By Gloria Rand

Looking for a way to sell more products online? Use a Video Sales Letter. Why? Here are 3 reasons:

• It’s easier to get your point across with video than with text or audio
• You can build trust and connect with potential customers
• Video converts better than straight text

Don’t get the wrong impression. It’s not that easy to generate sales with video. Otherwise, everybody would be doing it. 

Why I Attend AWAI’s Copywriting Bootcamp

Being a freelance copywriter can be lonely at times. Many of us work from home, and unless you’ve got rugrats running around the house, or a dog (!), you only have the radio to keep you company during the day.

Remembering Black Friday 25 Years Later

Heard on the radio today that it’s the 25th anniversary of the Black Friday stock market crash. This event holds special meaning for me because I was working for the Miami public TV station WPBT at the time, as the Electronic News Systems Operator for their business news program, The Nightly Business Report.

How to Stand Out in Business

Source: Freedigitalphotos.net

If you’re a business owner, odds are that when you were first starting out, you wondered how you would ever stand out from the competition. Even if you’ve been in business for several years, and have reached some level of success, I’d hazard a guess you still feel that way from time to time.

Why it Pays to Spend Money on Website Content

When will people learn that good writing is NOT a commodity, especially when it comes to website content? You can’t expect to get good quality content and only pay a penny a word!

Gloria Rand’s New Website Copy Generates Higher Sales of DOM Dugout Manager

Oviedo, FL – April 16, 2012 – Gloria Rand – SEO Copywriter is pleased to announce that the new website copy she wrote for CSI Creative Sport Innovations has generated increased sales of CSI’s signature product, the DOM Dugout Manager. CSI hired Gloria to rewrite the Home page and Store page for CSI’s website, www.dugoutmanager.com, in an effort to jumpstart sales of their dugout organizer. 

B2B Copywriting Lessons from Mitt Romney

[tweetmeme]GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney came under fire recently for his comments that “corporations are people.” But the truth is, Romney wasn’t off the mark. People work for and run corporations. If you’re trying to sell a product to a corporation, you have to write copy that appeals to people – or more specifically, the business buyer.

B2B Copy Must Appeal to Buyer’s Needs

As noted B2B copywriter Bob Bly says, “The business buyer is an information-seeker, constantly on the lookout for information and advice that can help the buyer do the job better, increase profits, or advance his career.” Your copy then must emphasize the product’s features and benefits. But the message must be interesting, important and relevant to the buyer’s needs, otherwise it won’t be read.

How do you do that?

You have to focus on what motivates the business buyer. Most of the time, business buyers choose the safe, acceptable solution to the company’s problems. The trouble is, “safe and acceptable” is not always the best business solution. As a B2B copywriter, you need to focus on other concerns, such as the ones Bob Bly refers to in this excerpt from his article, “Business Buyers are Looking for Personal Benefits”:

Avoiding stress or hardship is a big concern among prospects. For example, a consultant might offer a new system for increasing productivity, but it means more paperwork for the shipping department…and especially for the head of the shipping department. If he has anything to say about it, and thinks no one will criticize him for it, the head of shipping will, in this case, work to sway the committee against engaging the consultant or using his system…even though the current procedures are not efficient. The department head, already overworked, wants to avoid something he perceives as a hassle and a headache, despite its contribution to the greater good of the organization.

Fear of the unknown is also a powerful motivator. A middle manager, for example, might vote against acquiring desktop publishing and putting a terminal on every manager’s desk because he himself has computer phobia. Even though he recognizes the benefit such technology can bring to his department, he wants to avoid the pain of learning something he perceives to be difficult and frightening. Again, personal benefit outweighs corporate benefit in this situation.

Fear of loss is another powerful motivator. An advertising manager in a company that has handled its advertising in-house for the past decade may resist his president’s suggestion that they retain an outside advertising agency to handle the company’s rapidly expanding marketing campaign. Even if he respects the ad agency and believes they will do a good job, the ad manager may campaign against them, fearing that bringing in outside experts will diminish his own status within the company.

In these and many other instances, the business buyer is for himself first; and his company, second. To be successful, your copy must not only promise the benefits the prospect desires for his company; it should also speak to the prospect’s personal agenda, as well.

SEO in a Minute: Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

[tweetmeme] In this SEO in a minute video, I explain how to optimize your LinkedIn profile to reach your target audience.

I’m Gloria Rand with today’s SEO in a Minute tip.

June 2011 is significant for LinkedIn because that’s the month when it officially became the 2nd most popular social networking site after Facebook. Now LinkedIn is a great resource for job seekers, business professionals and sales people. The way that you can find jobs, or reach your target audience to generate leads is through an optimized profile.

There are six places in your LinkedIn profile that you want to include keywords. It all starts with the professional headline that comes right underneath your name on your profile. This is your opportunity to describe yourself and even include a call to action. Next two places that you want to have keywords are in your current and past occupations. And then a fourth place is the website category. Now instead of using the default my website or company website that LinkedIn gives you, you can actually, when you edit your profile, choose “other” and then you can throw some keywords in there. So for instance, on my LinkedIn profile, instead of “My Website,” it says SEO copywriting, ’cause that’s what I do! Finally, the last two places that you want to definitely have keywords in are the summary, the LinkedIn summary, and the specialties.

Now if you need LinkedIn profile written that’s got great keywords to reach your audience, send me an email at gloria@gloriarand.com or you can visit my blog at GloriaRand.wordpress.com.

50 Books to Help You Become a Better Writer

[tweetmeme]No matter what you do for a living, being able to write well is a useful skill. But in today’s abbreviated social media world, where 140 characters is the maximum length of a tweet and 80 characters is said to be the optimum Facebook post, (according to Buddy Media), it’s more important than ever to write clearly and concisely to reach your target audience effectively.

There are numerous books available to help you become a better writer. Online Writing Courses has put together a list of 50 books – divided into the following categories:

• Classics

• Composition and rhetoric

• Genre and medium

• Literary criticism, reading and analysis

• Notable writers

I’ve read a few of the books on the list including The Elements of Style by William F. Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. This is the classic writing manual I read in college. More recently, I read and can recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser. This is an easy-to-read classic writing guide – especially useful for those wanting to write as economically as possible without losing meaning.

Other books on the list that I recommend include: Words Fail Me by Patricia T. O’Connor and The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly.

What is your favorite book about writing?