How do we write a killer website bio that makes our clients pick up the phone or email us to ask us if their date is free on our calendars?
Do you think someone who charges $1,000 per biography might know something about it?
Last year I had copywriter Caroline Mays on my podcast to talk about writing a killer website bio. Her wisdom was so, ahem, a-Mays-ing, I wanted to share some of the key points again, along with some new tips, so you can create a website bio that works as a selling tool to turn prospects into customers.
Your Website Bio Needs to Be Inspiring, Not Predictable
With aggressive creativity, intelligent observation, and unapologetic audacity, Caroline helps clients unleash a truer, bolder, irresistibly compelling bio that sells their work, instead of an uninspired, predictable one that notoriously sells them short.
That run-of-the-mill bio is so common, most of us thought it was normal. But the average “about me” paragraph – crammed with accolades, facts, and humorous “quirks” we hope sound good – is not only a boring square to stuff ourselves into but a coffin-shaped box we can bury our business prospects in.
This worn-out formula simply doesn’t work.
What Mays suggests is that we turn the focus around and answer five distinct questions that show people who you are and why you are the person they should invest in. Take a look at her bio and tell me you don’t want to hire her instantly to write for you! (I did…which is why I hired her to write my bio page!)
She even hired her cousin to make a video ‘manifesto’ that takes her bio to a whole new level. Check this out, it’s called “Black Ink and Sneakers.”
Do you see the genius of how Caroline takes her story of running and overcoming adversity and parlays that straight into her writing? That appealed to me instantly. Any writer who will duct tape maxi pads around her blistered feet to push through the next mile is the kind of writer I want to hire!
“We get creative,” she says in the video. “We find alternatives. We pick our paths and run like hell because the destiny we want isn’t going to make itself. The coolest thing I’ve learned is that we have to tilt the circumstances to see them in their true light. That’s what I do in businesses so they can be fugitives. So they can keep running strong.”
The Secret to Writing a Website Bio that Turns Prospects Into Customers
Here are the five questions to ask yourself as you prepare your bio reinvention.
- If you sat back and scanned the landscape of your life, what is the narrative that you always tell yourself?
- What are the stories that shaped you as an individual?
- What are the stories that made you strong?
- What are the stories that had sustained you?
- What’s the story that expresses how you work or shows your values?
That last one is especially important because we’re talking clients here. If you’re not a speaker that matches your client’s values, you won’t be a great fit. But if a potential client gets a unique and personal glimpse of you and makes a connection—they will feel like they already know you and like you. That has to be the best “in” you could ask for.
To that point, Donald Miller of Storybrand offers his own advice about what you should include on your Bio or ‘About’ page. Here’s his advice:
If you’re worried you’ll be excluding something important if you don’t have those traditional elements, there’s a hybrid solution: grab ‘em with the unique bio, but include the more traditional type below.
Reinventing your bio can be a fun journey of self-discovery, so I encourage you to try it.
Rediscover the quintessential you and make that vital connection to new clients and audiences. The likely result will be you make them the latest addition to your personal and professional story.
