Imagine you went for a date with a person you hadn't met before.
And your date wore a paper bag on his/her head.
He/She refused to show you his/her face.
That date refused to tell you anything about his/her past.
Or let you into any information at all.
Instead what he/she gave you was a résumé.
A résumé containing all the things achieved.
A clinical, boring, résumé.
Fine date to have, eh?
But surely, I'm joking.
Surely nobody would ever hide themselves in this fashion, on a date.
Or any meeting for that matter.
You think so?
Well, go to every website out there. Pick one at random.
Then go to the ‘About Us' page.
No photo.
No personality.
No history.
Just the boring, clinical resume.
Nice, eh?
You want to hide yourself from your customers? Well, be my guest.
But don't whine when you don't get enough business.
As humans, we all want to know something about the other person.
We want to see their faces, know their history, and get a feel for their personality.
If you choose to hide your personality, good luck.
I have a supply of brown paper bags somewhere, that I'd give you.
But I suspect you already have your own.
Note: Can you forward this blog to a few friends? I'd appreciate it if you did. And don't forget to write me a note at sean@psychotactics.com and let me know 🙂
This is a great post about “About Us” pages, which I personally think are exceptionally important. Especially in cases where people are handing over personal information and need a very high level of trust.
I saw a site yesterday that had a section of the front page dedicated to talking about a staff member. I’m guessing they rotate that out for other members. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, and so I’m going to trial it on one of my sites.
The best thing I like about you, Sean, is that I always can find an example of what you talk about at your web-site, in your articles, in your audios.
I was surprised when I saw your “About us” page for the first time. These pages are usually absolutely boring, but I patiently look through all links at web-site with hope to find information I look for. Personal information, which would give me an idea about person or company. But… I really hardly find it. And WOW! I go to psychotactics.com and find everything I need at the very first page! WOW one more time! 🙂 Applause…
To Charles:
I didn’t understand what the page you described looked like 🙁 Do they discuss a staff member or just provide some personal and interesting information about him/her? I would appreciate your reply vey much. The idea is very interesting. Thank you.
Hmmmmm. This has me entirely re-think my About Us page. Picture? Ugh. But yes, people like the touchy-feely approach. Thanks!
Cheers
Nona