Your professional bio should be on your website under “about us.” It explains you professionally, speaks to your experience and body of work, and helps build trust with your potential clients. Your professional bio can shine when it’s well done, driving traffic to your website and helping you earn new clients.
But how can you craft a successful professional bio? Here are a few of our tips to making sure yours stands out.
Tell a Story
Marketing a business always involves some level of storytelling skills. In marketing, that is generally a story with the customer as the hero and your brand as the helpful guide or the magic weapon they need to succeed. In your professional bio, however, you’re telling your story. Who are you? How did you come to this place in your professional career? What are your strengths and abilities? And why is what you do so important? This is a sort of prequel to your marketing story, the backstory to the helpful guide leading up to when they meet the hero.
Choose First or Third Person
The first job of your professional bio is to introduce yourself. When you begin to write this introduction, you will come across your first choice: should you write in first person or third person?
The truth is there can be merits to both. Just like novels with first and third person, it depends on what best suits your narrative. A small, family-oriented business may use a first person voice in order to give their customers a more familiar feel. If your reason for starting your business comes from a very personal story, a first person narrative may help you tell it better.
On the other hand, third person can give an air of professionalism and expertise. It feels cleaner, more mature, and more serious. If you want to emphasize your authority, third person may suit you better. If a first person narrative feels too much like bragging to you, third person can help you separate yourself from those statements. However, third person can also feel more detached.
Explain What You Do
Once you’ve introduced yourself, explain what you do. Don’t assume that your clients understand everything about what you do. This portion of your professional bio should lay out what your role is in the business relationship, the service you offer to your clients.
More than simply saying what your job is, take a few sentences to get into the process of how you do what you do — especially if it’s a process that sets you apart. If you have a specialization, make sure you highlight that in this section of your bio. You might even add why what you do is so important or what brought you to that line of work for a more personal touch.
Talk About Your Professional Values
Your values are important to your customers. 60% of American consumers expect brands they work with to take a stance on prevalent social justice issues, and 79% say that they are more loyal to purpose-driven brands. Your professional bio is a great place to touch on your values.
You may have a separate landing page that delves into your values in greater detail. On your bio, you want to give more of a summary. For instance, a cafe owner might talk about how important it is for them to provide delicious, fair trade coffee. A beauty guru might mention their commitment to cruelty free products. You can use this to link to your values page, as well, where users can get further information on your brand.
Infuse Your Personality
Your professional bio is a place for your customers to get to know you. Make sure it’s not too dry. If you write a professional bio that makes you sound like a robot, your customers will probably be turned off. Instead, take some time to infuse your personality in the bio. Add a line or two about your hobbies, your interests, your family or your pets. You might share a personal anecdote (though try to keep it short). These bits of your personality will help your professional bio to stand out and build trust with your customers.
Include Photos
If you’re writing a short few sentence bio to go at the end of a guest blog or interview, you’ll want a small headshot to accompany this bio. This may not be necessary according to the guidelines you’re given, and you may find that there are a number of bios online that don’t include pictures. However, a picture will help your bio to stand out further.
If you’re writing a professional bio page on your website, you can add a larger picture or even multiple pictures. Post a picture of yourself in your office, in front of your company, or working. Some even add a few pictures to serve as a sort of visual timeline paralleling the story of the bio. These visuals keep your bio from being simply a wall of text and add character and personality to your bio.
