Your "About Me" Page... and why it is not really about you

Photo by Ehimetalor Unuabona

You bought the website template, picked out your best images to showcase. It all looks nice. Now you have to tell people something about you. Eeek! You check out what other people have written on their "About Pages" and figure you should follow the trend. You launch into what made you get into photography, where you studied, what you are drawn to photograph, how you love light, you love capturing kids, how you love coffee, yadda yadda yadda...

But here is the harsh truth. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Sorry, but its not. Well, it sort of is, but not really, not yet. Before you get to talking about you, you need to put yourself in your client's shoes. When they land on your site, its because they have a problem and maybe you can fix it. They don't want to know all about you and why you picked up your camera. They want to know how you can fix their problem.

So before you start chatting away on your About Page, you need to listen. 

Stop. And listen. To your potential clients.

"But wait, how to I listen to someone when I don't know who it is and I know nothing about them?"

Exactly. This is why you need to stop. You need to take some time to figure out who your client is, who they might be, what they are dealing with on a day to day basis and how you can help them, how you can make their life easier and fix something they were worrying about.

Once you spend some time doing that, then you'll know WHO you are talking to. And only then can you figure out what information about YOU is relevant and interesting to YOUR CLIENT.

This is the start of your branding process.

The "get to know your client" challenge!

Here's your challenge: You are going to spend the next 2 days thinking about the existing clients you have, the ones that really got you. What do they have in common? What do their lives look like? Why is it that they are drawn to documentary family photography? Get your notebook out and make some notes. 

Why do your client choose your photography in particular? What is it about what you do that made them make that leap to book you?

Switching your mindset to thinking about things from your clients perspective (instead of from yours) is the start of creating a successful brand and a business that will go places.

Join the workshop

Branding & Marketing experts, Melissa Nassif and Dan Kojic have developed a 4 week mentored workshop, starting 10th September, to guide you through the whole process of branding and marketing. It's the first module in our 16 week Business Badassery Programme, designed specifically to get documentary family photographers making a success and an income from their business.

At just €299 for a single 4 week mentored workshop and €1099 for the whole program (payment plan available), these mentored workshops are a super affordable option for those who can't afford a dedicated branding advisor, web expert and business coach.