Your online profile speaks volumes – sometimes it’s the first impression you’ll make on a new visitor. Are you captivating your ideal audience in your profile, or in your ‘About’ page? Believe it or not, there is a right and a wrong way to write your online profile. That just means there’s one version that’s going to bore your audience … but if you just tweaked it, it could marvel them.

---

Today, I’m breaking down the questions you should be asking yourself, what to include in your online profile, and what’s not really as important as you think. The one thing you need to remember (and it may sound a little backwards) is this:

Your online profile is, in fact, for your ideal client and not for yourself.
Your online profile is not a CV, or resumé. That’s boring! It’s a page where potential clients get to see if they can relate with you, how your personality and methods fit into the process and, ultimately, how that will culminate in business together.

Your expert profile should answer the following questions, so you can make the most of this essential page.

Q1: What is your area of expertise?

Give your reader a general idea of what topics you cover, and what experiences make you an expert. Try one main topic (your expertise) and two sub-topics/categories (areas of interest).

Q2: What type of clients do you work with?

Be specific. Do you work with low-income families, single women who want to start a beauty business, or only high-paying corporate companies who want top-notch marketing?

If you’re too broad in your description of your ideal client, you’ll end up wasting valuable time sorting through which clients suit you and your business, and which don’t.

Q3: Do you have a blog or do you/have you ever contributed to any online or offline publications? How often do you write?

Don’t just say “I have a blog that’s been featured…” Take this opportunity to hyperlink to your space by saying it like this:

Our online business and lifestyle magazine, has been featured by:

• Connected Women Magazine
• Inc
• Entrepreneur Magazine, and more!

By listing things in bullet points, you make your profile more reader-friendly.

Tip: DO NOT write a long sentence or paragraph that lists your online/offline publications in a long list separated by commas. But why not?

• It’s difficult to read, thus, difficult to focus.
• It’s boring.
• It’s ugly.

Your Business Profile

Q4: Why would someone work with you?

Here we talk about the results you, in particular, help clients achieve. You can try any of these formulas:

If you’re sick of [their pain point] and want to [one result your product/service offers], then [name of your business] is where you’ll find [the solution to their pain point].

Are you looking for/to [the solution to their pain point], but don’t want to [one of their frustrations or struggles], I can help you [one of the results related to the previous pain point].

Q5: What are the unique benefits of working with you?

Mention briefly what you offer that others in your industry do not. Tell them why working with you will be special, or how the experience will be enriched for them. What’s something you can promise them that others might not?

Tip: Even offering a money-back guarantee can set you apart; it shows that you are confident in the transformation your product/service offers.

Q6: What kind of services or products do you offer?

Be brief; this is not the main point of your online profile. If you do mention your services, mention them from your highest priced option first, to the lowest. Your readers will be more likely to remember your first product name, as opposed to the last one you mention.

Tip: Mention only 2-3 products/services max.

Q7: What makes you credible? (Schooling, training, years of experience, notable press/media, certifications/awards/publications, and so on.)

This is pretty straightforward, but a word of warning: please don’t go into your cooking classes from 10 years ago if you’re now into marketing. Only mention those which are relevant to your profile now – the more recent, the better.

Q8: How did your business get started?

This is not so much a long history as it is the moment where you talk briefly about what pain point or problem your business was made to ease/resolve.

Your Personal Profile

Q9: How does your business fit into your lifestyle?

This is where your personal life can relate with that of your readers. Did you once have the same pain point or problem as them? Or is it that you apply your expertise to your own life and this can help guide them as well?

Q10: What are your other areas of passion/hobbies?

It’s completely fine to put some facts about what makes you, you. People want to read about you and your business to learn more, but it’s the face, personality and individual quirks which make you human to them. Be real, and don’t try to think about what a client will or will not like about you. If they don’t like the real you, they wouldn’t make an ideal client anyway.

Q11: What is your philosophy for work and life?

Feel free to tie this to a quote that you live by.

Most Important

Q12: What is your call-to-action at the end of your expert profile?

A reader can choose to click any of the hyperlinks throughout your online profile, but having a CTA at the end means you’re giving them a little nudge that says “go here” or “do this”.

Example:

Click here to check out all I/we offer!

Don’t miss a thing – let’s be friends on Twitter! (Pick the social media channel on which you are most active.)

Q13: Did you proofread?

You MUST proofread your profile before you post or publish it. If you don’t have time to read through your profile a few times, then outsource it to someone, or ask a friend who has a good eye!

—