What would you guess is the most visited section of any law firm website? Well, according to a recent Legal Marketing Association (LMA) panel, “Content Makeover,” the answer is biography pages. Potential clients, business partners and investors are interested in the people behind the company.
Professional bio pages are an often underutilized device for delivering a company’s message. Here are the top tips from the LMA panelists for making your bio page stand out:
Website visitors have short attention spans. In this age of instant information, readers tend to gravitate towards the beginning and end – or the “top and tail” – of the page, skipping everything in between. To combat this, the panelists recommend paying special attention to the opening paragraph of your bio. Instead of blandly restating your name and title, try conveying to the reader who you are and how you would interact with them as a client. This might be the only thing a potential client will ever read about you, so catch their attention and tell them why they should hire you.
Focus on recent accomplishments. You might have closed a huge deal in 1984, but that may not do much good for a potential client today. Although it may be helpful to list past accomplishments as an indication of your expertise, be sure to highlight your recent successes. According to the panelists, dragging readers into the past slows them down and can cause them to lose interest.
Be specific. Sometimes casting a wider net doesn’t catch more clients. Generalized copy written with the goal of catching the eye of more people may actually come off as too vague. “Hyper-specific” content, however, can engage readers and has a much longer lifespan. Show off your hard-earned industry knowledge.
Use your bio page as a marketing tool. The panelists encourage professionals to think of bio pages as multi-dimensional, something Berbay has encouraged in a recent blog positing titled, “The Transformation of Attorney Biography Pages.” Try including links to other relevant sections of your company’s website, such as to articles you’ve published, a description of your business division or your contact information.
Because it experiences such high traffic, it’s important to develop your bio page into an effective marketing tool. Put these tips into play on your own biography page.
– By Berbay Assistant Account Manager Matt Aguirre
