Video Transcript

00:00:00:02 – 00:00:32:05

Welcome to the GetNetSet Website Building Video series for tax and accounting professionals, where we cover all the essentials of creating a site that helps you grow your business. Today we’re going to talk about creating your profile or about page, where you introduce site visitors to who you are and what you do. People looking for tax help, of course, want a professional with all the needed skills, but they also want someone they can talk to, someone who understands and can relate to their challenges and who will treat them with compassion.

00:00:33:00 – 00:00:53:13

So you can see we have our generic demo homepage here, and we imagine a visitor comes along, wants to learn a little more about us. So they click on the profile link and that takes them to our sample profile page here. Tax Pro Tammy in the fictitious town of Yellow Ridge, Arizona. And let’s start by looking at Tammy’s photo.

00:00:54:05 – 00:01:16:11

You can see that the photo is very well lit and Tammy is sharply and professionally dressed. Notice also that she looks confident, but casual and her warm smile, the pose and that slight lean forward all suggest openness and an eagerness to help. These are subtle things, so you want to work with a photographer who specializes in professional photos and headshots.

00:01:17:02 – 00:01:43:11

Trust us, it’ll be more than worth the investment. Next, notice that Tammy displays her CPA credential right at the top of the page, and the page also includes a couple of her professional memberships. Now, you don’t want to go overboard touting your qualifications, but credentials like CPA or Enrolled Agent obviously really matter in the tax business so you certainly want to make those visible on your site.

00:01:44:10 – 00:02:07:10

We get a little introduction here at the top. We find out that Tammy has been working in the area for a good while. She really likes working with families who are dealing with child care expenses or education costs. And she also enjoys helping independent contractors and others who have to deal with self-employment tax issues. So next, we learn that Tammy is actually a native of this town.

00:02:08:05 – 00:02:32:00

And here we start building a connection with the person reading the profile. Tammy shares that she played shortstop on a championship softball team. Now, if she grew up halfway across the country, that’s probably not a very relevant thing to share. But people in this town are going to remember that team. They might even remember her playing on it. So we’re building a connection here.

00:02:32:01 – 00:02:52:01

She’s relatable. She’s familiar. And all of that builds trust. So what we’re getting into here is the art of telling your story. And when we say tell your story, the key is to highlight the particular aspects of your life and experience that really relate to the work you do and will matter to the people you want to help.

00:02:52:05 – 00:03:17:03

Next, we get a little more information about Tammy’s impressive educational background and we learn that she has worked for a large tax firm in Phoenix. And here’s a really key pivot point. At GetNetSet, we like to talk about finding your why. Why did you get into the business of helping people with tax issues? Why do you provide the particular services that you do for the particular people that you serve?

00:03:18:00 – 00:03:38:13

So we learn here that Tammy always stayed connected to her hometown, and she was bothered because she felt like the people there maybe don’t have the same access to expert tax help as people do in the big city. People in smaller towns often feel sort of shut out and neglected in our society. So she’s really touching a key pain point here.

00:03:38:13 – 00:03:59:10

“I know what you go through. I’ve been there myself. I can relate.” That’s huge for building connection. And we learn also of her relatively humble background. Her parents were a teacher and a city maintenance worker, so she’s not from some wealthy elite. She’s lived the way most people in the town live. She knows the challenges that they face.

00:04:00:04 – 00:04:20:12

So we learned that when she came back to her hometown, it wasn’t because she had to. It wasn’t because she didn’t have other options. It’s because she chose to, because it matters to her. And that’s really a powerful statement to make. We learn a little more now about her work with families and especially with people who work for themselves.

00:04:21:08 – 00:04:50:12

So we learned that Tammy herself has launched a business, so she knows the terrain of self-employment. And a really key point here, we learned that she gets that a lot of self-employed people don’t feel like the tax system is very fair to them, and she is determined to make sure that they do get a fair shake. Lastly, we learn that she even won an award for her work with women and minority business owners. So there you have another population that often feels shut out or underrepresented.

00:04:51:02 – 00:05:20:09

And not only is she saying my door is open to you. She’s saying you’re the people I most like to see coming to my door. All of this, again, builds connection, builds a bond, builds trust. And then lastly, we have this nice little personal note about where she lives in the town. A lot of people in the town have probably seen her out and about with her dogs and maybe they’ve even seen her in a community theater production, yet another element of trust and familiarity and connection.

00:05:20:10 – 00:05:32:06

So those are just a few ideas of how to make your profile really reach the target audience you’re writing for. We hope it’s been helpful. Thank you for watching and we will see you in the next video.