As a freelance photographer, it can be hard to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other businesses out there.
Sure, you have an impressive photography portfolio, but that’s not always enough to seal the deal. In fact, 38% of freelancers said getting new clients was their biggest challenge.
Happily, you do have one thing that no one else has. One thing that truly makes you stand out from the crowd. You!
The About Me page on your photography website shows prospective customers who you are, why you love your work, and the process you follow to create real value for them.
People don’t buy from businesses they don’t trust. So your About Me page is the perfect opportunity to build a connection with potential photography clients and show them a little more about the person behind the portfolio.
In this article, we’ll cover 11 best practice tips for building the perfect About Me page and share examples of some amazing photographer About Me pages you can take inspiration from.
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11 essential strategies to build the perfect About Me page
Don’t worry if you’re wondering how to get started on your About Me page or what you should include.
We’ve got 11 expert tips to create your perfect page, plus examples of About Me pages from other freelancer photography websites and how they made it work for them and their business.
1. Lead with a picture — preferably one showing you at work or holding a camera
Customers want to feel connected to the person behind the service.
Your About Me page allows you to share things about yourself that help potential customers understand more about who you are, the service you offer, and why they should choose you.
And images help us convey information much more efficiently than just text. After all, the saying, “A picture speaks a thousand words,” is well-known for a reason.
But, not any old image will do. Eye-tracking studies show that users pay attention to photos of real people rather than generic images, which they ignore.
So placing a photo of yourself immediately potential clients land on your page builds connection, allowing them to put a face to a name.
And a photo that shows you at work or holding a camera cements the vision they’re forming in their head about you as a photography professional.
Caroline Madsen does this perfectly on her personal photography website. Her About Me page shows three photos of her at work, taken in natural light, which ties into her preferred way of working.
This gives website visitors a real feel for what it might be like to work with Caroline on a shoot.
2. Use a headline that shows your uniqueness
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to showcase what makes you special.
Whether that’s your photography niche, where you’re based, or the unique benefit of working with you, make sure to place that information front and center.
Over 50% of new businesses fail within their first 5 years. And a top reason for this failure is not differentiating themselves from the competition effectively enough.
So, as a small business owner, you need to show you’re offering something your competition isn’t.
Mike Kelley, an LA-based photographer, uses his About Me page to make it clear to potential photography clients what his niche is in his very first paragraph.
He follows this up with a few more interesting snippets about his life growing up and his route into photography, both of which help him stand out.
3. Let the type of photographer you are shine through
As a professional photographer, you know that not all shoots are the same. And however long you’ve been in business, you’ve probably zeroed in or will soon zero in on the type of photography you love and the types you don’t.
Take Mike above. He has a passion for architecture and what he describes as a mild obsession for airplanes.
So it will be clear to visitors on his page that he’s unlikely to be the photographer of choice for a family shoot with young kids.
Your customers aren’t photography professionals. So, state upfront what type of photography business you run, what you’re passionate about, and where your experience lies.
Here’s a great example from Kate L Photography. Kate has a clear niche, serving busy Moms in the Boston area.
She writes her bio in such a way that it’s immediately clear who her target audience is and that she has over a decade of experience helping them create family memories that matter.
4. Explain your process
It might be the first time your potential clients have worked with a professional photographer. So sharing your process helps them get clear on what to expect and reassures them their experience will be a memorable one.
Transparency is key to building trust, so taking the time to explain your process shows you’re serious about them feeling comfortable with working with you.
So try and predict what questions or concerns they might have, and provide answers. For example, family photographers should explain how they manage a shoot if kids aren’t behaving or won’t sit still.
Family photographer, Ashley Newman, captures this brilliantly on her About Me page.
Plus, explaining your process helps manage expectations from the start.
For example, if part of your process is curating the final portfolio the client receives, explaining that at the start means they don’t freak out when they don’t receive every single image taken.
5. Add your previous work samples
As a photographer, your portfolio acts as a powerful example of your previous work.
On reaching your website, 86% of users want instant access to your product or service. Placing some work samples on your About Me makes this easy for them, removing the need for them to navigate elsewhere on your site.
Plus, customers can get an immediate sense of your photography style and make sure it aligns with what they’re trying to achieve.
Add one or two of your best images to your About Me page and link them to the rest of your portfolio, so it’s easy for potential customers to go and find out more.
Shannon at Shannon Lynn Photography uses her About Me page to show off a few of her best samples from her family photography business.
Clicking on any of the images takes you directly into more of her portfolio, making it easy for clients to explore her work.
6. Add testimonials from previous/current clients
While your portfolio can showcase your photography talent, it can’t offer evidence of what it’s like working with you.
Adding testimonials from satisfied clients is a great way to prove your reliability and show how easy it was to work with you. In fact, 97% of consumers say online reviews influence their decision to buy.
Since professional photographers capture some of people’s most important moments, such as weddings, celebrations, or milestone events, customers want to know that you aren’t going to let them down and that you’ll be a calm and supportive presence during their day.
Kayla Fisher, a wedding photographer, has a great example of this on her website.
7. Build your About Me page on a reliable platform
There’s nothing worse than devoting time to creating a stellar About Me page only to get an error message every time you try to reach it.
Research suggests potential customers invest less than 50 milliseconds in deciding a website’s appeal.
If your website’s unavailable or slow to load, you can guarantee they’ll instantly look elsewhere, never to return. In fact, 40% of consumers will leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Using a reliable platform means your About Me page is always available to showcase you and your work.
So look for platform providers that will enable you to have a speedy website and have testimonials from large, international companies. Also, ensure tech support is available 24/7.
Not to toot our own horn, but a well-supported platform like the photography website builder from GetResponse offers you the reassurance that your About me page will always be online.
Plus, it makes About Me pages super simple to create and requires absolutely no coding. All you have to do is pick one of the ready-made website templates and fill in the pages with your own copy.
8. Share some of your personal life
Remember, the purpose of your About Me page is to build a connection with a potential client.
Sharing something personal can help you do that, and you can tailor it to your target audience.
For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, you could share something about your own special day that shows you appreciate what’s important to your customers. This is essential as 87% of consumers say they want businesses to understand them and their specific needs.
Animal photographer? Talk about your own weird and wonderful pets.
Just remember that your About Me page isn’t really about you. So this isn’t the time to wax lyrical about everything you ate during the wedding breakfast or the complex habitat needs of your bearded lizard.
It’s about sharing enough unique and thoughtful content that customers start to trust you and believe that you are the perfect person to provide what they deem most important.
Remember Kate, from above? If you scroll down her About Me page, she captures this beautifully by showing off a few of her favorite things.
There’s just enough information to get a sense about whether she sounds like your type of person but not so much that she swamps potential clients with unnecessary details.
9. Optimize your About Me page for search
Your About Me page is a valuable opportunity to build your credibility with search engines like Google. Search engines know users want great advice from people whose experience they can trust.
And Google’s algorithm rates websites according to its Expertise, Authoritative, Trustworthiness (EAT) scale.
This means sites that Google believes are credible and provide valuable and trusted information appear higher in its search results.
Showcasing your work, highlighting the range of clients you’ve worked for — as Theron Humphrey does below — and adding testimonials all improve your credibility.
Google also penalizes websites where it isn’t clear who’s responsible for the site, as this lowers user trust. This means your bio page is critical for ranking well on Google.
Good user experience is also essential if you want your website to rank highly in search engines. Slow page loading speed and pages full of jargon, poor grammar, or crammed with text aren’t appealing to potential customers.
And why exactly is ranking well in search engines important? Well, over 99% of all users searching on Google click on links found on the first page of results.
So make sure your About Me page is well-structured, with short paragraphs of 1–2 sentences, quality photos, and lots of white space.
10. Make it easy for clients to reach out
Once you’ve convinced clients that you’re the service provider for them, the last thing you want is to lose them because it’s hard for them to reach you.
While you might have a separate contact page, it’s worth putting a contact form or email address (note: this solution isn’t ideal as someone may scrape your contact details) on your About Me page to make it simpler for customers to contact you directly.
Lucie at Urban Photography by Lucie does a great job of this by adding an email address and phone number at the bottom of her bio page.
You can also add links to your social media platforms, so people have another means to reach you and connect with you on a social level.
11. Use more visuals than words
If you’re trying to create a memorable impression, using more visuals than words on your About Me page is a great idea.
The brain processes visual information about 60,000 times better than it does text. This means people remember about 80% of what they see compared to 20% of what they read.
Plus, as a photographer, every image you use on your site is another opportunity to market your product.
And you don’t necessarily need to stick to static images. Videos are an innovative way to connect with clients, allowing you to show more of your unique approach and what makes your service special.
Meagan Baker engages her prospective clients with a personalized video that explains why she loves what she does, her approach to photography, and how she wants to help them get the best from their photoshoot.
It’s important to find a balance, however. Going heavy on the visuals can slow the loading speed of your site, which, as we explained above, is a serious no-no.
And it’s worth knowing the audience you’re trying to target. People in the 18–24-year-old demographic strongly prefer images, while older generations prefer text.
FAQs about photographer About Me pages
When you’re building your About Me page, it’s normal to have questions. Here are a few of the most common:
Why is the About Me page important?
Not having an About Me page is one of the top mistakes to avoid when building your photography website.
Human beings value connection which makes your About Me page incredibly important. It’s an opportunity for potential customers to connect with the person behind the service.
In a world of large corporations, being able to work directly with someone who’s invested in your happiness is incredibly valuable and a real advantage for freelancers and small businesses.
How do I write my About Me page as a photographer?
There are two things you need to concentrate on when building the perfect About Me page. First, your credibility, and second, your personality.
Potential customers need to trust your ability to provide the service you’re offering, and showcasing a few of your best images plus some client testimonials helps do this.
They also want to feel like you’re their type of person. Someone who’ll understand what they need even if they can’t really articulate it.
Adding a few lines about what makes you unique and what you’re passionate about helps them see you on their team.
How do you write a photographer bio?
Writing a photographer bio is no different from writing any other website bio. A helpful thing to remember is that your About Me page really isn’t about you.
When customers reach your page, they want to know you’re going to meet what they need. So frame your About Me page in terms of why they should trust you and exactly what you can do for them.
Your photography About Me page creates value
The About Me page is likely the first place prospective clients go when they visit your website (after your homepage, of course).
They’re interested in knowing more about you, your service, and what differentiates you from the competition.
So not investing time in your About Me page means you’re missing out on the opportunity to build a connection with your customers that helps them choose you over other providers.
A good photographer bio showcases your talent and your personality while reassuring clients that you understand it’s really more about them than it is about you.
And the new GetResponse Website Builder tool can create a personalized About Me page for your photography website in an instant, using AI. Why not get started today?