The strategies for writing a winning landing page bio

The instructor intro on your landing page is a short line (80 characters) about your credibility in the topic that you are teaching. Your instructor intro is your shot to impress your prospective student with your relevant achievements.

Because you have limited characters, you should be specific about what you've accomplished and include company names, titles, number of years of experience, number of people/clients you have, revenue numbers. Here are a few examples on how to go from vague to specific in your instructor intro:

Your instructor bio is an opportunity to put your best foot forward. Don’t assume the reader will Google you—your landing page might be your only shot, so let your credibility shine.

We're often asked whether the bio should be in first-person or third-person. Either works, and it depends on which one you feel more comfortable with. Try switching to third-person if it's hard to talk about yourself, or try a storytelling approach in first-person if that is more natural. It's okay if your bio is on the longer side as long as it effectively conveys your credibility, results, and reason for building the course.

Here are two examples of effective bios—one is in first-person and the other in third-person. Notice how both bios convey the key components mentioned above.

Most people think credibility is about testimonials and recognizable brands. But what if you don’t have clients yet, or your work is locked behind NDAs?

Luckily, there are a few ways to show credibility (even if you haven’t launched your course yet):

This means speaking to your ideal students' day-to-day problems, sharing your spiky point of views, and using industry-specific language. You should sprinkle these stories throughout the page—in your testimonials, key outcomes, course overview, and bio.

Most messaging is me-focused: “I worked at X company. I specialize in Y. I have these clients.” Your prospective student will read this and thinks, “How is any of this relevant to me?”

This is a missed opportunity.

Instead of rattling off your work history, talk about your target student and the specific problems they’re facing. When you speak with insight and detail, a magical thing happens: People assume you know how to solve the problem.

When you’re vague, prospective students will assume it’s because you’re not able to go any deeper.

Here's an example from Annie Duke's Make Better Decisions. In her Key Outcomes section, Annie teases her insights and research about decision-making. Framing your outcomes as insights builds trust with your target student that you're an expert in the field.

In Zero to 10k Twitter Accelerator, Rob Lennon creatively uses the Schedule section to tell a story about how he helped a client "John" transform using his methodology. By the way, you can add custom sections by clicking "+ New Section" at the top left-panel of your landing page builder.

You might be wondering: "Why give free advice on LinkedIn, Twitter, or newsletter? Won’t that devalue my work?"

Ironically, the opposite is true. The more insights you share freely, the more your prospective students will think, “If they’re willing to tell me this for free, they must give even better advice if I pay for the course.”

This is where your spiky point of view comes in. A spiky point of view is a perspective others can disagree with. It’s a belief you feel strongly about and are willing to advocate for. It’s your thesis about topics in your realm of expertise.

Here are questions to inspire your spiky point of view:

Common wisdom says to avoid jargon. But sometimes jargon and industry-specific terms help show your credibility.

For example, Emily Kramer teaches a course on B2B marketing. On her landing page, she doesn’t shy away from jargon like PMM, OKR, KPI, funnel, positioning, or growth levers. She even mentions proprietary frameworks like the GACC framework, Pi-shaped, and Fuel-Engine.

This jargon demonstrates her credibility and expertise in these topics. And it narrows her target audience to marketers who “get it."

Audit your landing page and bio. If you remove all the company and client names, do you still sound like an expert? If not, try the ideas above to show your credibility.