What do people look for when they first visit your website? Do they go to browsing your products right away? Do they check out your blog?
Or do they go read about your company first?
The About Us page plays a crucial role in your business. Its goal is to provide essential information about what you do and why you do it. So, underestimating the value of this page would be a huge mistake.
But what does it take to write a truly impactful About Us page? What should you do to captivate the attention of your visitors with your story?
Here are a few recommendations.
Why Does Your Business Need an About Us Page?
Before we go to practical advice, let’s figure out why About Us pages are so important, and what role they play in building the first impression of your business.
An About Us page is a landing page used by all businesses. This page introduces potential customers to the business’s product, team, and values. The goal is to reflect the business’s personality to the fullest.
Unfortunately, companies often underrate the value of this page. Meanwhile, it is among the top-visited pages on corporate websites. 52% of people want to see the information about the business available on its website.
Apart from providing the details about the business and forming the first impression with potential customers, About Us pages have the following functions:
- It differentiates you from other businesses. A properly written About Us page is your chance to show your unique qualities that help you stand out from the competition.
- You get a chance to build a solid brand image. An About Us page is one more opportunity to highlight your business’s core values, thus helping form your brand’s image.
- It unveils your mission and purpose. Your About Us page is the right place to present your mission statement and the goals that your product serves. Here, you can also highlight the social causes your business supports, like IKEA Indonesia does on its About Us page:
Credit: IKEA Indonesia
Now, as we’ve covered the reasons why you should invest more time and effort into your About Us page, let’s take a look at a few writing practices and inspiring examples.
1. Start with Your Brand’s Story
The story behind your brand is what makes your business stand out. That’s why you can’t create an impactful About Us page without diving into the history of your brand.
Storytelling is one of the most powerful strategies in digital marketing. It helps customers:
- memorize your business
- differentiate your brand from others
- engage and build relationships with your brand
Besides, research has shown that telling stories makes you 22 times more memorable. Why? Because your story makes you feel relatable and helps people associate their personal stories with yours.
Storytelling is a common writing practice when creating About Us pages and many brands take advantage of it to a certain extent.
For instance, Saucony created an entire timeline of how the brand grew into the success it is now. The company’s vintage style About Us page touches upon the creation of the brand as well as Saucony’s top-selling shoes through time:
Credit: Saucony
As a result, customers get a well-rounded image of Saucony as a business.
Personal brands can take advantage of storytelling when writing their About Us pages as well. But for personal brands, the rules aren’t that strict as for bigger companies – they can be as intimate in telling their stories as they want.
Take Pierro Caron, a famous Canadian sculptor, for example. His About Me page tells the origins behind his personal brand, uncovers his inspirations, and briefly talks about the creations that he makes – it’s all about his personal touch as a sculptor and creator:
Credit: Pierro Caron
So the lesson here is that you should embrace storytelling when writing your About Us page. The only thing you should watch out for is being too intimate – personal brands can allow themselves to reveal more details than bigger companies.
2. Show the People behind Your Business
Apart from uncovering your story as a brand, you also can tell the stories of people who’ve helped shape your business into what it is today.
You can feature your team on your About Us page in many ways. For instance, Yokel Local, a digital marketing agency, has linked its About Us page to separate landing pages created for each individual employee:
Credit: Yokel Local
Thus, each visitor can read each employee’s story and learn about their contribution to Yokel Local. You can take this example as an inspiration and write your employee’s stories in an interview format.
You can also incorporate your team’s stories to showcase your brand identity. Skinny Dipped, an online snack shop, used its founders’ childhood photos on its About Us page:
Credit: Skinny Dipped
The reason for this decision is simple – Skinny Dipped is a family business, and its brand image is focused on family values. Besides, childhood photos make the company’s About Us page warm and welcoming.
You can also unite your staff’s stories with the company mission, which’s also a part of the About Us page.
If you don’t know how to write a strong mission statement, you can find some templates on https://subjecto.com/essay-samples/ or simply make a list of all the values your brand supports and craft a couple of sentences mentioning them.
The one thing you absolutely should avoid when writing a mission statement is stealing ideas from others. A mission statement is a feature that should differentiate you from your competitors.
3. Focus on the Needs of Your Audience
One more thing you should address when writing your About Us page is your audience and its core needs.
In general, demonstrating a solid knowledge of your target audience shows you as a caring brand dedicated to helping customers. But knowing your audience is not just about recognizing their needs and showing how your product can meet them; you have product pages for that. It’s about recognizing how your target audience wants to communicate with you.
For instance, we can learn from Kero One, an Asian-American DJ, rapper, and producer. His About Me page is translated into several languages, including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish – all for the convenience of his listeners:
Credit: Kero One
But even though your About Us page is not the place for promoting your product, you can still make a lucrative offer to your target audience by addressing some of their needs.
For instance, Refinery 29 has created a subsection called Our Promise, where the company touches upon the main things it offers to its core audience – smart, curious, and passionate women:
Credit: Refinery 29
Depending on what your business does, you can also highlight the main features of your product or service and attach them to your audience’s specific needs. As a result, you’ll have a complete About Us page full of essential details about your company.
Wrapping Up
About Us pages are often underappreciated. But, as you can see, they carry an enormous value for your business, tell your story and bring forward your brand’s values.
Writing an About Us page is a creative process that allows flexibility to some extent. However, there are a few elements that you should include if you want to write a truly impactful About Us page:
- your brand’s story
- your staff’s stories
- needs of your audience and a lucrative offer
With these features, you’ll have an amazing About Us page that will catch the eye of the most demanding customers.
Author bio: Marques Coleman is a content specialist and editor. He also works as a freelance digital marketing specialist, helping different companies increase their online presence. In his spare time, Marques enjoys spending time with his family outdoors.