How To Write An Awesome About Us Page That Converts
When it comes to your business, you’re the one who knows best about its values, history and mission. BUT, portraying that information is difficult sometimes, and the about us page on your website is more than simply talking about your company. For your site visitors, this page shows them every reason why they should or should not trust your business!
Writing a compelling about us page is just the first step. There are a number of crucial elements that should go on this page so that potential customers see your values and trust your business enough to convert into paying customers.
Instead of treating the about us page as just another piece of copywriting, see it as your way to build trust. Why? Because, often, the about pages are the most important and highly visited pages on a site; you’re giving your visitors a reason to emotionally invest in your brand!
In this guide, we’ll discuss the following:
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- How to write about us page copy that your visitors will love
- What other elements to include on your about us page
- Examples of highly converting about pages.
Read on to learn more.
What to Put in Your About Page
The about us page provides an overall look into your company’s history, values, future goals and branding.
Most about us pages include a combination of the following:
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- History: how your company started and what helped it grow
- How your brand is uniquely different when compared to your competitors
- Values that your brand holds dear
- The reasons why customers should pick you
Most importantly, about us pages need to tell a clear and compelling story about your brand that instills trust in your reader. Because, after all, customers are more likely to purchase from a company that they believe in and trust. By comparison, visitors may bounce if they don’t believe in your brand. (You can always check your about page‘s Google Analytics bounce rate to see if it’s building trust or causing abandonment.)
What Should Go On Your About Us Page
Besides telling your story and writing a compelling statement, make sure that you’re including other important elements that have proven to be successful:
1. Unique Value Proposition
Include a cleverly worded statement about the value you provide to customers (a unique value proposition). If you’ve already done branding exercises, then you know what your unique value proposition is.
For many brands, it’s a unique selling point… a statement that shows how your product or service provides the best solution. For example, you may only sell vegan, cruelty-free, ethically sourced products. Your unique value proposition will talk about why this is so important to your customers (and their health or mindset or values, etc).
However, keep in mind that the goal isn’t to be heavy-handed! Just talk sensibly and personably to your readers.
2. Show Who’s Behind the Company
Human faces are a huge source of interest. People love seeing other people, especially individuals hidden behind a brand’s name. That’s why every about page should feature an “executive” or “founder” section.
It’s important to include clear, high-resolution, friendly headshots of your team, too. The faces of your brand imply what your company culture is all about and makes your brand more relatable to potential customers.
3. Visual Storytelling and Formatting
Every about page should start off with a headline and a short paragraph that sums up your company, including your unique value proposition.
However, you don’t have to stick to traditional paragraphs. Many brands use a timeline storytelling technique, just like Coca-Cola.
Brands also use embedded videos on their pages, but these should be incredibly polished, compelling videos that focus on your history, core values, mission statement and products (while weaving in your unique selling points).
Simple timelines can follow this formula:
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- Start off with how your brand came to be
- Highlight when you sold your first product or hit your first milestone
- Mention the times you discovered something new (or a secondary milestone)
- Include points of rapid growth, such as hiring your 100th employee or making your millionth sale
While you might be tempted to go on and on, fight the urge to let your about page copy be a neverending story. Keep it simple and compelling. If you need help with editing your about page, reach out to an agency or talk to a freelance copywriter about what can be cut out.
4. Share Future Projects
What are you currently working on? Are you involved with any charities or worldly projects? If so, these are additional nuggets of goodness that can show your audience what you’ve been up to!
If you’re just starting out and don’t have huge, fun things on the horizon (as of yet!), share behind-the-scenes content. Common behind-the-scenes content includes simple things, like how a product is created or what goes into the design of something you sell.
5. Talk About Your Location
It doesn’t matter if you have a US-based company or an international business; you should talk about where your brand is located and how you ship your products (if you have products to ship!). For SEO purposes, the about page offers great content for local search results.
6. Encourage Your Customer’s Next Step
The bottom of your about page should have a compelling call-to-action (CTA). This is where you direct your customer onto the next step. Perhaps you ask them to sign-up to receive a discount on their first purchase…or maybe you direct them to your top products or your contact information. If you style your page correctly, you can include both of these CTAs!
Encourage your audience to read more by linking to your top blog posts at the bottom of the page. For example, if a new product was recently released, it could be highlighted in a section on the about page but not necessarily be a part of your brand’s overall story (yet).
Additionally, your social media profile links should ALWAYS be present. Once a visitor discovers interesting tidbits about your company, team and history, they’ll likely want to see more about your corporate culture! This is where social media comes into play!
7. Things Business Owners Should and Shouldn’t Avoid on the About Page
Some things immediately turn off a target audience.
For one, no one likes pages that are full of urgent sales tactics. (This is not the place to hype or pitch someone on your business. It’s your opportunity to be genuine and relate to your audience.) Here are some other tips we recommend when creating your page:
Endorsements & Testimonials
While the about page may not necessarily be the best place to house this information, things like sponsorships, endorsements and testimonials/social proof do belong on your site! We suggest putting these on their own landing pages (or on the homepage) in order to not distract from the primary goal of your about us page.
Fictional Stories
In the age of the internet, people can basically find out anything pertaining to a company: the people who work for it, how long you’ve been in business, past issues or concerns. So, long story short, make sure you’re honest with your brand story and don’t add fictional details that are easily debunked!
Customers value businesses that are honest. If you and your business come from humble beginnings, tell your customers. They will have more trust in you as a result.
Don’t Forget About Mobile-Friendly Design
Your about page should easily load on all mobile devices. Scroll through and make sure that important points like headlines, subheads, and bolded quotes are highlighted throughout your mobile-friendly design, but don’t go design crazy with it (it will distract from your messaging, which could hinder the user experience).
Pro Tip: Remember, videos are compelling ways to tell people what you do without having to include multiple design elements on the page.
Keep It Under 2000 Words
We like short and sweet about us pages that tell a story and then move the visitor toward a destination. While there should be plenty of information about your company, history and brand values, your about page SHOULDN’T be an epic monologue about all the good you do in this world!
Excellent About Us Page Examples
There are some very innovative (yet simple) about pages that tell the right story and include visual elements to support their brand position. If you’re stuck on what to use for yours, take inspiration from these about pages and use them as a benchmark.
Artful, compelling and simply stated, it’s easy to see what Yellow Leaf Hammocks is all about. Their about page includes compelling imagery and video, tells a succinct story and navigates you seamlessly through it all. The webpage never feels like a gross sales pitch and it increases your trust with the brand before they subtly encourage you to go to their online store.
Innovative, smart and minimalistic, Apptopia focuses on what it does for you and why that’s such a rare thing to find in the industry. Not only that, but they list out upper management and lower-level employees – something that every small business should use (whether that’s in an about us page or an employee page).
We love Bombas for its mission to help people, which inherently helps the brand everywhere you see the logo. This page is the perfect example of how to write an about us page for ecommerce websites. Its messaging is focused, it’s well written and it even has video content to increase engagement and site dwell time.
Historic yet innovative, Ford’s about page is very traditional…but it works! Notice how there are very distinct call-to-actions placed throughout the page. This helps navigate uses to other pages, as opposed to the standard about us that doesn’t encourage users to visit anywhere else on the site.
We love the innovative use of video headshots that show the founder talking about the difficulties that face home buyers and how Better.com alleviates those challenges. Along with that, there’s a clear timeline infographic that travels back in time as you scroll, encouraging visitors to go past the fold and see more.
Start Converting More Visitors With An Awesome About Us Page
Learning how to write about us page copy is about understanding your audience and answering their number one question, “Can you help me with my problem?” The most simple, straightforward story can answer this in seconds and allows the customer to feel confident doing business with you.
But, creating an excellent about us page is, without a doubt, hard work. Don’t get too discouraged!
Still not sure where or how to get started? Work with a digital marketing agency whose expertise resides in building high-quality websites, conceptualizing strong marketing strategies and generating quality leads for your business.
