If you’re like most companies, your About Us page is tucked into the links on your website footer and is a few vague paragraphs about your mission, your products, or your founder. You probably wrote it when you built the website and haven’t given it much thought since then.
If this is you, you’re missing out on great opportunities to generate leads and motivate customers to convert.
In this article, we’ll give you 10 tips on how to write a stellar About Us page that helps your business instead of cluttering up your website.
Write a Catchy Headline
Does your About page just say “About” at the top? This does little, if anything, to entice your prospective customers to read further. Visitors want to know what about you sets you apart from other companies offering a similar product or service. Jump right in with a snappy headline that tells them exactly what you offer.
If you look at the Why JazzHR page, you see a headline that instantly draws you in to want to know more about their offerings.
They focus on promoting the idea of greatness. Even though the page doesn’t include the word “about”, it uses actionable phrases that directly benefit the visitor.
Demonstrate Trustworthiness
Visitors are also looking for reasons they should trust your brand. Demonstrate your trustworthiness by including things like publications you’ve been featured in, brands you’ve worked with, and any high-profile customers. Include quotes, testimonials, and links from these companies to build that trust as fully and deeply as you can.
TransUnion Shareable for Hires promotes trustworthiness immediately with a banner telling you exactly what you can expect from their service.
Tell a Story
To keep readers interested in your About page, tell a compelling story. This can be the story of your business—how and why it was started, how it has grown, and more. But it’s even better if you tell a story about your customers and how they are a part of the story of your business.
Online kitchen and bathroom supplier Hausera starts off their About page by immediately tying the customer into their story:
They continue by explaining how everything they do helps the customer:
Go Behind-the-Scenes
Give readers a glimpse into the inner workings of your company with behind-the-scenes stories, pictures, and videos. Give a virtual tour of your office or other company locations to bring a personal and human element to your brand.
Zappos does this by guiding visitors to other pages centered on their locations, their culture, and their process. Readers can choose what they are most interested to know more about without getting bogged down in a page that’s a mile long.
Include Statistics
Numbers speak louder than words. Do you have a high client retention rate? Minimal returns? Do people return to your site, product, or service over and over again? Use statistics and numbers to communicate the effectiveness of your business.
HubSpot’s About page highlights several different metrics to appeal to their customers:
As a platform for marketing, customer service, and sales, HubSpot knows that data will speak to its prospective customers. Laying it out simply and clearly conveys just the right message to site visitors.
Include Images
Too many About pages are just walls of text on a plain background. This loses the reader’s attention nearly immediately and presents your brand as somewhat boring.
Use high-quality images that are unique to your company to make your About page eye-catching and enticing. This can include images of your product, your office, or your team members, depending on the other content and layout on your page.
Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear supplier, uses stunning photographs of natural scenery on their About page.
This kind of imagery cultivates the sense that their brand is adventurous and wild. Use images that convey your brand’s values to potential clients.
Avoid Vague Marketing Claims
Throughout your page, be sure to avoid bland, marketing-focused jargon that will make customers roll their eyes and feel like they’re on just another sales page. People who click on the About page are looking for something genuine about your company. They want to make a connection with you. Phrases like “built from the ground up” and “we do this so you don’t have to” are tired, overused, and will do nothing to win over your customers.
Link to Important Pages
If your About page has done its job, your reader is ready to take the next step toward becoming a customer. Instead of sending them back to your navigation to figure it out themselves, integrate links to your top category or service pages so prospective customers can find exactly what they’re looking for.
REI does this with a left-rail navigation that talks about other important pieces of their business model, like the member co-op program:
Other businesses may choose to link to a contact page, a shop all page, or specific categories or products they want to highlight.
Include an Email Capture or Call-to-Action
Many businesses forget that About pages can also function as email captures or lead generators. If they’ve made it through your About page and you’ve told a compelling story about your brand, why wouldn’t they want to connect with you further? Include an email sign-up or a call-to-action that links to your contact page, like Siege Media does here:
The CTA should fit the flow and style of the rest of the page to ensure a cohesive experience for your visitors.
Provide Real Value to the Reader
Customers aren’t clicking on your page because they want to be sold to even more. They want to learn something about you that they couldn’t find anywhere else on the site. Make sure you provide that for them, in every section of the page. Not every element in this article needs to be used on every About page, but everything you include should lead to this one point: providing real value to your reader. If that is the goal of your page, you can’t go wrong.
Conclusion
Don’t let your About page wallow in website obscurity. Take it out, freshen it up, and put it to work educating your potential customers on who you are and what you will do for them. Let them know you as a brand and as people who will work with them to get them what they need. With a little effort, your About Us page just might become one of the most powerful pages on your site.
About the Author
Samantha Rupp holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She is the managing editor for 365businesstips.com as well as runs a personal blog, sjruppy.com. She lives in San Diego, California and enjoys spending time on the beach, reading up on current industry trends, and traveling.
