15 Tricks For Writing A Remarkable About Us Page That Captures and Befriends Prospects

How To Craft A Powerful About Us Page

Your About Page is the page your visitors find themselves on during the early stages of the buying cycle, while evaluating possible solutions.

When a user clicks on your about us page it means they are interested enough in you and your brand to take the next step and learn more.

This page is one of the most highly viewed on most sites and offers you the opportunity to introduce yourself and build trust.

A great about us page can help you acquire more customers and increase sales.

Follow these 15 tips to help you craft the perfect about us page.

Your about us page should be written in a conversational tone and like any good day-to-day conversation introducing yourself is just good manners.

The style you adopt will depend on your company, but make an effort to write in a way that makes your content, and your site, feel accessible and friendly.

The information presented in your about me page should have 5 levels of detail:

1. Headline: The title of your about us page should be simple, clear and benefit-driven. Show the solution to your readers’ problem in the headline. Make your headline your value proposition. We like people who are similar to ourselves and believe what we believe. Use your headline to illustrate this.

2. Tagline: A short phrase describing your company’s purpose. This helps users understand the rest of your site by providing context for the detailed content.

3. Summary: 1-2 paragraphs at the top of the main about us page that offer a bit more detail about your business goals and main accomplishments. A short mission statement could be placed here. Again, this section creates valuable context for the next level.

4. Fact sheet: A section following the summary that elaborates its key points and other essential facts about your business. Instead of boasting about your accomplishments or products let the facts speak for themselves by including:

Use facts to strike a happy medium between highlighting your selling points and plain boasting. This could be anything from your client retention rate to the amount of new products you offer each month.

5. Detailed information: Subsidiary pages with more depth for people who want to learn more about your company.

15 Clever ways to acquire customers through your About Page

1. Place Key Information Above The Fold

Grab your audiences’ attention at the top of your About Page with the key information they need. Use the page to show value, usefulness and enthusiasm to improve conversion rates.

2. Keep Your About Us Page, Concise and Tidy

Avoid overstuffing.

Don’t overload readers with information, stats and facts.

Keep your message short, sweet and to the point.

Most businesses don’t know how to write a summary.

Shorter About pages feature less information, which means fewer distractions.

Longer about us pages will receive less leads overall because the barrier to entry is much higher. If you can write your about us page in a few concise and informative paragraphs you are already ahead of your competition.

Cut out the jargon.

People won’t remember clever words and sentences, it’s boring.

What they really want, when they click on your About Me Page, is to learn more about you.

Focus on how you can solve problems for your reader, but don’t go into too much detail. It’s not a speech, but a conversation between you and the reader.

Don’t waste their time.

3. Plainspoken

Make use of a visual metaphor.

Metaphors helps us process and interpret new information. A visual metaphor will help your message stick and enhance your message, particularly if you keep the visual simple. For example, “climb the corporate ladder” and then depict a cartoon character climbing a ladder.

Image from: www.wherewomenwork.com

Create novelty and humour with the unexpected: When you come across something unfamiliar or out of context it creates an emotional response that captures your attention and increase your interest.

Humour evokes feelings of amusement and enjoyment.

Connect your about us page message with something entertaining or unexpected to enhance reader engagement.

4. Tell Your Story

Enforce your brand by focusing on the things that make you human; the reasons behind why you do what you do and how your business came to be.

Tell of how you struggled and finally achieved success.

People can relate to stories and will more easily remember a story. The more people can identify with you the more trust they’ll place in your brand.

There are 5 key elements in crafting a memorable story:

1. Character: How are you different and why should readers care about you?

2. Challenge: What is the key problem/benefit you are addressing?

3. Vision: What has your unique journey revealed to you?

4. Conflict: What stood in your way? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

5. Triumph: Tell of how you overcame the barriers to success.

5. Include visual elements to increase engagement

Include pictures of you and your staff. Put a human face on your business. Use interesting images, videos, or graphics to illustrate facts about your company and offerings. This will keep readers engaged, while making the content easier to digest.

6. Always include the call to action

Give clear direction for visitors to follow after reading your about us page. Whether an opt-in form or link to your best post, make sure it provides value to your readers.

Tell your readers what to do. Take them by the hand and boldly lead them to the action you want them to take.

7. Choose colours which are consistent with your brand

Make sure your about us page is consistent with the rest of your website’s branding so readers can easily identify you.

8. Navigation and fonts

For your about me page to be successful, people need to find it first. Make sure it’s easy to find in the navigation menu. A good place to put it is right after the “home” button.

Sites that make it hard to find the most basic information about a company or organisation decrease their user satisfaction.

Your home page link, labelled “About”, “About me” or “About Us”, should be clearly visible.

Avoid using non-standard names for this link. Users get frustrated when unable to find specific information they’re searching for.

9. Make it about them

Show readers how your business and product/service will benefit them. Talk more about them and less about you.

Focus on your readers by eliminating “our” and “we” statements in favour of “you” and “your”.

Dedicate your opening sentence(s) to your audience’s challenges and objectives. Starting with the reason they came to visit your site in the first place.

Design your about us page to suit your target audience. For example, a freelance writer should focus on her words, while a graphic designer will showcase his artwork.

10. Show personality

Why is an about page necessary? Your about me page is crucial in making your company more likeable. Behaviour research has shown that the emotion of “likeability” is more indicative of whether or not a campaign will increase a brand or company’s sales.

Use your About Page to show your personality, corporate culture and who you really are and what you stand for.

LongHollow Baptist church’s website shows great personality by using the right colours and images. Think of the website as a person. This site conveys warmth and draws the user in. Earthy tones and pictures of real people (representative of the church) all help give this website a unique personality.

11. Demonstrate Trust

Tell visitors who you are, where you are and why you are qualified. Briefly talk about your knowledge, experience and expertise.

It’s much easier to sell to prospects whom you’ve educated, informed and persuaded prior to recommending your product/service.

Don’t exaggerate, be brutally honest and straightforward about your business.

12. Establish Credibility

Position yourself as an authority in your industry and someone worth buying from. You can build trust with users by showing that you’re reliable and have a proven track record by. Implement below in your About page to increase credibility:

• Ensure people immediately know what your site is about from their very first visit, by displaying relevant information.
• Make your address and phone number visible at all times.
• Link to external websites that reference your business.
• Show your client list.

13. Test it

You won’t know what works best if you don’t test it first. Do your research, then test and test again. Don’t be afraid to make amendments, tweaking sentences and adding images. Make sure the page is build with responsive design in mind; for desktop, mobile and tablet devices.

BONUS: How can I convert visitors from my About Page?

14.Newsletter signups

Create a separate opt-in form within your email list management program to embed on your About Page. Clearly state the benefits of why someone should sign up for your newsletter and place it above the fold.

Remember to include a clear link to your privacy statement below the fold. Remove any needless distractions, such as general navigation, third-party advertising and house ads.

15. Leads:

Add a lead generation form to your about us page. With visitors already being interested in your product/service, it’s an easy transition to encourage them to take the next step of giving you their contact info to receive more information.

Include calls to any sales or coupons available on your site. Highlight your favourite products, by making personal recommendations on why you love each product.

Make your about me page count by showing your personality and conveying value.

Even though an About Page portrays your story, the ultimate goal should be to make readers feel it’s about them.

Don’t waste this valuable opportunity to engage visitors and increase conversions. Instead, use the above 15 tips to craft an about us page that will guide them to the next step.