Ah, the dreaded About Page.
You know you need one…
But few people know how to create one that actually accomplishes anything for their business.
Here’s a good question.
What is a “good About Page” really supposed to accomplish?
Copyblogger says that it should answer three questions for your visitor:
- What’s in this for me?
- Am I in the right place?
- Can this person help me with my problem?
The first thing that you should notice here is that, while your About Page is about your business, it needs to be catered to your visitors.
You don’t want to turn your reader off by talking about yourself too much. Make them interested in a natural conversation with you.
To answer these three questions and get your readers to pull up a chair and stay a while, there are a few steps that you will need to follow through on.
Let’s take a look at what they are.
How to Write an Amazing About Page: Focus on Your Reader
As you go through each step, the importance of focusing on the reader cannot be overstated.
While your initial thought may be that your About Page should be about you, the fact of the matter is that your readers aren’t there for you. They’re there for them.
By understanding that your reader should be your main focus you can avoid producing an information-littered About Page that doesn’t accomplish anything for your business.
Go ahead and tell your story. Just don’t get so lost in telling it that you forget why you’re doing it in the first place.
Step #1 – Tell Your Story With Your Customers in Mind
There are thousands of examples of stale About Pages that tell weakly put together stories about the history of a company and what they offer to customers.
The thing is, people already know most of these things. They’ve made it to your page because they feel you might have the potential to solve their problems.
As Entrepreneur contributor Aaron Agius is quick to point out, “So many companies focus on business specifics in their About Page content, such as types of services and products offered.”
Agius wants you to look away from this boring strategy.
His recommendation is that, “Your About Page should illustrate your business’s humble beginnings and highlight the positive attributes of your team that helped you get where you are today.”
Here’s a good overview of the elements of a compelling B2B story:
All six elements outlined above play an integral role in ensuring that businesses see you as someone that they’d like to work with.
Make your About Page about your customers. Relate to them. Be memorable. Give them a reason to trust you.
Do these things and you’re well on your way to making a strong first impression with the people who matter.
Step #2 – Utilize Visuals to Strengthen
Visuals are a necessary part of any great About Page. And they’re especially effective when you’re attempting to tell your brand’s unique story.
This visual, showing why infographics are a great business tool, gives you a sense as to why. It grabs you, doesn’t it?
Now, we’re certainly not saying that your About Page needs an infographic.
What we are saying, however, is that, if 90% of information that comes to the brain is visual, your page needs more than just words.
Visuals can include anything from images and videos to infographics and photographs.
MailChimp is one of many B2B companies that effectively utilizes photographs on their About Page.
When you see this photo, you immediately think of community. This isn’t a coincidence.
As you scroll down their page, they have a section about Community Investment and how they’re helping cities like Atlanta become, “better, weirder, and more human.”
They also feature a visual-rich section on their employees that looks like this:
When you see these photos, the word “fun” comes to mind. Now we know, without even reading a single word, that MailChimp identifies themselves as a fun, community-driven company.
They’ve told their story through photos and use words to supplement it. This is the power of visuals.
And it’s why they need to be implemented, and featured, on your About Page.
Video content is an excellent choice to consider for your About Page. Here’s how we did it on our About Page (our video story was filmed professionally and told by our founder, Julia McCoy):
And if you scroll down, you’ll learn about each of the creators that make up a core portion of our team:
Step #3 – Use Social Proof
The power of social proof in the marketing world is astounding.
And while there are dozens of examples of how social proof can help you market effectively, it can also be leveraged on your About Page to build a strong first impression about your reputation.
But with so many different ways to show that others trust your brand, which one works best for your About Page?
This infographic shows eight ways you can use social proof on your website:
The type that will work best for your brand is, plain and simply, the one that will be seen as most powerful to your customers.
Gummisig, a freelance web designer, identified that listing popular clients that he’s worked with proved most effective.
Ikea is a Fortune 500 company. Showing potential customers that a company like that has trusted his services provides immediate, and incredibly effective, social proof.
But maybe you haven’t had the pleasure of working with a client with that type of name recognition.
No problem. Use the customers you do have.
Providing quotes from testimonials is a powerful way to generate effective social proof. Including actual data about what you’ve accomplished for your clients can also work incredibly well.
Use what you have to provide social proof that your unique readers will understand and appreciate.
Step #4 – Give Readers a Next Step
If they like what they see, what are they supposed to do next?
This is one of the most overlooked aspects of creating a strong B2B About Page. After all, isn’t the objective of your entire website to convert users?
To answer the question of what you want them to do next, your focus should be on what stage of awareness the reader is in when they get to your About Page.
Eugene Schwartz lays out five potential stages of awareness. They include:
Since they’re attempting to learn more about your business, your potential customer is likely already in the product or brand aware stage.
They understand their problem, know that there are solutions, and are now on your brand’s page because they see you as a potential solution.
The goal of any copywriter is to get customers to the most aware stage and convert them when they get there.
So, in order to convert them, you need to think like a copywriter.
When customers are on your About Page, and they’re intrigued by your story and the social proof that you’ve provided, they’re only steps away from being most aware.
Take advantage of this by implementing a call-to-action at the bottom of your page that provokes them to take the next step NOW.
Digital strategy firm Nerdery provides a great example of how to do this.
Their CTA is simple:
Their goal is to start a conversation with potential customers so they can eventually follow through and bring them on as a client.
And they’ve made it easy for readers of their About Page to start that conversation.
Find out what you want readers to do next and ask them to do it. It’s really that simple.
Conclusion
In the end, there are a lot of elements that go into creating an amazing About Page.
You want to tell your unique story and use visuals to tell it in a more compelling manner.
You also want to show readers, through social proof, why they should trust you over the dozens of other brands that offer what you offer.
What you don’t want to do, however, is get so caught up in doing these things that you lose sight of the fact that your About Page is about your reader, and what they’re looking to get out of it.
And while the line between telling your story and focusing on the reader is a fine one, it’s one that I’m confident you can overcome by using the steps above.
If you’d like some assistance in walking this line, we have a great team of experts that can help you create an amazing About Page.
