by Emma McCabe
Share your brand story with your customers and set yourself apart from the competition…
An About Us page is a common feature of a company website, regardless of the industry you’re in. However, many businesses treat this page as an obligation and don’t capitalise on the opportunities it offers. A good About Us page builds trust in your brand and also helps with search engine optimisation.
With content marketing becoming increasingly important, it’s crucial that you begin refreshing every element of your website with optimised content. In this article, we discuss what an About Us page is, why it’s important for your business and outline how to write good About Us pages.
Table of Contents
What is an About Us page?
An About Us page is a page on a company website that gives readers information about the brand or business. It should explain what your company does, your values and mission, your company history and why you’re the best person to do what you do.
There are many variations on what an About Us page can include, but for most businesses with a relatively straightforward offering, this is the primary content to include.
The purpose of an About Us page is to get consumers emotionally invested in your brand and build a connection with them.
Consumers are more likely to shop your brand if they know you have values, struggles or beliefs in common.
Why is an About Us page important?
An About Us page is important because it establishes trust between your brand and potential customers.
According to a study by Evergage, 98% of marketers believe that personalisation advances customer relationships. An About Us page introduces customers to the face behind the brand, which is important given the lack of face-to-face communications associated with online purchasing.
Personalising your website with an About Us section that details your mission, future goals and background story fosters trust and humanises your company in the eyes of the consumer.
About Us pages are also essential when it comes to solidifying your brand image and demonstrating your brand uniqueness. You can use it to outline how you differ from the competition and why you choose to run your business the way you do.
This information helps convert new website visitors into customers as it piques their curiosity while showing what you bring to the market.
How to write a good About Us page
There are certain elements to include in your About Us page to ensure it captures the attention of consumers and provides the information necessary to increase conversion rates.
Here is some advice on how to write a good About Us page:
1. Consider your audience
Consider who is likely to be reading your website content before you write it. This ensures you create content consistent with your target demographic. Research your target audience to find out about their values, press points, and needs before optimising your content with this information.
2. State your unique value proposition
A unique value proposition refers to a sentence that informs customers about how your brand or product is superior to its competitors. For instance, one company’s unique value proposition may be that they source their products from recycled materials. They can dedicate a section of their About Us page to discussing why using recycled materials is important to them and their mission for sustainability.
Your unique value proposition should be bespoke to your business and target audience. If you’re struggling to identify yours, perform a competitor audit to determine how your brand differentiates from others.
3. Show the face behind the brand
Including the faces of you and your team on the About Us page is a good way to personalise your brand. A recent study by Shopify found that consumers navigate to an About Us page to learn more about the people behind the products.
You can show your employees, founders or even your business partnerships. All of these people power your business and can go some way in humanising your brand.
4. Tell your brand story
The story of a brand is unique to every business, which is why it’s important to draw attention to it. Consider creating a timeline that details essential milestones in your business journey.
Some of these milestones may include:
- When you came up with the idea for the brand
- When you formed the brand or company
- When you hired your first employee
- When you sold your first product
- When you took a pivotal fork in the road, e.g. to expand, refine or rebrand
Be sure to keep this section concise and simple. The aim is to represent a story of change – starting in one place and ending in a more successful position.
Read More: How to tell your brand’s story + 3 storytelling copywriting examples
5. Optimise for search
Optimising your content with the keywords you want to be found for online is part and parcel of creating any web page content. Since this page is a branded page, this is the opportunity to pepper your content with keywords related to your brand, your service/product + location and your brand’s tagline.
Choose the most important and make sure it’s in the page title/main H1 heading, meta title, meta description, introduction, one subheading and any alt tags on images you include.
6. Use statistics
Quantify the impact and success of your business with statistics. This means you’re less likely to include unnecessary bragging or boasting when talking about your business. Reference how many items your business has sold over the years, your years of experience, or how your business boosts productivity.
7. Break up text with photographs and videos
Use a diverse range of media on your about page to break up text and add variety. Include photographs that show your business behind the scenes so visitors can see your business from another viewpoint.
You can even include a map that details the location of your business or an infographic of where products are shipped from and the steps along the way.
Videos are also an accessible way to capture the attention of individuals who prefer to listen to content rather than read.
8. Finish with a call to action
Strategically placed call to actions (CTAs) are essential in determining what consumers do next after visiting your About Us page. You can use a call to action to funnel visitors to other social media channels or browse your products. You can also use them to prompt individuals to apply for a job at your business.
About Us page template
For best practice, here is an About Us page template to get you started:
[Founder name] started [company name] in order to… [explain problem or gap in the industry that you wanted to fill].
That’s why we launched [initial product], with the ambition of helping [target audience/users] improve… [detail the core pain points that the product/service aims to resolve].
Since our foundation, we have… [outline important milestones and successes].
To continue to achieve our mission of [explain mission in a few words], we aim to… [state your targets and plans for the future].
Takeaway
An About Us page is a vital component of a business website that helps you build brand awareness and foster new connections with consumers. Following our guide on how to write a good About Us page ensures you optimise your content for the right audience and capitalise on your successes with quantifiable metrics.
✏️ Make sure you keep your content fresh to keep readers informed and help your SEO. Read out blog post on how to update your website content online.
Emma McCabe
Emma has worked as a Content Delivery Manager with Copify since completing her BA (Hons) in English Literature and History at Lancaster University. As an undergraduate, she was a writer for the campus newspaper and started her own book review blog. She hopes to continue writing and editing in the future and increase her blogging activity.