A SIMPLE GUIDE TO CRAFTING YOUR COMPANY STORY
Other than your home page, your about page may be the most visited page on your website. As the graphic above shows, what your about page is really saying is, “Why Choose Us?”. When someone first becomes intersted in your product or service, their next destination is usually the About page. That’s because as humans, we’re curious creatures. We want to know the “inside” story. We want to feel a connection with a brand or company. In fact, a well-crafted about page can mean the difference between gaining and losing a potential customer. No pressure!
Unfortunately for most people, drafting up the contents of their about page can feel about as fun as doing their taxes. The truth is, while your about page may be one of the most important pages on your website, there aren’t many people who relish in the idea of creating it.
The biggest reason for this really comes down to not knowing where to start or even what to say. To help give you some direction and really take advantage of this often overlooked page, here are 3 Golden Rules For Building A Killer About Page. After that, you’ll find a basic guide to actually writing the content for your page.
#1 – Determine the goal of your about page.
Before starting out, you really need to be clear about the purpose of your about page. For most companies and brands, your about page will serve to help give you credibility and to humanize your website. In addition, when an about page is executed well, it will also serve a high-conversion lead generation page. Knowing exactly what you want to sell or promote will help you in gearing your message to that purpose.
#2 – Understand your about page isn’t really ABOUT you.
While users may go to your about page to learn more about you, what they really want to know is how you can help them. Understanding exactly who you are targeting will help you create the right message to attract your ideal audience. This actually takes a lot of pressure off of creating an about page, since you don’t really need to spend much time fluffing yourself up. You can spend your efforts and energy on talking about how your company truly benefits your site visitors.
#3 – Make sure to include a photo of yourself.
While words can do wonders to communicate a feeling or sense of connection, a photo can do even more. Using an actual photo of yourself helps create a sense of trust with your visitors. It gives them a feeling of knowing you who are, while at the same time making you more memorable. Remember – it’s much easier to remember a face than a name! If you’re uncomfortable with a photo, at least make sure there is some sort of imagery related to your company or brand. It could be your office space, your hometown, or images that reinforce the products or services that you sell.
ABOUT PAGE GUIDE:
What you’ll need to include in your about page and prompts to help get you started.
#1 – Headline:
What you do and who it’s for in one sentence.
Examples:
We make dog leashes for pet owners tough enough to keep your dogs safe.
Our business is helping you build yours.
Helping families keep memories one photo a time.
#2 – Paragraph or two about how your site or business can help your target audience.
Include information about what makes you different or better than the competition.
Questions to answer:
Who is this site for?
What do you sell? What service do you provide? What is in it for the visitor?
Why are you the best option?
What sets you apart from similar businesses or brands?
What is your mission?
#3 – Paragraph about how your business has already helped.
You can include testimonials or statistics if you have any. If you are just starting out, you will need to add this section in later.
#4 – Paragraph or two about your story and how it relates specifically to your business.
What you really want to communicate here is how it all got started or the story of your professional journey. Your goal is help people to understand exactly how much you know about your field of interest.
Questions to answer:
What gave you the idea to start this business?
Is there a funny or interesting story about it?
What experience do you have in this industry?
What is your background and how does it apply to this business?
#5 – Call to action:
Now that they’ve read your story, it’s time to ask them to commit to taking an action. This could be anything from signing up for a newsletter, asking them to contact you, providing links to shop or blog posts – or all of the above. The point is, ask them to do something because they are at the point where they are most likely to actually do it.
To help make this a bit easier for you, we’ve created a free printable for you to download and print out at your convenience. Just click the image below! Sometimes it just helps to see the words written on paper. 🙂
