Being able to define what your company is ‘about’ is clearly important. And the answer probably seems obvious to you. You’re likely to have a few key points that come to mind immediately. You might feel like you could talk about your brand for hours.
But putting this information into a concise, compelling and visually appealing format is more difficult than you might imagine. Particularly, when your goal is to connect with your target audience.
Anyone who’s been involved in About Us page creation before knows the unique challenge this seemingly simple page represents.
So, how do you create the perfect About Us page that lands?
In this article, we run through the key steps to nailing it. By putting into practice our advice, you’ll hopefully see tonnes of targeted traffic coming through to your website and impress many potential customers.
Let’s get into it.
- Craft a compelling story
For our first point, let’s focus on the basics. With your About Us page, you need to be able to craft a compelling brand story that encapsulates your company’s history.
This needs to be spotlighted.
If you don’t achieve anything else, focus on getting your brand story right.
In our opinion, the two essential elements you need to do this are:
a) highlight the need for the product or service you are offering
b) bring a colour and a human element to your brand
If you’re covering the bases with these two, you’re setting yourself up for success.
So what are some examples of About Us storytelling done well?
Example 1
An example of a company story that hits these two criteria is Toms Shoes.
On the website, the story is communicated as the founder having “witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes” while traveling in Argentina in 2006.
“Wanting to help, he created Toms Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a new pair of shoes for a child in need.”
Reading this story on the About Us page, you feel a human connection to the founder (building trust) and you also see the need for the business. It’s simple, memorable and to the point – this is what makes Toms a great example of brand storytelling.
Example 2
Another example of company storytelling is Australian skincare brand, Kora Organics. Their About Us page describes how the founder, model and entrepreneur, Miranda Kerr, has a family history of cancer (her mum being diagnosed at 16 years old).
It then goes on to explain how given the prevalence of cancer, she was shocked by the toxic and potentially carcinogenic ingredients in many beauty products on the market. Having educated herself in holistic health, she wanted to build a skincare brand that focus on only natural, real ingredients.
She writes, “In 2009, with the help of certified organic chemists and COMSOS/Ecocert, I launched a range of skincare that followed both the strictest global standards of safety and the highest levels of clinical performance for healthy, glowing skin.”
Again, this is another example of a crystallised brand story that leverages the human element and
- Communicate your core values
Beyond your company story, you need to convey a sense of your company culture. This should be weaved in throughout your entire About Us page.
How? Explaining and displaying your brand values is one of the best ways.
Again, focus on simplicity in your delivery: this applies to both the copy and visuals. You want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to understand what you value, and align themselves with those values.
It should take a couple of scans for them to understand your company values. Nothing should be difficult here.
- Encapsulate your mission statement
As an extension of or crystallisation of your values, your company’s mission statement should be another primary element of your About Us page.
This is essentially the core statement you use to encompass your company’s purpose. For many brands, it’s the phrase they identify most with.
An example is Netflix’s mission statement as articulated on their About Us page:
“At Netflix, we want to entertain the world. Whatever your taste, and no matter where you live, we give you access to best-in-class TV series, documentaries, feature films and mobile games.”
What’s great about this example is that it is super clear what Netflix is trying to achieve with their service. There’s no room for misinterpretation or confusion; they are all about entertainment and bringing people together. And that’s exactly what their mission statement expresses.
Another example is from global book retailer, Penguin Random House:
“Our mission is to ignite a universal passion for reading by creating books for everyone. We believe that books, and the stories and ideas they hold, have the unique capacity to connect us, change us, and carry us toward a better future for generations to come.”
Again, what they’re trying to achieve is immediately clear. There’s also a magical quality to the way the words are put together (e.g. the combination of “ignite” “believe” and “connect”) which conjure up a sense of playfulness and make believe many people associate books.
It’s a clever way of using language to not only communicate the mission of the brand, but also to reinforce the feeling it evokes.
No matter what direction you go down when articulating your mission statement, you should make sure it’s considered, succinct and thoughtful.
- Sell your team
Another component of any successful About Us page is the human element. And the human element will ideally expand beyond your brand story.
We find that having a dedicated section on your About Us page which focalises the members of your team is a very important ingredient to success.
Photos, videos, carousels, short personal bios – anything visual works particularly well here. Your goal is to literally attach faces to your brand. Give your potential customers a look at the hard workers that put their heart and soul into the brand.
When making a purchasing decision, these people, your people, could be the difference between someone trusting your brand and turning their head the other way.
Work it!
- Make it clear who your target audience is
Our last point on your About Us page copy is that you make it super clear who your target audience is. It should be immediately clear who you are speaking to, who your brand is for and how you can help them.
This means everything from the language used, to the visuals and the key points should be tailored to your ideal page visitor.
Test this by getting someone who hasn’t seen your About Us page before, and isn’t aware of your company, to tell you whether they know who you’re speaking to.
If they don’t get it straight away, ask them for reasons why, and then tweak the page until they do.
If it doesn’t feel curated to their eyes or customised to fit their specific needs, what’s the point of this valuable page? Get to it!
6. Nail your page design
While all of the written content on your About Us page is KEY to success, your page design and layout is just as important. You want to make sure the right things are highlighted, there’s a flow to the design, there are enough elements to keep things interesting and at the most basic level, tells a story.
You also want to make sure that if the user wants to take an action e.g. book a call, view a demo or read a case study, that action is obvious and available to them.
Luckily there’s many examples of amazing About Us page examples you can refer to for inspiration.
Let’s run through a few of our favourites, and explain why we think they’re bomb!
Example 1, Mailchimp:
Mailchimp take a super simple, bare bones approach to their About Us page. From a design (and copy) perspective: it’s sleek, to the point and wholesome.
There’s a short section on the founder’s story, a short section on the culture and values of the company and then a short section on corporate citizenship. At the bottom, there are a bunch of relevant links to learn more about Mailchimp. There’s only one main header visual.
This page covers all the key bases from an information standpoint and builds connection with the reader, without overwhelming them. It’s meaningful without being over-engineered. Amazing work if you ask us!
Example 2, Hubspot,
Hubspot provide another good example when it comes to About Us pages. In a similar manner to Mailchimp, the structure of their page is simple.
It’s broken down into: “Our story,” “Our mission,” “Our history,” “Our CRM platform” and “Our community.” If you ask us, this is the perfect recipe for an About Us skeleton.
It gives slightly more detail than Mailchimp, but it ultimately does the same thing. Translates what they do and who they are into an easy-to-read, easy-to-digest page.
There’s also some interesting visual elements e.g. a video and an interactive timeline, to break up the page and deliver a more interactive experience. A++
Example 3, The Iconic,
On another plane all together, eComm brand The Iconic have their About Us page nailed. It’s slightly more sophisticated than Hubspot or Mailchimp from a functionality perspective.
Mainly in the sense that there’s three scrollable tabs within the same page – About Us, Purpose and Strategy.
Being an eCommerce brand, there’s a strong visual focus on all three tabs. All visuals focusing on a certain accessible but elevated style and aesthetic.
The copy in each section is super pared-back and their UVP is clear: “the number 1 fashion and lifestyle destination in Australia and New Zealand.”
Again, this About Us page wins in being simple but effective.
7. Have fun with visual elements
The specific visual elements you choose to highlight on your About Us page are another crucial decision in your creation process.
We’d recommend not going overboard with the volume of images, as with the copy and the design, keep things basic.
We’d recommend exploring creativity more in the visual formats you choose or in the types of imagery you opt for.
For example, on the brilliant Hubspot page we explored prior, they play with this engaging Hubspot About Us video which just goes a step further in bringing a face to the company name and company history.
It brings a warmth and dynamism to the vibe of the page which is otherwise difficult to express.
When it comes to About Us visuals, have a bit of fun – but not too much!
8. Tinker with SEO
About Us pages are one of the only pages on your site that won’t have a huge SEO focus. You want to make sure that simple things are ticked off e.g. you have a page title, internal links and a meta-description, but optimising for specific keywords is probably too much work for an About Us page.
If there are a couple that are relevant but wouldn’t be crucial or make sense for a service or blog page, you could look at bringing in a focus here. But we wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on this practice.
Start work on your own About Us page
Now that you have our top tips for About Us page magic, you have no excuses but to smash out and optimise your own. By taking our expert advice on board, your company’s About Us page should turn out as a traffic magnet, trust builder, window into your company and an informational portal.
Need a helping hand?
Prozely has an extensive database of expert copywriters ready to help you create the most effective About Us page for your business. No matter what your industry vertical, budget, or target audience, we’re confident we can source the best page writer to match your needs. Get in touch today to take your website to the next level!
