How To Write a Compelling “About” Page
There are no two ways about it: if you want your business website to succeed, you need to know how to write an “About” page that will convert regular visitors into returning clients.
While it might seem trivial, we can’t point out enough the actual importance of your “About” page. Before deciding on whether they want to do business with you or not, most people will try to find out who you are and whether you can be trusted. Especially if you conduct your business online. This is why you should pay special attention to the design of your ‘’About’’ page. There are a lot of business WordPress themes to choose from that can help you craft a stellar ‘’About’’ page, and to make a website that truly reflects what your entrepreneurship is about.
What’s probably even more important than the way an ‘’About’’ page looks is its actual content. The quality of content you provide here can literally make or break your business, which is why we’ve decided to share some nifty tips on how to write a compelling “About” page.
What is an “About” Page?
The short answer: perhaps the most important page on your website.
See, your “About” page is where people come to learn the story behind your business. It’s where you can (and should) let the world know who you are and what you stand for. The best place to describe the struggles you went through to achieve success. The place to present the people behind the product and form a real connection with your readers.
In other words, a well-crafted “About” page is one of the cornerstones of successful branding.
But what does it take to write an “About” page that will strengthen your brand?
Know Your Audience
First off, you must understand the audience you’re writing for. Do your research, think about who can benefit most from what you have to offer, and then make an Ideal Customer Profile. Tailor your writing accordingly and create content that’ll fit your readership.
It’s best to write your “About” page in a friendly tone, and avoid any industry jargon. You want your content to be easy to understand, and definitely not pretentious. We suggest using first person or first person plural in your storytelling, so as not to sound too stiff. Don’t be afraid to exercise your funny bone either! If you mix some humor into your writing, the content will become more entertaining and enjoyable to read.
Start off Strong
Place the most relevant information above the fold. Talk about the problems you’re certain your audience is facing and let them know what you can do to help. The main goal here is to grab your readers’ attention and reduce the bounce rate, so try to make things interesting from the get-go. Get straight to the point and tell the world what makes you better than your competitors.
Use Your Real Voice
Don’t go all literary, you’re not writing a novel.
When writing, we always try to seem smarter than we are. We use long words and complicated sentences. We tend to overexplain things and use terms that only people in our industry would understand. By doing this, we alienate our real audience.
The best way to get your point across is by being direct. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and don’t be afraid of using plain language. Avoid the passive voice and don’t stuff your writing with adjectives and adverbs. In other words, write like you speak.
If you’re struggling while trying to figure out how to write an “About” page that will connect with your crowd, try recording what you want to say first. You can always take out the boring bits when transcribing your thoughts to the page. People are here to find out who you are, and using your real voice will help build trust.
Tell Your Story
Share the story of your humble beginnings and let people know what inspired your business idea. Tell them what differentiates your brand from the rest and why you’re perfectly cut out for the job. Mention some of the greatest hardships you’ve faced on your journey and how you’ve handled them. Just make sure to be concise and try to tell it in a way that will resonate with your target audience. This will help develop a personality for your business. And if people can relate to your brand, they’ll choose you over your competitors at any time.
Focus on the Reader
Your “About” page is really about your website visitors. No one wants to read pages upon pages about your expertise. This is not the place for a CV or cover letter.
Yes, people do want to know about you, but only to a certain point. So, talk about your brand in terms of how you can help resolve your audience’s problems. The bulk of your “About” page should be dedicated to letting people know exactly what makes you the right person to help them out.
Demonstrate Your Value
Even though writing an outstanding “About” page may seem tricky at first, what truly matters is to be transparent about what you do. There’s no need to use fluff and superlatives, or to make promises you can’t deliver. Demonstrate your expertise by including links to your portfolio and the projects you’ve worked on. Your past works speak volumes about your competence and are essential to earning people’s trust.
Keep It Short
Let’s be honest – people usually don’t have time for longwinded rambles. So don’t overcomplicate things. Keeping the text short will make it almost impossible to include everything you think you need to say about your business, so choose the most important points and stick to them.
Include Your USP
The job of your Unique Selling Point (USP) is to clearly tell your visitors why they should do business with you and not with your competitors. Again, coming up with an effective USP starts with an in-depth understanding of your target market and their needs. The goal is to highlight your competitive advantage and do it in as few words as possible.
Let’s say you’re a freelance photographer who specializes in taking black and white pictures, and you plan to beat the competition by keeping your prices as low as possible. Well, in that case, your USP might look something like this:
“The best black and white photography for the lowest prices.”
It’s short, it’s direct, and it’s aimed at a specific audience. It hits all the targets of a good Unique Selling Point.
Once you know your USP, make sure to place it near the beginning of your content and then back it up with statistics and success stories.
Use Social Proof
Including social proof on your “About” page can significantly increase conversions. When we’re uncertain about something, most of the time we make decisions based on similar experiences others have had.
Testimonials and reviews have an immense impact on everyone’s buying decisions. Especially online.
Just think about the last time you purchased something on the internet. You almost certainly did some research to check out what others thought of the company and its products or services before you threw down your hard-earned money.
Recommendations from existing customers not only help support the claims you make on your “About” page but can also nudge an indecisive prospect in the right direction and land you a new client.
Reliability is a key component when it comes to building trust with new clients. And if you prove yourself to be trustworthy, that will tremendously impact your business growth and increase conversion rates.
Do A/B Testing
The purpose of A/B testing is to make a comparison between different versions of one piece of content in order to find out which variant performs better and converts the most.
To run the test, first decide how you want to split your traffic. If, for instance, you’re running a test with two page variants, you could assign equal traffic to each page. Once you do that, keep an eye on the results over a certain period of time to discover which version works best for your brand. Run tests for a few days or a few weeks, but what matters is to make valid conclusions, so make sure not to rush things.
A/B tests are of the utmost importance for conversion optimization and for understanding just how efficient potential modifications would be. You may even want to run multiple tests before you make your final decision on which parts of the page need to be tweaked in order to boost conversions, which, after all, is your ultimate goal.
Optimize for Search Engines
Naturally, you want your content to appear among the top search engine results for your industry. This is by no means a simple task. SEO is a complicated matter and takes time and knowledge to do correctly. And while most of your SEO efforts will probably be focused on your website’s home page, blog posts, and other more relevant pages, you should, at the very least, understand and apply the basics of SEO to all the content on your site, including your “About” page.
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Mix It Up
You don’t want someone to click on the link to your “About” page just to be met with a giant block of text. Unless your goal is breaking the bounce rate record, that is. Luckily, there are loads of little details you can add to your “About” page to make it visually appealing and unique.
For starters, it’s a good idea to break up the text into smaller chunks. You should also think about adding images or infographics wherever it makes sense.
Lately, you might have noticed that many “About” pages include an introductory video, usually before the textual content. This is more than just a great way of grabbing your visitors’ attention. It can also help boost your ranking on search engines. Just make sure to keep it short and be succinct.
You might want to consider adding a timeline of your company’s history. If you do, make sure to accompany each milestone with a short description and an image. Learning about your path to success will be far more interesting if you add visuals.
If possible, weave in some numbers, too. Precise statistics will show people just how much they can benefit from your services and products.
Your “About” page should also include a Call to Action. You want to invite people to take the next step on their buyer’s journey, so try to find what works best for your audience. Test several CTAs until you find the optimal one.
Don’t forget to add social buttons. You want to stay at the forefront of your visitor’s mind, and what better way to do that than to engage with them on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter? This can also help increase the visibility of your business and it raises the chances of people sharing your content.
Last but not least, include a link to your contact page! Once everyone realizes just how much you rock, they’ll want to get in touch with you as soon as possible, so make yourself easily reachable.
Let’s Wrap Things Up
Now that you know how to write a rocking “About” page, you stand a way better chance of achieving your goal and creating a page that converts. Remember, your “About” page is one of the most important parts of your site, so give yourself enough time to think things through and plan your approach. And even if you don’t hit the nail on the head the first time around, you can always refine your text and tweak it to perfection. Keep an eye on your analytics and make sure to only improve the elements that aren’t working. Stick to this strategy and you’re sure to succeed.
