11 Tips to Create an About Page that Sells

The about page is the second-most important page on your website. Why? Because visitors use it to make their final decision on whether they’d like to deal with you or not.

The best about us pages provide unique information regarding your business, showcase your brand identity, and offer a summary of everything your work stands for. In simplest terms, the about page answers the ultimate question for customers: “Why should I trust you?”

There are a number of key elements that an about page should include – your story, industry experience, and how you solve the reader’s challenges with your product/service. It’s also important to think about the overall design of the page.

Depending on your industry, you may choose minimalistic designs or about pages full of images and even videos. It all depends on your audience. For instance, if you’re a freelance writer, chances are your readers will be more interested in your words than customized images. However, if you’re a photographer or an artist, showcasing your work with visuals will help deliver proper expectations to website visitors.

The About Page Structure

The about us page may not be the first thing customers see, but it most certainly is among the most important pages on your website, on par with the homepage and services/products page. While the homepage is used to trigger the interest and curiosity of your visitors and get them to go deeper into the customer journey, the about page is used to kind of seal the deal. Both pages are aimed towards the ultimate goal of acquiring new customers. The about page is more about personalizing with your visitors and showing your unique selling proposition from your perspective.

Here are the steps to creating a great about us page:

1. Draft a Clear Headline

A productive headline should be clear, simple, and benefits-driven. As mentioned by Melanie Duncan, a great headline consists of four “U”s – unique, useful, urgent, and ultra-specific. Never try to philosophize with your headlines. Think about a clear message that you want to deliver to your visitors, which answers the ultimate question: “why should they deal with you?”

Source: Wix.com

2. Outline the Benefits

More often than not, visitors who land on your about page are already somewhat interested in your products/services and are looking for more information regarding their challenges. It’s a good idea to mention the benefits that your business brings and how these can help solve these challenges. Even if you have mentioned the benefits elsewhere (homepage, product/service page, etc.), you still want them to be written all over the about page.

3. Share Your Story

While this point isn’t mandatory, sharing your personal story is a great way to allow visitors to get to know you as a human. The story doesn’t have to be overly detailed, but rather it needs to focus on the readers’ challenges, your industry experience, and why your service/product should be trusted. If your brand image allows it, a little bit of humor in the form of funny stories or jokes can go a long way, too.

4. Images and Visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words. Regardless of how good your text is, it has to be supported with visuals. The image choices will vary depending on your business and service. It can be a picture of yourself and your team, your working environment, the services you provide, etc. Whatever you choose, make sure that it ties together with the solutions to your visitors’ challenges. A short video showcasing the above-mentioned points will work as well. Again, don’t be afraid to be funny and humorous, but don’t overdo it.

5. Mind the Colors

Colors have a pretty substantial influence on customers, even if you’re not selling to them directly on the about page. This article on color psychology shares the results of modern research on what kind of indirect messages you can send to your audience. For instance, black symbolizes power, purple stands for royalty and prosperity, blue depicts trust and calmness, and green is associated with wealth and health. Make sure that the colors on your about us page are consistent with the rest of your branding so visitors will identify them with your website.

6. Call to Actions

It’s amazing how much you can achieve by simply telling customers to do what you want them to do. The about page is an essential part of the customer’s journey, and it should have a concrete CTA. What do you want visitors to do after they’ve skimmed your about page? Don’t leave it to chance and guide them in the right direction! Again, to maximize the effectiveness of your CTAs, make sure that the step you suggest revolves around solving their challenges.

7. Navigation and Naming

The about page is important enough to have it present on your site’s navigation menu. If you’re a business selling a service or software, it’s recommended to put it after the product/service page, right before the contact us page. On the other hand, if you’re an individual, it’s a good idea to emphasize its importance by putting it right after the home button in the menu.

Also, make sure to name the page “About”, “About Us” or “About Me”. Some businesses like to get creative and choose names like “Our Story”, “Who We Are”, “Why Choose Us?” etc. However, the vast majority of visitors are used to the name “About”, and that’s what they’ll be looking for on the navigation menu. It’s just like in the real world. When you walk into an unknown building, familiar signs and designs make you feel more comfortable. You don’t want to throw customers off with your creativity, especially if it’s a first-time visitor.

Source: Template from Wix.com

8. Above-the-Fold Positioning

As you probably know, users tend not to read/view all of the content you provide on your website, even though it’s essential to provide it anyway. This is why the positioning of the content matters a lot. The most important pieces of information should be displayed above-the-fold, which is the portion that is visible right as you land on the about page before scrolling down. Research shows that 74% of visitors spend viewing the information above-the-fold and the screen right below that.

9. Use Website Builders

Website builders can help you implement most of the above-mentioned points quickly and easily, and build your own website in minutes. For example, website builder tools like Wix and Hibu offer drag-and-drop functionality that you can use to add features, images, CTAs, and other design elements without any technical knowledge. Others like Squarespace and Site123 have premade about me page templates and feature mobile-friendly designs.

10. Mind the Emotional Wording

The best about us pages are all about building emotional and personal connections (pun intended). A great way to achieve this is to use a conversational tone for your content (just like in this article) and provoke emotions with the correct words. For instance, “help” is more emotionally driven than “assist”, which is more formal. There is a whole list of such words that you can find here. Make sure to use some of them, at least.

11. Use Subheadings

Last but not least, you want to make your about page easy to scan. As mentioned before, visitors don’t tend to read all of the information you throw at them. It’s important to split it up into portions that can be quickly identified so that each person can read the piece that’s most important for them. The sections will vary depending on your industry, business type, and style. Here is an excellent example to start with:

• Our Story – A short description of how you ended up doing your business and why do you love it.
• Our Experience – The longer you’ve been in the field, the more confidence you aspire.
• Our Benefits – How is your service different and why should customers use it?
• Address the Challenge – How does your service/product solve your customers’ challenges?
• Customer Reviews – Testimonials and reviews of existing customers that trusted you, and succeeded.

Conclusion

A well-drafted about page will help increase your conversion rates, generate more leads, and close more deals. Take the time to implement all of the above-mentioned points, and don’t be afraid to make changes as you go. The most important part is to stay consistent with your main message – “why should customers choose you?” Answer that, and you’ll have no issues building a loyal customer base.