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The About Us page is often the most overlooked or neglected on business websites.
Most businesses create a site to list their products and services for potential customers. They want to turn a profit or expand their business. In their view, everything else is just window dressing. Or is it?
Why should you care about an About Us page if it’s not answering questions about your products or directly selling services?
Marketing studies have actually shown that more than half of website visitors check out the About Us page first. They want to get to know you and make an emotional connection with your brand.
Potential customers spend hours researching products, reading reviews, and comparing your prices to competitors, but it’s trust in your brand that pushes them over the edge to make a purchase.
That’s why building an effective About Us page is so important. In fact, one professor from Harvard Business School pointed out in 2017 that 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious.
In this blog, we’ll show you the importance of having a good About Us page and provide a step-by-step guide on how to create your own.
Ready to dive in?
What Is an About Us Page?
As we mentioned above, the About Us page is an opportunity to establish trust with potential customers by sharing your unique story.
There are three objectives any good About Us page tries to achieve:
- Reflect your brand’s image (as originally seen on the Home Page)
- Build trust with the reader
- Share the unique story behind your company
Remember that your company is unique. Even if you’re selling the same products as hundreds of other competitors, your story is different than theirs.
You want to share the reason for founding your company in an About Us page, as well as what you provide that others don’t and your core mission or values.
Consider that 83% of millennials think it’s important to buy from companies that align with their own beliefs and values. Millennials are now the largest generational block in the United States and a majority of them shop online.
You need to engage them in order to stay competitive going into the future.
About Us pages typically include a story about the company, high-res photographs or videos of staff, and mission or value statements.
The visual elements of an About Us page are up to you as the website owner, but we’ve identified key elements that need to be there for better results.
When helping clients create their About Us page, The HOTH follows an outline approach:
- Headline & Subhead
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
- Our Story & History
- Social Proof
- Contact Information & Locations
- Call to Action (CTA)
Keep reading below and we’ll discuss each of these sections in greater detail.
Use An Attention-Grabbing Headline & Subhead
Headlines are so important because it’s the first thing visitors will see. Think about walking past the front page of a newspaper. What do you notice first?
Your page’s headline should be in the <h1> format and answer the question of what services you offer. It should also be engaging and concise.
Underneath the headline is your subhead in the <h2> format. You’ll have more room here to explain what benefits a visitor can expect from your company. Don’t write more than 1-2 short sentences.
If your web copy is effective, you’ll grab their attention and they’ll continue reading the rest of the page.
Develop a Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition is a marketing term. It describes why your company is a better choice than your competitors.
This is where you can discuss your mission and demonstrate how your values align with theirs.
You’ll want to create a section title in the <h2> format and a description of your company in <p>. Most companies will post a few short paragraphs to get their point across. Don’t make it too long or they’ll be more likely to navigate away.
Here’s an example of The HOTH’s USP:
Share Your Company Story
This next section is an opportunity to dive deeper into the history of your brand. Some people will want to know how long you’ve been open and what accomplishments you’ve made over that time.
Make a headline in <h2>. The choice is yours whether you want it to be called “Our Story,” “Our History,” or something creative your team comes up with.
If you’re creating an interactive timeline or adding multiple sections, then use the <h3> format to break up the copy.
The description of your brand will be in <p> format and include any information that you think is relevant to potential customers. This section can get long real fast, so make it easy for visitors to scan the text by using short paragraphs.
Check out our page:
See our full About Us page here.
Provide Social Proof
One of the best ways to demonstrate your company’s excellence is through social proof. This includes testimonials from happy customers or third-party recognitions.
Testimonials on your website can appear as short paragraphs or video clips. Potential customers like to see these to learn more about your company.
Have you earned any prestigious certifications or awards? This is the place to brag about it!
As with the other sections above, your headline will be in <h2>, subheadings in <h3>, and any descriptions in <p>.
At The HOTH, we decided to have a little fun with ours and created the “Trophy Room” to showcase our accomplishments:
Check our reviews page for inspiration. You can also access our SEO case studies from there.
Don’t Forget Your Contact Information & Locations
Too many companies forget to add contact information to their website. This is a bad idea. Remember that an About Us page is attempting to establish trust with a prospective customer.
You want to give the customer all the pertinent information they need about who you are, and how to reach you.
You’ll also want to list all of your locations so they can find the one closest to their home or business.
Format your Contact Information & Locations section the same as the others. Start off with a <h2> headline and write the information in <p>. Use <h3> if you need to break up the content even further.
Wrap It up With a Strong CTA
You should never skip an opportunity to get your online visitors to take what they learned on your About Us page and perform an action.
First, decide what is the most important conversion for this page. Is it asking them to sign up for an e-newsletter? Or is it booking a phone call with an expert?
Once you’ve figured that out, write a targeted call to action (CTA) and consider using a button or graphic to highlight it. Here’s an example of a strong CTA from The HOTH:
Use the <h2> format for the title and <h3> if you want to include a subheading. We didn’t add a description to this CTA, but that would be in <p>.
Do You Need Help Updating Your About Us Page?
It’s easy to disregard the About Us page of your website when you’re so focused on making optimized sales pages. But, the truth is an About Us page has the potential to get a lot of traffic.
You should be using it to reinforce your brand and establish trust with visitors.
If you need help reworking your About Us page or if you simply don’t have the time to do it, you can reach out to the HOTH Web Copy team. Our content writing team is made up of the top 1% of all applicants. They’ll provide SEO optimized web copy that is crafted with conversions in mind.
The best part is you can monitor the performance of your new page any time with our transparent reporting system.
Book a call with us now to discuss your goals and learn what we can do to help you!