Writing an ‘About Us’ or business bio is more often than not, an afterthought for most business owners.

You too may be guility of giving it less importance than it truly deserves. 

I am not exaggerating when I say this- Ignoring the of ‘About’ webpage of your website equals ignoring your true business potential.

Did you know: The About webpage is probably the second or third most visited page on your website.

Don’t just take my word for it. The study from komarketing supports this argument. 

The study shows that it is the third most sought information in a B2B website. You can’t ignore its potential any longer, right?

But how to get your ‘About’ page right? 

You don’t need to hire a website content write to fix your ‘About’ page. Follow the tips below and you will be able to assemble 4 blocks of copy to create a kickass business bio.

The ‘About’ page is not about you. 

Then who is it about, you ask?

It’s about what your intended visitors want to know about you before they decide to do business with you.

Inside the Mind of ‘About Webpage’ Visitors 

Step into the shoes of your ‘About us’ page visitors  before you start creating your copy blocks.

Understand what’s going on in their heads.

• The products look good, but can I trust them?
• I want to buy their products, but will I get a good experience? Or will I regret it later?
• There are other brands offering the same products and at better prices- what makes them different?

What you need to think about while creating the ‘About’ web copy is – how do you answer your visitor’s questions and get them to like and trust you? ( And eventually, buy from you and refer you to others)

I’ll be taking a leaf out of my three favourite brands to deduce the formula for writing an effective ‘About’ web copy.

Mindvalley.com ( Founder- Vishen Lakhiani)

The Whole Truth  ( Founder- Shashank)

Fittr ( Founder- JC)

Get ready to take off on your journey to create a brand new about page from scratch or audit an existing ‘About’ webpage.

Building Blocks of About Page Web Copy

 BLOCK 1: Get Them At Hello

The visitors mostly decide whether they’’ stick around or bounce off, within their first 10 seconds on the webpage.

Further, they are known to spend 80% of their time on the top fold of the page. So put your best foot forward, right at the outset. 

Use the right headlines + opening lines that keep the visitors glued for more. 

Now that you’ve got them for 10 seconds, the next 20 seconds are crucial. 

I call it the 10+20 second Rule. 

Keep them glued for another 20 seconds, and there is a good chance they’ll stick around for around 2 minutes.

Here are some quick inspirations for the opening lines or hooks for the About page.

HOOK #1: Share the Purpose of Your Business (Beyond Money) 

Remember I said in the beginning, buying is an emotional decision. Well, I learnt it from Simon Sinek, who says “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

So, before rattling off your achievements and milestones (we do get to talk about them later, I promise) – start with the benefit or transformation your business is here to provide. 

The goal of the opening lines is to allow the visitor to qualify themselves and decide that this page is right for them. Get them nodding throughout the first half of the copy and saying- yes! Yes! That’s me! .. This is my pain point! This is what I want!

Believe it or not, most buying decisions are taken from the gut- so building an emotional connection with your readers is extremely important. Of course, the facts and figures help in rationalising the decision already made by the gut. 

Play this dance between emotion and logic with your copy on the page 

Check out how Mindvalley.com’s About page starts with an elevator pitch. 

BONUS LEARNINGS 

• Apart from only using text and plenty of headings in different fonts and whitespace, images and videos also help in making the About page easy to scan and consume. Also images and vidoes are viewed are known to gather more eyeballs than text. So get that visual candy out there.Check out how the page uses candid images of its events, speakers and students instead of stock photos.
• Show off your team, partners and association using candid photos.
• Remember, the website visitors not only include your potential customers but also potential partners, talent, vendors and investors. Use visual cues that help them resonate with your brand values.

Open-loop means starting with something that makes the reader want to read more (and hopefully till the end) to close the loop. This however does not mean you keep going on and on building the open loop. Keep the copy crisp and close the loop with a short copy. 

The Whole Truth is an upcoming health snack brand that claims to use 100% natural ingredients, and they start with a sensational headline- “ Our Food is Screwed” This will make the audience nod in agreement and want to read more.

Then they continue talking about the pain points of the readers to get them nodding as they read along.

 Bonus Learnings 

• Your about page should reflect your overarching brand values.
• Instead of using fluffy generic superlatives, keep your copy real, relevant and relatable.
• Read your copy out loud and see if this were a conversation with a friend, how would it sit?
• Instead of listing down your values like honesty, teamwork, etc., subtlety imbibe them in your story.
• Wondering how short should your copy be? Less is more. Neil Patel suggests that it should be under 500 words. When it comes to brevity, TWT has nailed it.

• TWT showcases the brand as a disruptor and rebel in the space of healthy snacks with its honest, purposeful, transparent and keep-it-real brand voice.
• They have replaced the standard ‘About Us’ page title with ‘Why We Exist’. 

HOOK #3: Start with a Story

Fittr is a fitness brand and its face is its founder, JC. Its About page starts with the founder’s story. Storytelling is an important element of the About page. Starting with your story can be a great way to build an emotional connection with the audience, especially if your story has a direct bearing on your brand and its existence. 

BLOCK 2: Storytelling

Here we delve deeper into storytelling with the example of The Whole Truth. While facts help you win minds, stories help you win hearts. There is a whole science to storytelling which I have covered in another blog on brand storytelling.

As a quick reckoner, here are a few pointers you can follow while writing the founder’s or organisation’s story. 

1. How you started
2. Why you started
3. What problems did you face
4. How you overcame them
5. Where are you right now
6. Give a peek behind the curtains, introduce your team. (Don’t take all the credit for your brand).
7. Where do you want to go
8. You can also talk about your social initiatives if any here.

To tell your brand story, start with defining your overall plot in 2-3 sentences. For example, the central theme or story of the About page for The Whole Truth is the founder’s journey. It is a mix of the rise of phoenix and David vs Goliath story where he decides to rebel against the health food industry, after winning the battle against the bulge. 

Include the Three Elements

The TheWholeTruth’s story has the 3 key elements, which you must incorporate in your About page:

Characters

Your story must have characters that visitors can relate to. The buyers are likely to relate to the main character and as he is an avergae-looking person. In his copy, he calls himself the ‘obese kid’, and an ‘unsexy CEO’ and stands out as a relatable character instead of onboarding a celebrity with six-packs, usually found on health food packaging.

The hero of the story is the underdog and everyone loves an underdog. So this story sticks. 

Conflict

The conflict the story presents is that the “Health industry makes false claims”. Think, what is the arc or drama in your story?

Resolution

The brand offers its products as a solution and urges us to join its crusade to bring down the food giants that have taken us for a ride with unnatural additives in so-called health food using fine print in their food packaging. So what resolution does your brand story have?

Bonus Lessons:

• Before writing the story- decide the plot in 2-3 lines. Read this blog to learn about plots you can choose from.
• Should you tell the founder’s personal story or the organisations? You can take any point of view. If you are a big organisation and wish to keep things formal in the B2B space, you can tell the organization or your product the hero of the story.
• You don’t need to cover or list out every little detail of your journey. Include the key points that matter and are interesting and relevant to your overall story plot.
  If you have been in the business for a long you can use Infographics to show your timeline or a carousel like Fittr has .

BLOCK 3: How You Deliver Your Promise

After defining your ‘Why’ with your storytelling techniques, give a behind-the-scenes sneak peek to focus on the ‘How’ you make it happen. This includes your processes and related USPs. After winning their share of heart, it’s time to win their share of mind.

Check out how Mindvalley is focussing on the HOW in their About Page.

Bonus Learnings 

• Give Benefits not features. Think about what your product means in the lives of the customer and draw out the benefits of your product/service.
  Giving tangible benefits that can be quantified makes more sense here as after the soft and fuzzy talk, the readers are looking at rationale to justify their decision. You won their hearts, use this space to win their brains.
• Remember, less is more. Use infographics or unique icons to show numbers instead of cramping your page with facts and numbers.
• Show Behind the Scenes Pictures of your teams. Take inspiration from MindValley. This gives the visor a sense of the culture of the organisation and helps them develop a sense of belonging.
• This is a good space to talk about your social initiatives and CSR activities.

BLOCK 4: Social Proof

People in restaurants often like to order what others are ordering. Since people like to belong, giving proof of the credibility of your products and services, from third parties is of paramount importance. 

Here are some content assets you can use to build credibility.

MindValley uses its speakers, associations, press mentions and testimonials from people from different industries as a part of the social proof. 

Bonus Learnings 

• If you have published a book, why not mention it here. If you don’t have a book yet, you could design a cover for a book and decide on its content and mention- “coming soon”. Book authorship helps a great deal in establishing credibility in your domain. You can even self-publish the book on Amazon.
• Help visitors transition in their journey by giving product and social media links. 
• Give an email address and phone number instead of just a form.
• Show offices physical address with maps to build credibility.
• Give full names and candid photos when sharing testimonials.
• Give quality testimonials instead of focussing on quantity.
• Give a call to action to opt-in for the newsletter, or free stuff. 

• Don’t confuse your about page with your landing or sales page. So, dont sell stuff there.
• Give visitors the opportunity to transition to the products page or your social media pages.
• If you dont have testimonials or facts since you are bootstrapping, dont fret. Just be real and candid. People value honesty. Simply talk about your goals and plans in your bio.

People Like to Do Business with People ( But You Already know this)

As an entrepreneur, you understand the power of building relationships with your offline customers. If they like you, they will continue to buy from you even if it’s inconvenient for them, or you are priced more than the competition. 

Not only that. They are your fans and brand ambassadors who end up spreading the good word about you. 

But how do you build such a rapport when your business is
 scaling up and your online product or service does not offer this kind of personal touch?

Your About page plays a big role in building trust and authority. It offers the introduction to your business so that the website visitor gets the confidence to go into business with you.

So don’t simply ask your copywriter to pull out your achievements from your CV. when creating the About us website content.

Take time to think through your brand purpose, weave it into a story plot and support it with the USPs and social proof to unearth the true potential of your About Page.