Marketers can’t be blamed for assuming that creating workflows are a long-winded task. In reality,...
Writing an about me page for a website is one of those tasks that seems simple at the outset yet ends up being trickier than most pieces of technical writing. The pressure is on to make your company, product and service sound good without giving yourself too many sickly sweet compliments. Sure, your about me page is fluffier than other areas of your website but it still needs to convert and provide a good ROI.
As such, it’s common for marketing managers, copywriters and even small business owners to sweep this task under the rug and bury their head in the sand. If writing an about me page has got you feeling lazy; we’re here to help.
- Avoid the task at hand
- Lean on your coworkers for help
- Do less writing
- Push the reader to do their part
1. Avoid the task at hand
Talking about yourself is part and parcel of an about me page, right? Well, not really. Although this is an obvious place for a visitor to navigate to get to know more information, you’ll need to strike the right balance between selfishly using this crucial piece of website real estate to make a hard sale and neglecting its conversion potential altogether.
Leaving out all information about what it’s like to work with or buy from you won’t sit right with the reader. Yet, word vomiting a bunch of boring anecdotes about you, your company and everything it’s ever done won’t do the trick either.
When it comes to writing an about us page for a website, you should always come before we or our.
Each visitor will want to know more about you but only in how you can help them solve their problems. So, whatever you choose to call your about us page, be it ‘Meet the Team’, ‘Mission’ or the more elusive ‘Story’, you’ll need to focus on what’s in it for your customer.
Remember, it’s the customer’s world and we, as brands, just live in it.
Like Truman Burbank providing entertainment to millions of hungry viewers in the Truman Show, we exist to give visitors what they want, in the way they want it. Granted, we’re aware of our role in the transaction and unlike Jim Carrey’s character, we’re not going to wind up floating into an artificial wall of sky anytime soon (we hope).
2. Lean on your coworkers for help
If you feel overwhelmed by the task of writing an entire about me page, you’ll be glad to know these core website pages are best built as a team.
The first person you can lean on is your web designer.
Before writing a word of your about me page, check with the designer to make sure you have a wireframe to work from. Wireframes are a visual representation of what the finished product should look like. They help writers understand how much text should fit in each section and where the best opportunities create impact and provide value.
Without a wireframe, your about me page may look more like a standard high street suit than a bespoke piece of tailoring - not a good look if your competitors are all sporting Savile Row fits.
Now you’ve bagged a trusty template for your writing, you can get other team members to pitch in during the writing process. By asking every team member to write a short bio for your about me page, you’ll reach your word count in seconds.
Team bios are a sure way to inject a tapestry of personality to your about me page, in a way no single writer can. Not only do bios break up text with a series of engaging images but they’re also undoubtedly useful for visitors that may progress to contact your team in the future.
Plus, if we didn’t ask our team to provide their own bios, we’d have never known that Dan and Raza both have unhealthy obsessions (Dan with Rum, Raza with trainers) and that...
3. Do less writing
Writing an about me page sounds like it calls for some serious writing, but that’s not always the case. If you’re bored writing your about us page, your customers will be bored when reading it.
Sometimes, the answer to creating engaging about us pages lies less in beautiful prose and more in simple visuals that get the message across without any fuss or flowery language. So, here’s your permission to write less and feel okay about it.
Opt for videos, tables, timelines, infographics and anything else to help you illustrate your point. That said, if you’re only going to include one form of rich media, make it video.
Everyone knows video marketing is a thing these days. That’s why we’re always vlogging, filming ourselves chatting and shoving our faces all over the internet and calling it work.
Videos help the visual and auditory learners among us and let’s face it, compensate for how lazy and TikTok addicted we’ve all become. For many of us, it’s a more palatable way to digest content and an easier route to understanding a company and how it might align with our needs.
4. Push the reader to do their part
Finally, you can put the onus on the reader by including compelling calls to actions (CTAs). After all, by shifting your workload from designer to the customer service team and anyone else who’s willing, there aren’t many other people left to pick up your slack.
About us pages don’t have to be overly simplified two-paragraph pages that explain the year your company was founded and nothing more. Instead, they can be a high converting page that proves to be just as valuable to the visitor and it is for you because the page works to turn visitors into leads and sales.
Just make sure when you do add CTAs, they feel natural and relevant to the reader, not sales-y or interruptive.
Use common sense when writing CTAs. After reading your about us page, will your customer want an eBook on a specific product you sell? Probably not. But they might be interested in a more general offer like booking a free consultation or starting a free trial.
In a nutshell, it’s surprisingly easy to palm off different parts of writing an about us page of your website - and benefit from it.
Leaning on coworkers and even the prospective customer helps make your about us page come alive so it feels more engaging and interactive than a one-dimensional elevator pitch ever could.
Now it's time to focus on the rest of your website...
And if you’re still feeling lazy, we’re still here to help and guide you through the entire website launch process. Our experts cover everything from choosing a CMS platform to settling up Google Analytics in our new website playbook.
It’s free to download, browse and a great way to make you feel like you’re doing something proactive. Plus, it houses sound advice on launching your website in the most fuss-free way possible so you can finally break free from your funk and get the show on the road.
Don't miss out on the unmissable insights and get your copy now using the button below.
