16 Features of an Impactful ‘About’ Page

What is an ‘About’ page?

An impactful ‘About’ page is an essential part of any trustworthy website. I know what you’re thinking – “really Abigail? I think my customers just want to know more about my product and services, not me.” In a way, you’re right. Most website visitors are going to be thinking “what’s in it for me?” A carefully crafted ‘About’ page is all about connecting the reader to your brand.

According to KoMarketing, 52% of people want to know more about the business owner or company when visiting a website. It is essential that you meet this high percentage of people in their curiosity through an ‘About’ page that inspires trust in your brand.

But do I reeeeeeally need an ‘About’ page?

Websites without an ‘About’ page appear inauthentic, like they’ve got something to hide. Why don’t the people behind the business want to be associated with their own brand? Are they trying to disguise bad practises behind a glossy yet vague and impersonal website?

Nosto’s customer content report revealed that a whopping 86% of consumers say that authenticity is important to them. An ‘About’ page is the perfect way to get real with your site visitors.

Think about any business or brand that you are considering trying for the first time. Chances are, you don’t just want to know about their product and services, but you also want to know about the brand’s values, mission, and history. You want to know if this is a brand that you can trust with your pennies, a brand that will solve whatever problem you are trying to address, a brand that you can proudly endorse.

A real-life story

I am working towards a more ethical and sustainable life for my family (I have a long way to go, but we are making progress!) The next step on our journey was swapping bottled toiletries for solid or unpackaged alternatives. In researching possible options, I came across a business with nice looking solid shampoos and a fun brand voice. What I liked most about the brand, is that the products spoke in the first person – so creative! As I scoured through the website, I grew concerned…

Beautiful photography, detailed product descriptions, a first-time buyer discount… but no ‘About’ page. The brand claimed to be ethical and eco-friendly, but had no evidence to back their assertions. I couldn’t find information about who designed these products, let alone who physically made them with their hands. Greenwashing alarm bells began to ring. I left the website and never looked back.

I don’t know if my assumptions were correct. Perhaps this is a family-run brand who make everything at their kitchen table, carefully using recycled packaging, and donating their profits to charity. Perhaps they have a community of loyal customers who want everyone to know about these solid shampoos. Or maybe they are a worldwide, multi-million pound corporation. I will never know due to their impersonal, nonspecific, and vague online presence.

Don’t let this be you. Don’t let your lack of ‘About’ page cost you customers.

How can I connect customers to my business?

Let’s get real for a moment. What if I told you that your customers aren’t simply buying your products, but they are buying into you. More than that, they are buying into what you can do for them.

When hunting for solid shampoo, I wasn’t just looking for the bare minimum item; I was looking for a brand that would help contribute towards my sustainability goals, that would reduce my carbon footprint, that would use my money to ethically boost our economy. There are literally thousands of solid shampoo options, but I wasn’t just looking for something to wash my hair with. I was looking for real solutions to a myriad of other problems.

What are your customers looking for? I guarantee it’s more than the product you’re selling.

A well-thought out, creative, authentic ‘About’ page is the key to sharing your vision, and building a community of loyal customers who buy your products because they believe in you and what you’re doing. Your dream customer is someone who sees you as the solution to their problem.

Here’s the biggest thing I’ve learned throughout my copywriting journey: an ‘About’ page actually isn’t about you. It’s about your customer.

Is your ‘About’ page working?

Look at your ‘About’ page (if you have one.) Is it serving its purpose? Would site visitors feel connected to you and your brand? Are you speaking to the customer directly?

I use 16 points of effectiveness to assess and evaluate the strength of my clients’ ‘About’ pages. Once the assessment is complete, I write a bespoke action plan of suggestions to propel their online presence to the next level. Some of my clients use this action plan to write their own copy, whilst others need my experience and expertise to write spectacular ‘About’ page copy that gives them that authentic edge.

So, what makes an impactful ‘About’ page?

How to write an ‘About’ page: 16 points of effectiveness

1) Write an attention grabbing headline that establishes the business’s vision or USP and inspires a sense of belonging in the reader.

This can be a tricky thing to do well. Get the headline right, and readers will continue to the body text. Get the headline wrong, and your bounce rates will sky-rocket. If this feels like a lot of pressure, that’s because it is.

The very best headlines are succinct, attention grabbing, and speak directly to your dream customer. There’s no one formula to getting this right. Some things you can do are create an emotional hook, include impactful adjectives, or pose interesting questions.

2) Be explicit about the business’s values and mission.

“If you try to please everyone, you will please no one.” – Sudha Murty

Your business is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is someone’s absolute favourite blend. Your ‘About’ page is where you can display your brand’s personality and connect with the customers who truly resonate with it.

As of August 2022, Nike’s ‘About’ page is very, very clear about it’s mission, ‘bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world’. I’ll be honest, that’s not me. There is not an athletic bone in my body. But that’s okay, because Nike know who their dream customer is, and their dream customer feels seen and connected to Nike in a way that I never will.

If foregoing people pleasing works for Nike, it will work for you!

3) The ‘About’ page is actually about the site visitor.

I know, I know, ‘but it’s my website’ I hear you cry. Trust me on this one.

Site visitors are of course interested in you, but they are really more interested in what you can do for them. How does your story impact your customers? How do your company values affect real-world people? Writing an ‘About’ page is all about seeing your brand from your dream customer’s perspective.

4) The text speaks to the full range of site visitors, including customers, potential employees, and collaborators.

In light of point 2 and 3, this might be a confusing one. I get you. It’s tricky to balance being precise, whilst not really knowing who the person on the other end of the screen is. Let’s break it down.

Most site visitors will be: potential customers, active customers, potential employees, or potential collaborators. There may be some differences depending on your particular niche, but I’d hazard a guess that these categories will be accurate for most brands. The key is to think about what unites all of these parties – is it a shared belief, a common experience, a passion? What is it about your brand that each of these people is drawn to? How can you address them collectively, and differentiate between their unique needs without alienating a particular group?

As of August 2022, Lush does this really well. Their ‘About’ page constantly addresses the ‘you’, emphasises specific shared beliefs, and makes their accomplishments feel like they belong to the whole Lush community.

5) The first few sentences reassure the reader that they are in the right place. Their problems, challenges, and needs are addressed.

You want your site visitors to immediately know if this is where they need to be. People are busy, the temptation to scroll is real, and if it isn’t obvious that your website is going to address this visitor’s needs, they will bounce away like a small rubber ball.

Encourage your reader to stick around by making it extremely clear which corner of the world wide web they’ve entered! Not only that, but this particular corner is just what they’ve been looking for.

6) There are clear benefits to the reader if they buy from this business.

When writing product descriptions, my number one rule is ‘benefits over features’. Guess what? This applies to writing ‘About’ pages too. If you want to tell me the story of how your business began, there needs to be a clear benefit to the reader knowing this story. Can they relate to it? Does it share significant information about your business practises? Will the reader learn something that will make their life better? An ‘About’ page isn’t a vanity project, it’s a conversation between you and the reader, establishing whether you both gel together!

7) The copy is free of industry jargon and speaks in a language that the reader will understand.

It’s time to put yourself in your site visitor’s shoes. The last thing we want to do is alienate them with confusing acronyms and industry-specific gobbledygook.

When I became a mother, I entered into a confusing world of parenting-vernacular. Without a motherhood dictionary to guide my path, I often felt overlooked and unseen as a new parent navigating the many new experiences and products now targeted at me. BLW? Antenatal? Threenager?

If you must use industry-specific language, be sure to provide a quick definition to help your reader understand you fully. An example of where this is important is medical or health related websites. There may be extremely precise language that you must use for the sake of accuracy, but these terms will need plain-English explanations to help those outside of your industry understand you fully.

Jargon and slang can be used really well if you are targeting a very specific audience who you are certain will recognise your chosen terms. Gen Z slang is absolutely wild, but can really help this generation connect to your brand when used corrected.

8) Provide a clear explanation of the business ‘method’ if it isn’t something that is widely known.

If your product is particularly new and innovative, or your approach to business is lesser-known, then your ‘About’ page is the perfect page to provide some clarity. Being unique is what makes your brand so special, so now is the time to shout about your distinctive business practises.

I have seen this done really well by businesses who preserve natural items (like flowers, hair, breastmilk, ashes, etc…) in jewellery or other settings. Customers are handing over extremely sentimental items, and more often than not they have no idea how their precious objects will be handled. A clear step-by-step process, outlining everything the customer needs to know, reassures the reader that this business is trustworthy and reliable.

9) Have a multi-media offering that captures the reader’s attention.

Text and graphics and photos – oh my!

Whatever you’ve got, make it count. If you’ve invested in beautiful photography, you need to also invest in fantastic copy. Webpage design is a dance between technology, art, and psychology. Everything that goes into your ‘About’ page must harmonize together to create a delightful and compelling user experience for your reader.

10) The copy and images inspire trust in the reader.

Scholars say we live in an ‘age of authenticity’ with Millennials and Gen Z placing high value on truthfulness and individuality. Your ‘About’ page is the perfect place to get real.

Glossy product photos all over your website? Your ‘About’ page could proudly display your photography set-up.

Telling the story of your business? If you are a one-person show, always use ‘I’ instead of ‘we’. ‘We’ doesn’t make your business sound better or more important. Be proud of who you are and what you’re accomplishing!

A genuine display of authenticity will connect readers to your brand, converting them from internet nomads into loyal patrons.

11) Provide a behind-the-scenes peak into the business, celebrating the people and practises behind the brand.

If your business is made up of a team, shout about the fantastic people that make the magic happen – no one likes the CEO who forgets the people on the ground.

One thing I like to pose to clients is the idea of including their real-life factory workers (if they have factory produced products) on their website. Not just the name of the factory (although that’s a great step) but the real names, faces, and experiences of the human beings that make your products. It fills my heart with glee just thinking about it.

We’re all working towards a more honest, open, and kind world… right? Be brave and bare-all on your ‘About’ page.

12) Write compelling, fleshed-out storytelling about the business that inspires the reader and connects them to the brand – what makes this business special and different from their competitors?

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in my copywriting belt. For as long as humans have existed, so have stories. Whether you believe it or not, your brand has a story. Sometimes it just takes an outside person to pull that story out of you.

13) Present simple facts and figures that speak to the success of the business, with no exaggeration.

Your ‘About’ page will benefit from a little trophy-cabinet of your most exciting facts and figures. These could be customer numbers, amount of money donated to charity, the number of single-use plastics that your products have saved from being used… whatever the statistic that you want to celebrate, make sure they’re truthful and uncomplicated. These facts and figures will transform your customers into your cheerleaders!

14) Display the business’ authority in their subject/niche through featuring press, blogs, customer testimonials, and other forms of ‘social proof’.

Nothing confirms a brand’s trustworthiness quite like an external recommendation. Remember that restaurant you visited because your friend said they liked it? What about that skincare product you tried because it was listed in your favourite magazine?

Social proof is like saying ‘Don’t believe me? These unbiased people agree that my business is fantastic!’

Keep is short and sweet, displaying your favourite social proof in big bold letters for all to see!

15) Prioritise accessibility (e.g alt-text and accessible links)

You don’t know what you don’t know. When I took on training that covered accessible writing for the web, my eyes were opened. We have a long way to go to make the internet more accessible for everyone.

I keep up-to-date with accessibility best practise, and I would be delighted to assess your website against the knowledge that I have gained over the years.

Let’s commit to making your ‘About’ page accessible to all visitors.

16) Include a clear CTA (call to action) or next step for your reader.

So, your reader has connected to your brand, has a clear idea of what you do, and trusts you. What’s next? Think about where you want to take them on their journey around your website. Would you like them to download a free resource? Sign up to your mailing list? Contact you? Browse your shop? Whatever it is, make it clear and easily actionable.

Formatting your ‘About’ page

A highly-converting ‘About’ page requires careful planning and oodles of creativity. I use these 16 points to assess your existing ‘About’ page for its effectiveness. Once the strength of your existing copy has been evaluated, it’s time to decide how you will structure a new, more impactful ‘About’ page.

There are many options when it comes to assembling an ‘About’ page. A popular choice is a business timeline, which can hit all 16 of these points in an imaginative way. However, a timeline is not your only option. I love creating ‘About’ page formats that are truly unique and purposeful for my client, prioritising inventive storytelling that really captures the heart of their brand.

Evaluate your existing ‘About’ page today

If you’d like to zhuzh up your ‘About’ page, then an evaluation of you existing copy is the perfect first step. For £100 I will assess the strength of your ‘About’ page and provide detailed feedback that can be used to re-write your copy.

If you find my evaluation helpful, I would be delighted to continue working with you to create some fresh new ‘About’ page copy that truly humanises your brand and inspires the reader to join you in your business’ mission!