Your business website’s About Us page is no place to be shy. Written correctly, it can go far beyond providing a nuts-and-bolts bio and will allow customers to “know” you and want to do business with you. In fact, a robust About Us page is one of the top three things B2B buyers want to see on a site’s homepage, according to recent research.

Tempting as it may be to pass this task along to a staff member or paid copywriter, it’s worth a business owner’s time to take a stab at writing up the copy him- or herself. An owner, after all, can tell a company’s story better than anybody else. Use these five steps to begin:

 

1. Define the “WIIFM.” “In sales, representatives are taught the importance of ‘WIIFM’ or ‘What’s in it for me?’” says Denver-based marketing consultant Jeromy Sonne. “Businesses should adopt the same principle for websites.”

Essentially, the concept challenges you to frame the conversation in terms of your prospect. What keeps them up at night? What issues of theirs can your products/services solve?

 

2. Be clear about what your company does. Details about product/service info and pricing should be detailed on individual pages, but the About Us page must provide a clear snapshot of the company.

Let’s say that you provide accounting services. Use your About Us page to specify the type of services you provide, the industries you specialize in, whether you offer a number of integrated services such as tax prep and bookkeeping, and so on. Maybe you have a team that works together so seamlessly that someone is always available for a client’s questions, or maybe your value proposition includes having customers build a relationship with an individual who really gets to know a client’s business in depth.

The more you can define your offerings for customers, the easier it will be for them to pull the trigger on getting in touch.

 

3. Introduce visitors to the people behind the company. Take the opportunity to create a human connection with website visitors. “Gather up headshots of your company’s employees, their names, titles, and even a brief bio about each person,” Sonne advises. The more relatable your team is, the easier it will be for a prospect to imagine working with your company.

 

4. Let existing customers help make your case. “Social proof” is a new name for the classic human tendency to be influenced by what others do. Leverage this powerful concept by demonstrating how others have benefited from working with you. Display names/logos of companies you’ve worked for, and spotlight client testimonials.

If you don’t already have a few testimonials on deck, reach out to your favorite clients and ask them to write a few sentences about their experience with you. Make it easy on them (and help control the final product) by listing out a few things they might want to touch on in their testimonial. Run a headshot of the customer, if possible.

 

5. Close the gap on getting in touch. As any seasoned online marketer will tell you, the more actions you ask visitors to take, the lower your chances of actually converting them.

Therefore, don’t link to your Contact Us page—embed a contact form directly on the About Us page. (Content management systems like WordPress make this easy.) Similarly, provide a way to sign up for your company’s e-newsletter. When one investor-oriented website added an email opt-in to their About Us page, subscriber growth increased by 158%.

 

 

Print this article