Building About Us Pages to Help Sell

It is easy to think that the About page should be a potted history of you and your organisation. It seems logical to think so but that is the trap of ego marketing. The About page needs to prove to customers why you and your business are a good fit for them.

All too often I see About pages that read like:

F&M Trading was started by Fred and Mary back in 1976 in their garden shed. They got some customers through friends and quit their jobs. After 23 years Fred died and Mary retired. The business was taken over by their son in law Marty. Marty employs 15 staff and continues the F&M policy of giving great service.

Boooooring! Your users will fall asleep because it isn't relevant. If the page was called "History of the Company" then I might buy it but not on the About page.

Let's look at why the common method above doesn't work. After all, failure can teach us a lot. To most visitors, Fred, Mary and Marty are of no interest at all. What is of interest is the visitor and their own problems - their desire to be richer, sexier and happier. When asked to digest information that isn't helping achieve their desires people switch off. Switching off means reducing the perceived value of the company and it's services. When you have no competitors then a reduction in perceived value is not particularly important in the short term (except when your customers become difficult to serve and keep happy) but if you have competitors then a reduced perceived value is handing people to the other bloke.

So how do you avoid this classic trap? Well, you need to take a completely different tack. Taking this different tack will be a bit hard, I won't hide that from you. Taking this different tack may even take you several months and many revisions to get just right. You need to start to look at differentiating yourself and your business from everyone else in your market and selling that difference to your readers.

You can read more on differentiation

A good About Us page

This About Us page on Virgin Blue (24 April 2009) is interesting as it shows much of what underpins the well known service as well as showing opportunities. It sells the company pretty well. Your page may not have as many things to talk about but you can get your sense of culture and excitement across as well as Virgin does.

Positioning Statement

It is nice to start with a short positioning statement, something like:

F&M Trading are specialist lawn mower repairers with exclusive maintenance contracts for Tecumseh Engines*.

Notice how short and simple this is, a lot like the headline you should have on your Home page. Notice also how the positioning statement doesn't contain years of service or claims of dominance. like "#1" or "best". The statement focuses only on establishing what the company is best at. Once you have established who you are you then need to answer who you serve, how you serve them and why you do it.

Who You Serve

The positioning statement above contains a lot of the 'who you serve' for F&M Trading as it says they service Tecumseh Engines exclusively. So if you have a lawn mower with one of these babies on board then F&M are for you. It also suggests that if you have a special, different or fancy lawn mover, or you are just plain fussy, F&M are a good bet.

If not already on your positioning statement a line or two (no more) on your ideal customers will help people to decide if they fit well with you. Please don't make the mistake of thinking that anyone with money is a customer of yours. While technically I can make a web site for anyone, in reality I really work best with pro-active, small to mid sized businesses that want to make a web sales process that really represents them to their desired customers.

How You Do What You Do

How you do what you do is a trap if you aren't careful. Be sure not to simply write margarine lines like "we give great service" because in reality they mean nothing. If you do what you do in a special way then prove it. If you need a bit of space to do this then link off to an article that explains your method. If you genuinely can't see how you do things in any way that is different it is best to bypass this step till you understand what makes you different. Perhaps use a testimonial instead. Actually being on-time can be enough if you are a plumber or removalist!

Why You Do What You Do

Why you do what you do is a bit of a funny one. You could write, "to make enough cash to leave scum-sucking customers behind to go sit on some beach somewhere" but that won't work too well unless you are this guy. Equally, writing about how you want to save the world won't really be believable. Let people see what motivates you so that they can see your passion and connect with you emotionally. This may not need a separate point at all if you can make the 'why' evident in everything else you write and do (which of course you should be doing already).

The People of the Business

I get asked if the people of the business should have profiles on the About page. Well that depends. If it is a service business, then seeing the people can certainly add value. If the individual staff members add special value then also add short profiles of them. Otherwise there is no need for information on the owner, manager or staff. Pictures of the staff pretending to be a happy family don't convince anyone.

If you do include staff photos or sections then keep them brief and to the point and only include key staff who add specific values that make a customer want to do business with you. Remember that your public About page is to attract customers not stroke your ego. You can always build internal/intranet pages if your company needs ego stroking (I bet you suddenly find that the cost isn't worth it - unless of course you are Mussolini or one of those people who needs pictures of themselves in front of everyone).

If you have an overwhelming need to put a Mission Statement, or the like, on your About page. Please don't, no-one cares. If I haven't convinced your CEO then give him a page all on his own that is a sub-page of the main About page. Everyone stays happy.

I have written a lot here but in reality I don't believe that your About page need to be very long at all. Virgin's is only as long as it is because of all the facets of their business.

* I am assuming Tecumseh engines are pretty good because my Father went to the trouble of carting his ride on mower around the world. Mowing the lawn is too much like hard work to me.