Blue Ferret Communications

Bore Your Readers with Mindless Drivel, or Tell a Story and Engage Them

Does your “About Us” page tell a story? If not, you’re wasting a webpage.

Whenever I go through the website of a potential client, I make notes on what I see. What they’re saying. What they’re not saying.

I always visit the About page too.

After the homepage, it’s the most frustrating. Because 9 times out of 10, it’s just like all the others.

Is Your About Page “Unique Like Everyone Else’s?”

The core purpose of an About page is to tell readers what you do. And who’s doing it.

You’re introducing the people you think customers should know about. Who they’ll have a working relationship with.

The sort of information that shows you’re a good fit for them.

Thing is, most companies wind up wasting the page.

They throw up some names, add bios, and think that’s enough. All that does is create a clone of every other About page.

Worse still, a lot of these pages are written using the same thoughtless, jargon-choked statements.

Here, some examples. Any of these look familiar?

“We are committed to the highest quality service.”
So’s everyone else. Meaningless claim.

“We’re constantly upgrading our skills.”
So you don’t have any time for work, then?

“Real people who pick up when you call.”
(Ever notice that when they say this, it’s really hard to get a callback?)

“Your best choice for XYZ.”
Bold claim. Got any proof?
Oh, and see my “thought leader” post about why this type of thinking is bunk.

“Redefining quality service through world-class innovations.”
Wow. You took 7 words to say nothing at all.

An About Alternative: Tell Your Readers a Story

Chances are, “About Us” is the 2nd or 3rd most-visited page on your site. So why not give people content people would enjoy reading?

Like a story. You do know your company’s story right? How the business came to be, where the people came from, what motivated them to join your company?

This is the place to tell it.

Your story is your guiding principle. The sails for your ship.

Here’s an example of what I mean. This is an “About Story” I wrote up for a 2-man software startup. It was completely redone before it went live, so this version should be safe to post. (Some details altered/removed, of course.)

LicenseHound is a software license tracker app for Windows and Linux. Made by Jeff B and Mel C.

Jeff and Mel met through a mutual graphic-designer friend. Jeff wanted to start a side business doing specialty programming in C#. Mel worked for an SEO agency.

They hung out for a while, beat each other at videos games, and talked their way through lots of ideas. Eventually they found one they both liked. So they pooled their talents to make the app, and a website to sell it.

It’s now on the Android Market. (That’s probably how you got here.)

Welcome! Head to the App Details page to see how LicenseHound works.

I see this happening more & more with startups and newer companies.

For instance: “What is Spotify?”

This is a prime example of Clear Content. The About page tells you exactly what to expect from Spotify’s service. They show it to you with images & word paintings. And they encourage you to try it all out.

Another About Us example is MailChimp.

That giant monkey might scare a kid or two, but the content is great. Short, lively, and it talks casually about which customers are a good fit for them.

Both these examples also link off to subpages, too. Getting more specific. Guiding the reader on to further information.

In other words, they start telling you their story.

Does your About page do that?

Next post, I’ll share a framework to help you write your own “About Us” Story.