How to write an engaging About Us section

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Gary Chow | 1 Comment » | Trackback URL

Large companies often use the About Us section of their website to communicate their mission statement and core values.  This is a waste of space. I doubt whether people really care for or read about corporate creeds anyway, especially in the jargon-fixated way they are commonly written.

If you operate a small business, forget about writing mission statements and the like. A better copywriting approach is to use the About Us tab to sell your company by communicating its strengths. In fact, I’d replace the usual words ‘About Us’ with a more engaging heading like ‘Why XYZ Inc?’ or simply ‘Why Us?’

Here are 7 ways in which you can write and present a more engaging About Us section. The aim is to underscore your capabilities and sell your business.

1. Express your uniqueness

Whatever segment you operate in it’s a fair bet it’d be a competitive marketplace. For this reason, there’s no sense in being like everyone else. You need to be a tall poppy and stand out from the crowd. Most businesses would have identified what makes them special so why not express this clearly.

There are many ways to differentiate your company from others. You can differentiate on the basis of products, quality, service, people and even image. Any business can be differentiated even those selling products commonly viewed as commodities, e.g. water. It’s vital though that your points of differentiation are meaningful to your target market, distinctive and communicable.

What you need to do is identify what sets you apart and position your company accordingly. The About Us section is a good starting place to do this.

2.  State your experience

There’s no substitute for experience so make sure you focus on this aspect. Sell your company in much the same way as you’d sell yourself in a personal resume, and align your experience with what is important to your target audience. Draw parallels from past projects as a way of reinforce your capabilities. Case studies are also handy as a way of underlining your expertise and experience  in specific situations.

What a potential client wants to know is: can this firm fix my problem?

So to answer this question, you need to explain the following:

• What industries you have worked in
• What processes and techniques you understand
• What regulatory environment you are familiar with
• What similar projects you have done.

3.  Detail your qualifications

As with your experience, you should use the About Us section of your website to detail your qualifications and those of your associates and key employees.

Prospective clients want to know how qualified you are to address their problem, so be as specific and as detailed as you can – within reason. Don’t be vague. Sell your experience and expertise by telling a compelling story with clear messages about why your firm should be chosen over your competitors.

4.  Make a bold claim

If there is a particular attribute that puts you ahead of your competitors in your market, why not be loud and proud about it. Big businesses do it all the time: ‘we are the biggest’, ‘we are the best’, ‘we are the fastest’ etc.

There is one proviso though; you need to be able to back up your claim. The best way to substantiate your claim is through impartial third-party reinforcements; for example, a report from an independent agency or a published document.

Your claim should also be meaningful and beneficial to your clients. There’s no point to saying you are the ‘biggest’ when that attribute is not considered important.

Importantly, any claim you make should be specific. Cliches and jargon like ‘best of breed’, ’state of the art’ and ‘leading edge’ should be avoided at all cost. They are meaningless and will be seen for what they are: waffle and gobbledegook.

5.  Introduce your people

Most websites do this so its nothing new. However, what you often see written about people on a website are merely copied and pasted from CVs and bios written elsewhere. The cut & paste approach to copywriting is the root of all webpage evils perpetrated on the web. When you copy verbatim something written for a different publication you not only use words and a style of writing unsuited for the web, you’ll also overlook one of the inherent advantages of the web medium, in particular the ability to link. By judiciously linking parts of a person’s bio to different sections of your website (e.g. case studies, project snap-shots, company product descriptions), you can add another dimension to a typical linear description.

6.  Prove your capabilities

A useful way to build trust and credibility is to present tangible evidence of your capabilities. These can include the following:

• Published data on your firm (e.g. rankings)
• Customer testimonials and references
• Papers, books and articles you have published
• Industry recognition
• Independent analysis of your products
• Findings in reports
• Awards.

7.   Use visual tools

Instead of simply using words to describe who you are and what your business is about, why not use the many tools that are currently available on the web. A perfect example is video, which is becoming increasingly easy and affordable to produce. With the right equipment and applications, you should be able to produce videos in-house which can then launched on YouTube and embedded on your site. How about a video testimonial, wouldn’t that make an impact?

Audio is another effective way to tell people about your business, so too slideshows using tools such as slideshare as this small business has done:

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