How to create a memorable about page
An about us page isn't just a tick box exercise. Have some fun with it and make your brand stand out!
Why have an about us page?
Too often about pages are seen as a bit of a chore. A check-box exercise. This means, you could be missing big opportunities to build your brand and let your potential customers and employees get to know you.
An about page is your chance to build trust by sharing your backstory, your mission, your values and introduce your team. It's also a space to publicise impactful stats, awards and backers that may not get the spotlight elsewhere on your site. Social proof central!
Done right, your about us page can help you build a brand that people will root for and buy into.
What could you include on your about us page?
Share your story and your mission
In your about us pages, you should seek to answer these two questions:
What problem did you discover?
What did you do about it?
Considering these two questions will help you create a story that is more relatable to the reader beacause it's a problem they or. their customers is up against.
Although not necessary, it's nice to take this from the angle of the founders who came up with the idea to give more colour and context to your product, like Qonto have done below. The founders here are sharing their experience as an entrepreneur who was struggling with a complex and time-consuming banking experience, so they fixed it. This context in particular helps reinforce that your solution is the right solution for the user, since they know you understand their problem.
Showcase your company values
Company values have become a real thing in the past few years. And although they are mainly targeted at internal thinking and employees, a common trend is to highlight these on your about us page.
Showcasing your values gives insight into how your company is run and what is important to your team, informing the attitude you take towards your product.
Taking Thirdfort for example, their first value here is 'Security first' which is important for them as a startup in the business of verifying identities and working with a lot of personal data. This helps assure the visitor that they take security seriously internally and that their data and the data of clients is safe.
Publicise your awards and accolades
Take the opportunity for a humblebrag and show off your well-deserved awards and recognition you've received from the industry.
Truelayer does this in a very classy way, just laying out their successes with links out to the coverage in the press (to back it up of course).
Link to press coverage
Another powerful way to demonstrate social proof is through press coverage. Showcase press publications where you've been mentioned and let the user click through to read more.
This helps legitimise your claims with some third party coverage that the visitor can explore for themselves. Sprig has incorporated a press section to show off their fundraising success, thought-leadership from an investor as well as impressive recognition in the industry.
Show off your investors and backers
Who backs your company is a powerful source social proof and an about page is a great place to show it off.
Qatalog highlights their investors who are founders from well-know startups like Wise, Slack, Eventbrite, Squarespace and more. Knowing that these business-savy people have given their seal of approval on a product so much that they're willing to invest, is a great trust signal for potential customers.
Put some faces to the name
A popular choice is to include a team section on an about us page to show off the wonderful people behind your company. This could vary from just introducing the founders, to the board to the whole company!
Including a team section allows visitors to see a company from a more human perspective and is great for potential candidates to get a view of the company and see how valued its employees are.
This is an opportunity to have a bit of fun with things and add some more colour to your page. Include fun facts, quotes, favourite foods, favourite tools or even pets of your teammates - whatever you like and is right for your brand! Dodonut has found a great way of introducing the team which adds a bit of fun and fits their brand.
If you have a large company, it can be quite a feat to include the everyone on the team but if that's something you want to commit to, Buffer has found a very effective was to do it without requiring a whole section on the website itself!
Pin down your office locations or HQ
While this is something more practically highlighted on the Contact page, there are opportunities to use this info in a creative way on your about us page.
This is also helpful information for potential candidates who may be considering applying for a job with you.
HiBob shows off their exciting range of office locations and also highlights that they are a remote-friendly company who advocate for hybrid working.
Buffer, as a fully remote company, also shows off their global presence in a fun way. Using an interactive globe from Mapbox, you can see where everyone in their team is based around the world as well as information like their job title, how long they've worked at Buffer and even their salary!
