The About Us webpage is one of the most important pages on a website and often drives new customers away purely because of bad about us page copywriting. And it’s not difficult to fix when we show you how to write an about us page that will build credibility and trust, and grow your sales.
In this episode, we go through the 7 big mistakes to avoid when writing an about us website page. And, if you’re making any of the common mistakes we’re talking about, then chances are, it’s having a bigger impact on your bottom line than you realise.
Remember, your About page doesn’t have to be perfect but you need to work on improving the copywriting all the time, as you learn more. So, let’s get into it, so you can make some changes.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- The most common mistakes small businesses make when writing the About Us website page and how to fix them.
- What you need to fix to help you build trust and credibility with your audience
Resources
StandOUT Website Copywriting course <https://www.simplystandoutmarketing.com/websitecopycourse>
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“A practical and useful podcast for businesses wanting to grow.”
Podcast Transcript: About Us Page Copywriting Tips
Host: Nicci O’Mara
Have you ever considered that you might be driving new customers away from your website purely because of what you have or don’t have on your About Us page?<LINK TO OUR ABOUT PAGE> If you’re making any of the common mistakes we’re talking about today on the podcast, then chances are it’s having a bigger impact act on your bottom line than you realise. So let’s get into it so you can make some changes.
Hello and welcome to the Simply Standout Marketing Podcast. I’m Nicci O’Mara, your host, and I’m really excited to have you here with me today. Thank you for joining us. Now, today we’re talking all about your About Us or About Me page on your website. One thing that you might know is your About page is generally the second most visited page on most websites after the home page.
So you’ll actually find if you go into your Google Analytics, that it is an incredibly important and very highly visited page because people want to know about you and about your business. If you’re like so many other business owners, you’ll know very well that often the About Me or the About Us webpage is the hardest to write. But what I want you to know is the about page doesn’t have to be complicated. It really can be simple. Now, first up, I want to look at what is the purpose of the About page.
The common misconception is that the purpose is that it’s a place to tell people about you and to build credibility. But the actual reality is that your About Us page is all about building connection and trust. Yes, it is about building credibility as well. But people want to know why are you the right person or the right team to provide their audience with the best results?
You want to take people to the next step in the relationship. You want to take them to sign up for your email or book a meeting or buy your product or service. It’s all about connection and trust, so there’s a lot more to it than just talking about you. Look, I’ve analysed thousands and thousands of small business websites over the years and there are mistakes that I see over and over again that seriously frustrate me because they’re so simple to fix and are costing these businesses that do make these mistakes a tonne of lost revenue. I’m sure I’ve made these mistakes.
I’m positive I’ve made some of these mistakes over the years. So it’s a really good thing to go through and look at your website to see what mistakes you’re making.
First of all, I want you to think, how many websites have you visited where you’ve gone to the About Us page, only to be left with that empty feeling inside and you’re unsure whether to do business with them or to buy from them? So what did you want to know about the people or the business that wasn’t there? There’s always some really important information that’s often missing from these ones.
Let’s take a look at some of the things that are commonly missing from about pages or are done really, really badly.
About Us Page Mistake #1
Mistake number one is you’re missing. The biggest mistake I see time and time again on websites, and it drives me crazy, is if you go looking to find a plumber or physio coach, law firm or art studio, whatever it happens to be, and all you find is some generic information about the business. It could be the founding date and where you live or whatever it happens to be. But it’s missing the really integral information of what is your name.
If you’re the founder or the managing director or CEO, people want to know who you are, who is standing behind the business. What do you look like – needs a photo of you as well. Even if you’ve got a team of people, it’s really important that we know who they are as well. Now, what are your credentials? We need to know that you actually know your stuff.
We don’t need your resume at all. No one wants that. I just need to know that – did you start the business last year? Have you been working in the industry for six months, or have you been there for 20 years and you really know your stuff? So it’s fine either way. But people just need to know. Put you and your team front and centre. People want to know who they’re talking to on the phone or online, on social media. They need to know the people. Now, also, it’s so much easier you’ll find if you put yourself out there and put yourself with your photo and your name.
It’s easier to find your ideal clients and customers when they connect with you so that they can understand who you are. Now, if you’re afraid of being judged, it’s way too late for that because, at the end of the day, you’re being judged already because you don’t have a photo on there or you don’t have information about you and your team. People are judging you regardless of whether you’ve got that information up there or not. It’s just as to whether they judge you for you. And if they’re your people, you know what? They will come to you and they will find you. So mistake number one, missing you, is really important. Please put it in.
About Page Mistake #2
Mistake number two. It’s too long. Your about page is too long and boring people. Look, storytelling is one of the most captivating forms of marketing, but no one wants to know a blow-by-blow description of your life or your business’s life. Leave that for your autobiography if you ever decide to write one. Short and sweet about us pages win every time. There’s no word limit when it comes to an about us page because it depends on your story and the information that you’ve got to share. Oprah Winfrey is always going to have a lot more to say that will captivate people than I will. But even then, only the die-hard fans will truly read an entire page.
People skip over information, and you need to make it easier for them to read. So my big tip is to chunk it. Put it into sections with headings so you might have these are your values, and this is your story behind the business. And these are the team of experts who will be helping you and things along those lines. So it will also make it easier for you to write as well.
About Page Mistake #3
Now mistake number three. It’s all about you. Yes. Okay, I know that an about page is supposed to be all about you, but it actually needs to be more about how you and your business will get the results your clients or customers are looking for. And also, people are trying to find the right person, the right business to actually help them.
So they have to be able to identify with you. They want someone with similar values to what they do, and they need to know that you have the credentials that they’re looking for. You need to think about what’s interesting to your reader. Just because you and your mom love the story of how you started your business, it doesn’t mean your audience will love it, however, they just might. So always think about what will help me connect and attract my ideal client.
What is it about me or about us that makes our services or products better than others? What makes us special and worth investing in? Every line that you write in your website, you need to consider, will it resonate with your ideal client. The ones that you really, really want to attract? So yes.
So remember, everything that you write in your about you page needs to also be about your clients.
About Page Mistake #4
About us page mistake number four. No personality. About pages are about building connections, so they need to be written in your voice. Too many pages these days read like they’ve been written by a cheap freelancer or VA from another country who has no understanding of how you talk and most importantly, how your audience talks.
So it doesn’t matter who wrote it. I’m not saying that you have to write it. It’s fine to get a professional copywriter to write it, but you need to find your brand voice. You need to think about how you answer the phone to a customer. Don’t write it like you’re answering the phone to a friend. That’s never going to work, but you need to inject some personality in there.
About Page Mistake #5
On the flip side, about us page mistake number five. Keep it relevant. Another big no-no is talking about things that are totally irrelevant to your business. Might show your personality, but it’s also probably irrelevant. Think about all those ones that have and I’m sure you probably come across them, what each staff member’s favourite food is when the business has absolutely nothing to do with food. Really, think about it.
I don’t care that you love spaghetti bolognese, and that’s not going to help me with my taxes and things along the lines of, say, your hobbies, unless you being a runner or a knitter or a hockey player is going to help your audience in the results that they’re trying to achieve or you’re trying to attract more runners or knitters, then leave it out as well.
About Page Mistake #6
Now mistake number six. Missing the call to action. This is something a lot of about us webpages actually miss because they just sort of go, oh, well, it’s just an informational about us. But look, if you’ve got an amazing about us page and you’ve done all this work to connect with your reader but so many, then forget that you need to get people to take that next step. You want to direct them somewhere. You want to send them to another page. Think about what you want them to do.
Do you want them to book an appointment, download a lead magnet, or sign up for a discount? Think about your call to action and where specifically you want them to go and what you want them to do that will be of most value to actually create a new lead for you. So don’t send them to a blog post or anything like that. You really want them to then take that next step to become a lead or sale.
About Us Page Mistake #7
Now, the last mistake. This is a quick one. So mistake number seven. You don’t have an about page at all. There aren’t too many.
I mean, yes, it is. I probably see it more often than I’d like. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have an about page, think about it this way. You are not Apple, you’re not Amazon or another big corporation. So you can’t get away without having an about page.
You have something the big corporations don’t, a small number of humans that your audience can connect with. So use it. A great about page is a vital part of your marketing. Think back to those websites that you’ve actually been to, the about page and you’ve looked at them and gone – that has not told me anything.
So I don’t know whether I’m buying clothes or whatever it happens to be from. Is it coming from China? Is it coming from the US? Am I likely to get ripped off? Because that happens a lot these days.
You want to know that you’re actually buying from someone very reputable. So what is the location? Who are the people? It really does build trust and it really is very important. So look there you have it. Seven big mistakes to avoid when writing your website’s about page. Go and take a look at your about page and see if it has any of these seven mistakes so we’ll go over them again.
So number one – you’re missing from the page; you, yourself and your team are missing. Number two it’s too long and boring. Number three it’s all about you and not about your clients. Number four you’re keeping it relevant or sorry, I should say you’re not keeping it relevant to the problems and solutions that you deal with. Number five no personality. Number six you’re missing a call to action. And number seven you don’t even have an about page.
Now look your about page doesn’t have to be perfect but no one is. You keep working on them all the time so you need to work on improving it. Have a look at it every couple of months and as you learn more you go you know what, if I do this I go okay I could actually improve that or you get more feedback from a client. Okay, well yeah, I think we’re missing this.
Now if you need help to actually improve your website copy this is something I’ve specialised in for over a decade writing high-converting websites for my clients. Now I’ve actually taken it one step further this year and developed a new program called Standout Website Copywriting which is your four-week road map to success for non-copywriters. In the program I’ll teach you how to write your website one section at a time with the exact copywriting and design framework I use to create high-converting websites but for less than the cost of outsourcing one page of copywriting. If you want more information head over simplystandoutmarketing.com/websitecopycourse to join the waitlist so you don’t miss out on when the program launches.
Thanks so much for spending time with me today. Now go and start improving your website so you can increase your impact and your income. Thanks.
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The Simply Standout Marketing Podcast is designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs stand out and grow their businesses. Because growing their business will change their life.
