If you learn just one thing from this blog, let it be this: your about page isn’t actually about you. When it comes to website copywriting, about pages are some of the trickiest to get right. And especially in service-based industries they can be a make or break part of the user journey.
So how do you write an About Me/Us page without being a total fucking snoozefest? The answer is simple: make it all about your audience and not really about you at all.
3 key things your about page needs to communicate
From freelancers to enterprise businesses, I see so many people fumble the ball for their about page. And I 100% understand why this happens. It’s about me, right? So why wouldn’t I write about myself. Well, my friend, you can. But specifically through the lens of how is impacts your audience.
In any given about page there are 4 key things to communicate (and yes, this works for everyone regardless of business size):
- A quick summary of your company’s history (essentially there to prove expertise and experience)
- How you work (so folks can get an idea of processes and priorities)
- Your key driving principles (so they know if values align)
All of these are going to look slightly different for different types of businesses, so let’s dig into how this is going to work best for you.
A quick summary of your company’s history
Freelancers:
This looks like a bullet point list of some work and some non work related things about you. When you’re a freelancer, your work will involve a direct relationship with the client, so let them get to know you.
This, for example, is the bullet point list from my own about page:
- Been doing this content thing for a decade
- Agency-side (B2C), in-house (B2B), and now freelance
- Collects tattoos and houseplants
- Has two degrees in writing, because apparently 3 years of study wasn’t enough
- Hopes to get a PhD one day (seriously, what a fucking nerd)
- Spends free time at gigs and wandering around forests
- Lifelong defender of the Oxford Comma
SMBs:
A lot of the SMBs I work with pride themselves on being small businesses and the personal touch they can bring to their clients. For many, I also recommend bullet point lists or small sections detailing these key things.
For example, some areas they would wish to highlight are:
- How many years they’ve been doing what they’re doing
- How many clients they’ve supported in that time
- Size of their business (can be exact employee numbers if they wish or just emphasising the smaller business and more personal touch)
- What makes them different from others (specifically in a way that impacts their customers)
Larger businesses/enterprise:
When it comes to larger scale businesses, the focus is typically on experience and breadth of knowledge. You’re in safe hands because these people have been doing what they do for a long time and have scaled up their operation to help a lot of businesses.
In this case, they’d want to highlight:
- How many years they’ve been doing what they’re doing
- How many clients they’ve worked with in that time
- Awards and a couple of choice testimonials
- Partnerships that support their ethics and values as a company
The important thing here is that no one needs a detailed timeline of the history of your business. You care a great deal about it. I promise the vast majority of your clients do not.
How you work
The biggest difference between each of the three examples here is how much detail you need to give. I recommend most businesses have a process-specific section on each of their service pages anyway, so this acts as a more holistic overview.
Freelancers:
Our services are often more limited than those of larger companies. In fact, many freelancers have a single service or closely related services that all follow the same process. In which case, you can detail the process again or you can offer a more simple overview.
For example, on my about page, I have a simple bullet point list of all the stuff that makes me good and easy to work with, including:
- Thorough briefing and onboarding process
- Asking a lot of questions about your business
- Clear, direct communication
- Deadlines on both sides
And a few other bits. In fact, I need to update it because my processes have developed a bit since I wrote this a couple of years ago.
SMBs:
Typically on SMB websites, I focus less on process diagrams and more on the values and ethics of the business within their process. For example, this website I wrote for Booost Education focuses their about page on accessibility, fairness, and the key message that “supporting neurodivergence is more than just a trend”. Throughout the copy, there are details of who they work with, how it all works, and why they do it. So it’s available throughout the page with the key information available at a scan.
Similarly, for Expert Answers, I focused on the problem they’re trying to solve (unmet and inaccessible legal needs), how many people they’ve helped, and the thing that makes them stand out from standard legal advice companies: their sliding scale payment model.
Larger companies/enterprise
On the scale of enterprise businesses, many will offer multiple products, solutions, and services, so again this area of the content should focus much more on the choices you make, any ethical priorities, and the way you work in a more general sense.
This can cover things like 24/7 customer service options, a stance against AI, a focus on efficiency. Whatever it is that makes you, you and ideally isn’t exactly the same as all the other businesses in your space. Remember, anyone can say they’re the best and anyone with enough money can say they’re award winning. What makes you stand out? What makes your customer experience different?
Key driving principles
Let’s get one thing clear: no one cares about your mission statement as much as you. Unless of course, you’re a charity or a specifically ethically-driven organisation. So, you need to make what you stand for clear without some wanky PR exercise.
Your driving principles should be clear throughout your website. However, your about page is a great place to highlight this in a way that’s easily scannable and packed full of personality.
Freelancers:
Keep it simple and keep it clear. A few sentences with its own heading that clearly signifies the things that are more important to you. It could be ethical business practices. It could be the importance of collaboration, accessibility, fairness, fun, whimsy, a zero-bullshit attitude. Whatever it is that makes you tick, write it out in a couple of sentences.
A word of advice I give to all my freelance clients is to take your personality and turn it up to 11. Your clients will be working with you directly, so your about page is incredibly important to the conversion process. Make it count.
SMBs:
On the whole, I find that SMBs are very personable in their approach to marketing. A lot of it is about the human connection behind the service as well as the ease of use and lack of red tape that you can find with larger businesses.
So keep that personal approach in mind as you discuss your ethical standards, your positive impact, and your ease of use. If you are an ethically driven company, you can highlight this clearly. A couple of years ago, I wrote the website for a sustainable, natural supplement company, The Herbtender. These guys are a very small business making a big impact. All summed up in the wonderful phrase: “Plant-based and planet positive” (a phrase that was hidden deep in some of their other marketing materials that I wanted to bring to the forefront of their messaging).
Their focus is on kindness and gentleness to both people and the planet, so it’s at the forefront of their messaging across the website. On their about page, you’ll find a closer focus on those values and how they act on them both in their business and outside of it.
Larger businesses/enterprise
On the whole, enterprise businesses tend to be a little less focused on sustainability and ethical practices and more on efficiency and problem solving. (Of course this isn’t always the case, but that’s why I said on the whole).
Business values don’t necessarily equate to ethics in the same way I often see with SMBs. To an enterprise organisation, the focus is primarily on the ways they can make their customers’ lives significantly easier. So if that’s you, you need to focus on exactly how you do that.
For example your driving values could be excellent customer service, openness and transparency, providing user-friendly products/tools, and efficiency. All of this needs to come through in your about page copy. Showing your audience that you really understand their issues and deeply care about them. You are there not just as a cut and paste solution provider but as a tool/product/service that will genuinely change their day to day lives.
On these larger sites, values can often lose out to features in the copy but it’s important to balance both. And your about page is a great place to emphasise that.
Bonus: it’s all about the vibes
I can’t talk about About pages without mentioning your messaging. Your about page doesn’t need to balance as many spinning plates as other areas of your website where you need to communicate pricing, processes, and other key details at a glance. You have some more room to play here, so this is where I recommend everyone really drills down into their messaging.
Consider your about page like a manifesto. But make it marketing. It’s not a CV, a long ass timeline of your business no one is going to read, or just somewhere to host your mission statement. It’s a chance to be playful, to be whimsical, blunt, caring, funny, or whatever else your messaging prioritizes.
About pages are so often forgotten about and it makes me so sad. So take some time to assess your about page. What does it make you feel? If the answer is bored, it needs to be rewritten. If it doesn’t reflect your business model, it needs to be rewritten. If it just acts as an ego stroke for your CEO, it needs to be rewritten (you can still put that in there because ultimately they’re gunna be signing it off, just don’t make it a priority).
Your about page isn’t about you, it’s about your customers. Make sure it reads that way.
Resources to help you with your messaging and website copy:
- Less is more: effective copywriting, conversion, and the lies SEO tells you
- Conversion, messaging, and building trust through your website
- How to create a simple tone of voice from scratch
- Don’t judge a brand by its logo: the forgotten importance of personality
- Context is key: capturing the right attention with conversion-driven copy
If you need a hand with your about page, messaging, or wider website copy, get in touch and let’s yap about it over a coffee.