Are you looking to help give those on-the-fence potential customers that last little nudge they need? Your About Us page just may be the perfect place to make that happen!
When a potential buyer or prospect lands on your online store, they either want to purchase a product right away or simply learn more about you and your business. Your e-commerce website may already be full of great content on product pages, but do you know how to write an About Us page?
A well-crafted About Page can create an impressive, memorable first impression for your online store. This way, you can build trust with prospects quickly and encourage them to make purchasing decisions much faster.
Unfortunately, About Us pages are too often treated as optional or obligation rather than an opportunity to build a relationship with prospects.
Now, the question is: how do you write a killer About Us page? In this article, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of creating an About Page that could put you on the map and help drive sales!
Why do e-commerce About Us Pages matter?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s crucial for you to understand the purpose of having a killer an About Us page.
As mentioned above, a good About Us page can inform your first-time visitors about you and your business in general. Therefore, it should cover basic information about the products you sell, your business stories, values, mission, and vision.
The aim is to encourage interaction and satisfy your potential customer’s curiosity about your store. A thorough About US page that meets customer’s needs can improve your trustworthiness in the eyes of those readers. 31% of customers claim that trustworthiness is the most crucial factor when it comes to deciding whether or not to make a purchase!
After all, nobody wants to buy something online from someone they don’t trust.
Key points of a GOOD e-commerce About Us page with examples
When writing an About Us page, it’s important to show off who your brand is and strongly convey your brand’s voice.
While writing an About Us page isn’t rocket science, there are three essential elements that can help you stand out:
- Business history- Tell your prospects how you got started, how far you have come, as well as everything your e-commerce business has accomplished along the way.
- Company core values- It’s essential to point out what matters the most for your brand. Try to find ways to connect your values to your target audiences. You want to craft a message that will resonate with them. This can help prospects become more emotionally connected to your brand.
- A unique selling point. Tell your audience what makes your store different from your competitors. It’ll give them a reason to justify why they need to shop from your store.
Let’s take a look at this stunning example from one of the most famous e-commerce sites, Airbnb:
As you can see, Airbnb nailed it. Only with one paragraph, the company clearly defines what the brand is all about – brand history, values, and achievements. They also include the timeline of history and a few images of the services they offer.
You can also take a look at TOMS’ About Us page for more inspiration:
TOMS also does a great job telling their brand history, missions, beliefs, and what they’ve done as a brand. If you scroll all the way down the page, you’ll also notice that TOMS focuses on the story-driven content for their About Us page. That’s what makes the brand inspiring and significant.
How to write an about us page?
Now that you understand what makes an About Us page great and convincing, it’s time to start creating your own.
Here we’ve listed some of the best practices for how to write a killer e-commerce About Us page (and we included examples!).
#1 Tell your story
Remember, the main purpose of your About Us page is to get first-time visitors or prospects familiar with your brand – in a compelling and relatable way.
You need to connect with them on a personal level by narrating your brand story in a way they can feel. Make them happy, inspired, motivated, or even tearful.
The key here is to tell your prospects the truth. Be as genuine as possible while writing your story. It’ll make them engaged and trust your brand even more.
Here’s an example of stunning storytelling from Ugmonk on their About Us page.
#2 Speak directly to your prospects
Communication is like music; when your tone is off, the whole piece will undoubtedly fall flat. While writing an About Us page, make sure you maintain a unique voice without sounding like a robot.
Treat your customers like your best friends. Talk to them like you talk to your best friends – because they are.
This way, they’ll feel more comfortable and understand your brand in no time, just by reading the About Us page. Use friendly, easy-to-understand language to keep your prospects’ attention.
Look how Marie Forleo doesn’t only tell an intriguing story about her personal branding but also makes it speak directly to her prospects:
#3 Introduce your team
It’s always better to connect potential customers with humans, not machines. Show your team members or employees.
Don’t hesitate to show people who craft your online products or services, pack the boxes, and answer customers’ emails or calls.
This will not only make it easier for prospects to get to know your brand, it can also make employees feel valued and respected.
Look how Apptopia ‘s About Us page example where they introduce each member of their team:
#4 Include calls to action or relevant links
You can add call-to-action (CTA) buttons or links on your About Us page that direct to landing pages, product catalogs, blogs, or other pages on your website. They can help clients explore more of your e-commerce website.
For example, take a look at Cotopaxi’s website, where they put CTA buttons that direct users to their product catalogs:
#5 Plug-in social media buttons
Do you want to build an even stronger personal connection with your prospects? Then you might need to include some social media buttons on your About Us page.
By doing so, you will allow your prospects to create more interaction with your brand outside your e-commerce website. This, in turn, may increase users’ interest in products and potentially lead to increased sales.
Here’s a good example from MVMTUS:
#6 Include multimedia or visual content
When writing a killer About Us page, you don’t have to stick to long-form content to get your message across.
You can also utilize multimedia content such as explainer videos, images, infographics, and more to make the information easier to take in.
Visual content can show the uniqueness of your business while conveying your message in an even clearer way so your prospects can gather information much faster.
However, don’t add visual content without context. The visuals need to balance out your written content, so the About Us page looks compelling and professional.
Below is a great example from WP Standard. It tells their story through a video, imagery, and sparse copy:
#7 Optimize for SEO
While SEO results may not be the primary focus for your About Us page, you can always take the opportunity to improve your optimization. An e-commerce About Us page actually can pick up a lot of backlinks, and help you improve your site’s overall search engine ranking with a solid link building strategy.
Optimizing your About Us page is similar to optimizing any other page on your website. For the keyword research, you can use SEO keywords that reflect your value proposition. You can also use local SEO to make it easier for your nearby prospects to find your store.
Let’s take a look at this top-ranking About Us page from Kingfisher:
Minimalistic, easy to read and share, and (most importantly) mobile-friendly, this About Us page example does all of the basics of SEO well.
Final thoughts
As the name suggests, About Us pages tell first-time visitors or prospects what your online store is all about. You answer basic questions they may have to build trust that will help push them towards making a purchase.
It’s time to start treating your About Us page like the goldmine and asset that it is!
Even if you are just starting out, once you have a point of view and understand what you’re doing in the service of your customers, you will have more than enough to create a great About Us page.
You can always expand and sharpen your story as your e-commerce business grows, by continually improving and updating your About Us page.
