April 16, 2010

As a marketer, I am fond of analytics. When it comes to the web, though, one thing I realized is that it is easy to have way too many of them and not really know which to focus on. Some of the most tantalizing metrics, for example, like number of impressions don't usually tell you as much as something more obscure, such as how long someone spent on your site and your top "exit page" -- that is, the page that someone looked at last before leaving your site. Among those hidden metrics are the amount of people who visit your site and end up quite rapidly on your About Us page.

This is the page that introduces your company and in my experience also tends to be one of the most neglected pages on company websites. It is easy to think that this wouldn't really matter much, but when you look at your analytics and page visits, you will probably be surprised to discover just how many people end up on that page. Actually, if you paid attention to your own web browsing, you wouldn't be that surprised at all. See, we all want to know who we are dealing with. We seek to know and understand the backstory of a company, as I have often called it. The backstory matters, and it is not just your analytics or number of visits to your About Us page that prove that.

There are many ways to improve the backstory of your organization, but the one I will focus on today is how to reinvent your About Us page to be a better introduction to your company. The following are three tips on how you can make that page really do its job and sell the promise of your company and why a customer might want to work with you:

1. Create better (and more) human writing. Marketing writing is easy. All you have to do is use lots of words that seem like they feel "professional" and talk about your products or services in the abstract sense. The problem with that kind of writing is that it is too detached. No one responds to marketing writing. The writing they do respond to, though, is the kind of writing you watch on TV or in the movies: screenwriting. So to make your About Us page better, you need to think like a screenwriter. This means that you write in a style of something you might actually say out loud. The best marketing writing is written to be said, not to be read. So give it a try, and then use the simple test of reading it out loud. If it sounds strange or unnatural, change it.

2. Use video to share your personality. Once you improve the writing on your about page, you might realize that it could be even more powerful to share an introduction to your company over a video. This could be a video of the founder, or a series of interviews with employees or even with your customers. Don't worry if the thought of online video seems to complicated to do yourself ... there are a host of companies like www.turnhere.com who can help you create a video to sell your business for a very reasonable price.

3. Leverage slide presentations you already have. If a video seems out of reach for budget or other reasons, you might also try to create a slide presentation to sell your business. Depending on the type of business you do, this might even be something that you already have in Powerpoint that you use when you make sales calls in person. By using a site like Slideshare, you can now upload that presentation and embed it into your homepage with just a bit of cutting and pasting. The benefit is that you can tell your story in a more visual and logical way, and perhaps even open the door to sales without all the effort. With Slideshare's new lead generation feature, you can even measure the leads that your slideshow brings into your business.

Finally, for an example of a great About Us page, check out this page from Poken.

Join the conversation ( 4 )

• WILLIAM GOODMAN 1 year 7 months and 21 days ago

  

  Thanks Rohit,
  
  I think many of us have underestimated the value of the About Us page. We have been considering the addition of a video to our About Us page but now are convinced that it is the right thing to do.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Bill

• Ryan Hanley 1 year 9 months and 25 days ago

  

  I have a blog where I write about Insurance, www.RyanHanley.com. I will say from experience building the site that the quality of the video in most cases is not a Huge issue. Any reletively new, relevitely nice digital camera is going to have video feature and the video is going to jsut fine to shoot your intro or about piece. The non-Corporate feel of do-it-yourself video adds a lot of personality.
  
  Good luck,
  
  Ryan H.

• Kat Gordon 1 year 9 months and 25 days ago

  

  YES! I have written countless websites for companies and always use the About Us page as an opportunity for storytelling. One of my favorite quotes is that stories are "the coatpegs of the mind." Not only do people remember specific details more than marketing blather, but hearing the reasons why the company was started is often the best demonstration of its usefulness in the world.

• PAUL ROSENFELD 1 year 9 months and 28 days ago

  

  Rohit. Fantastic piece. Regarding your #1, checkout ours at www.fanminder.com - we took that to heart simply by writing directly to the small business customer visiting our site. All too often I see these About Us and Bios written in the third person - "Sally Smith has an extensive background in blah blah..." and we thought why not just write as if the person was right next to us?
  
  Keep up the good work!