Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition

77Writing the About Us Page

When About Us Is Not Really About Us

The secret to a successful About Us page sounds paradoxical. The best About Us pages aren't really about the company; instead, they focus on relaying who they are in relation to the visitor.

Our About Us pages give us a chance to talk about ourselves. But always in the context of what we do for our customers.

Have you noticed that's a theme of every chapter in this section so far…?

The About Us page can be a handy place to show some personality, to differentiate ourselves, to tell a story.

From Innocent Drinks: “We started innocent back in 1999 with a dream to make it easier for people to do themselves some good.”

Yes, it's about the juice. But they've embedded what they do for you right into the first sentence of its About Us.

One of my favorite About Us approaches is the video narrative approach taken by Chicago law firm Levenfeld Pearlstein (lplegal.com), because of the way it uses the opportunity to differentiate itself as a friendly, approachable law firm. (We talked about LP Legal in Chapter 52.)

Here are some other guidelines to follow on your About Us page:

• Show a human, accessible side. Write with a voice and a tone that match the rest of your site and your other properties. You might be tempted to include superlatives like best in class or world-renowned or cutting-edge.

  Resist! Temptation can be strong! But so are you.

  Here's Innocent again:

  “Welcome to a whistle stop tour of our best (and worst) achievements. ...