HOW TO WRITE AN ABOUT US PAGE IN 4 EASY STEPS

So, you’re wondering how to write an About Us page. You’ve come to the right place! Describing your entire business in just a few short paragraphs may seem like an overwhelming task, but I have a few tricks to make it easy.

Ready to learn how to write an About Us page? Keep reading! 

STEP ONE: DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS

First, you need to define your business. I interview my clients to discover the core of their brand. In my time as a copywriter, I’ve refined my interview questions to uncover all the necessary information for an excellent About Us page. These questions clarify the business’s purpose, ideal customer, and offerings. I keep them in a workbook to stay organized. 

So how does one get this workbook? I’m glad you asked. You can get it for free right here.

If you like writing, you can answer the questions in the workbook and move onto the next step.

Don’t like writing?  Many people find talking easier than writing, so I recommend making an audio recording of you and a friend discussing the workbook questions. Send the audio file to a transcriptionist on Upwork, wait a couple of days, and you’ll have the basis for your About Us page.

STEP TWO: FIND YOUR VOICE

The second step is to establish your brand voice. Here’s how to brainstorm to find your brand voice:

1. Create a list of aspirational brands. These aspirational brands don’t have to be in your industry, but they should have a voice that inspires and interests you.

2. Visit the websites of your aspirational brands, read all of their content, and write down interesting words and phrases that could work for your brand. Plug these into a spreadsheet.

3. Review your spreadsheet. Do these words and phrases bring anything else to mind? Write it down. I like to come up with 3-5 new words or phrases from each idea and keep building out the web from there.

4. Take any interesting words and plug them into a thesaurus. Look for them in famous song titles. Look for them in common idioms.

5. Repeat step 3 and 4 until you have a rather sizeable spreadsheet of fun words and phrases that resonate with your brand.

6. Put this spreadsheet aside for at least one day. Come back and delete anything that doesn’t feel right for your company.

Have fun with it! This brainstorming process should be enjoyable, not strenuous. Put aside at least two hours to complete this task. Turn off your phone, listen to some ambient tunes, and get creative.

Also, please do not plagiarize. This process is meant to inspire you and keep the creative juices flowing. Do not steal from others.

STEP THREE: SHAKE & BAKE

The third step is to shake and bake all this info. You have the interview answers and the spreadsheet of on-brand words and phrases. Now start mixing them up and see what you can come up with!

Throw out the stilted, formal grammar and write how you speak. Don’t worry if it’s any good. Be messy. BE REALLY MESSY. Just start typing whatever random stuff comes to your head. And keep typing and typing and typing. Because somewhere in there, you’re going to write out your perfect tagline.

STEP FOUR: EDIT, EDIT, EDIT

Next, you’ll want to edit down all that craziness to two or three first drafts. I like to give my client at least two versions of the first draft. This provides them with plenty of options to choose from, and allows me to be more creative with my offerings. We discuss what they like and dislike about each version, which I then combine into a second draft.

Here’s some things you should definitely include in each version of your first draft:

• Where you’re located and when you started (even if it was 5 minutes ago). This will help to orient your readers in space and time.

• What you do. Whether you’re product-based or service-based, state clearly whatever it is you’re selling.

• Who you serve. Who do you want to help with your product or service? Be specific.

• Your unique selling proposition (USP), which is basically just whatever makes your company special. Not sure what your USP is? This will help.

Take those first drafts and show them to some trusted friends. Ask them what they like and dislike about them. If they’re your ideal customer, ask them if they would purchase from this company. Does your writing sound like you? What could be better?

Take that feedback, combine your versions into one draft, and send it to your friends again. Take the feedback, and rewrite it again. Then show it to your friends one last time. If everyone digs it, it’s time to put it up on your website and move forward with building your empire.

HOW TO WRITE AN ABOUT US PAGE: A FINAL NOTE

Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect. This isn’t school. You don’t need to get 100% on it. If you really want it to be perfect, you can hire a professional copywriter to do it for you (ahem).

But I don’t want you get held up on this one piece of your content puzzle. You have a lot more work to do, so get this out of the way and move forward! You can always go back and change it later as your business develops, or you can hire someone to update it for you.

And if you have any questions on how to write an about us page, just contact me! I’m happy to help.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to grab your Brand Discovery Workbook below to make writing an about us page 100x easier.