Commonly demoted to footer utility pages, a website’s ‘About Us’ page is often overlooked as a storytelling tool. We’re asking why.
About us company profile
In our content-hungry world, and the dopamine-fuelled desire for ‘new,’ it can be easy to forget the importance of reflecting on the past. Consumers now more than ever are looking for reasons to engage with their brands – a common cause or relatable journey. The ‘About Us’ page is an important place to articulate a company’s history and heritage.
Moreover, the ‘About Us’ page is a crucial ranking tool. It is likely long-form content, of long-term duration, packed full of SEO fodder and key search terms. This is the perfect place to include the keywords you want to rank for and give them longevity.
Read More: Keyword Research Tools 2018
About us example
To understand what really makes an effective and engaging ‘About Us’ page, we’ve unpicked the stitching of Liberty London. It is a classic example of on-site ‘About Us’ content doing exactly what it should be.
About us content format
The key to engaging ‘About Us’ content is to get creative. This may take the form of an online brochure, ebook or blog post. In the case of Liberty London – an interactive article about its store heritage.
However you may choose to break with tradition and use an ‘About Us’ alternative such as a video or podcast to tell the story. The choice of medium should be based on that which your target audience is most likely to engage with.
About us company background
Just with any brand storytelling, it is vital that your ‘About Us’ page paints a picture. Liberty London achieves this with an eloquent re-telling of its commercial origins:
“When our adventurous founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty laid plans for a London emporium laden with luxuries and fabrics from distant lands, his dream was to metaphorically dock a ship in the city streets. To this day, a voyage of discovery awaits on the good ship Liberty, with history hidden amongst six floors of cutting-edge design, unexpected edits and beautiful wares from the world’s greatest craftspeople.”
Set out here to use plenty of adjectives and playful puns. Liberty here uses ‘dock a ship,’ ‘voyage of discovery,’ and ‘good ship liberty,’ to really take its readers on an adventure.
About us page design
The UX and usability of the page and its design really aid the reader in the consumption of the story from Liberty. The template is by no means complex, but works in a variety of ways to give a simple and interactive experience:
- Left-hand navigation means that the text columns are narrow, making for comfortable reading.
- Image carousels allow visitors to leaf through history, as they would with a photo album or scrapbook.
- Bold, quote copy gives additional context and breaks up the text, as do short and easy to consume paragraphs.
- A numbered list of ‘other discoveries’ at the end gives customers things to look out for on their journey in-store, bringing the voyage of discovery to life.
About us page translation
With global e-commerce, many online retailers consider whether they ought to offer multilingual versions of their websites. Google translate offers some basic functionality for users from other countries. However providing professionally translated web pages gives an added degree of sophistication, which is especially relevant in the luxury goods industry.
However re-creating an entire site in one or many other languages is a costly and time-consuming exercise. Therefore many businesses opt to start by translating one page – their ‘About Us’ page. In the case of Liberty London, it has published a Mandarin version of the same ‘Store Heritage’ page, to engage directly with their Mandarin-speaking audience. You may choose to do the same if you have a large French, Spanish or Mandarin speaking target market.
If you need help taking a creative approach with your ‘About Us’ page or brand storytelling, please get in touch.
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