Each context is particular as each story is unique. How you pack your About page can make or break the experience. The good thing about building a web page is that there are patterns (both for writing and visual representation) that you can identify and use depending on your needs. These patterns come with various challenges, but I hope this article can help overcome some of them.
There are plenty of scenarios in which you can find yourself when creating your About page. Maybe you are a blogger who shares your traveling passion, a solopreneur doing ceramics during the weekend, a psychologist running private sessions, or perhaps you have a small photo studio where you offer various creative services.
At Pixelgrade, we spend a lot of time skimming through websites of all kinds. I took those thousands of hours and used our experience to showcase five big particular team structures and sizes in which you might find yourself when writing the About page.
Read further to learn how to adjust the communication approach and support the message with a suitable visual representation. This way, you get the chance to put that fantastic story at work and grab the right kind of visitors.
Please remember that all the examples below are made using Rosa2 since it’s our most versatile product. You don’t need coding or design skills to make it happen, promise!
Let’s take one situation at a time and walk you through everything you need to know to create this particular page with ease and a bit of fun.
Quick navigation:
- About page for yourself
- About page for co-founders
- About page for small teams
- About page for team and collaborators
- About page for dedicated departments
About page for yourself
In other words, you’re alone, doing stuff by yourself. You can be an illustrator, a designer, a photographer, a videographer, a copywriter, a psychologist, you name it. You work as a solopreneur; you are responsible for your products, services, pricing, marketing, and so on. Jack of all trades, if you want.
In this particular case, the About page of your website demands hosting a story. Being the solo brain in charge of everything makes room for personality and creativity.
Don’t shy away from being personal in how you present your narrative. We live in a world where we’re exhausted by how similar the websites look and feel. Make sure you stand out from the crowd through a powerful story.
Don’t overreact, don’t show off, and, most importantly, don’t mislead your readers. Offer them details that make sense depending on the goal of your website. You don’t need to name everything you do to make a big fuss—coherence and consistency beat quantity and oversharing.
You can create such a page with Rosa2, our best-selling Wordpress theme since its launch. It’s easy to use, it comes with all the bells and whistles, and it guides you through the process of obtaining a result that makes you proud.
Here’s an example of how you can pack that story on the website:
About page for co-founders
If you find yourself in this situation, then it’s time to put together a shared story that strikes a chord. In the end, what made you kick off together? How do you fit? What are your complementary skills, and how do you make the most out of them? What are the values that keep the engine in motion?
Please bear in mind that answering the above questions should not exclude being personal and authentic. Not at all. You can still express your uniqueness through a story without putting your partner in the shadows.
One straightforward way to achieve a great result is to present yourself individually (put a name on the face) and then add some details that are relevant for both of you (a red thread). This is how the idea of a team walks into the spotlight.
Most of the companies made by two founders are pretty sterile. They are presented as a stand-alone scenario, where each of them is treated individually. But what about the commonalities? What you plan to achieve together is valuable for visitors to know. Treating the About page as a gateway towards shared identity can enhance the experience and make it memorable.
Here’s one way it can look:
About page for small teams
When expanding the team to three+ (and counting) members, you need to be a bit more strategic when presenting your squad. While the personal details still work and bring relevant information, it’s time to step up and name clearly who does what.
For instance, if you’re in an architecture studio, you might all be architects from the office. This does not mean that you do the same work, nor have a 100% overlap in skills and knowledge. One single person pays the salaries and the rent at the end of the day, right?
Display the roles or responsibilities in a way that’s easy to grasp for the visitor. People need to understand by the blink of an eye who does what, who leads who, who’s going to answer their questions.
If you present your squad without any hierarchy, it’s easy to produce confusion, even a lack of professionalism. The goal is not to put some people on a pedestal but to explain their roles behind the curtain.
It will save time and energy, especially if you create a contact page to direct visitors towards an outcome. If someone is writing about a new project, the person in the first contact line should take it from there. On the other hand, if someone reaches out for a summer internship, maybe it’s a different guy or gal who should respond at the end of the chain.
About page for your team and collaborators
This is usually true when you have a core team and a few steady collaborators. To keep the above example alive, I’ll add that collaborators should not be treated as second-class citizens, especially if you have long-term bonds and aim to keep nurturing them. Make this message crystal clear because it says something about how good you are at relationship-building. Hopefully, you already have this skill set in place.
You can keep the positioning of the core team sharp, draw a detailed profile, and add some flavor by listing the collaborators in a way that makes sense for your particular industry. One way to do it is by filling them into categories, such as marketing / operations / HR.
Regardless of how you operationalize, make sure you avoid being too creative. Before showing your outstanding copywriting or design skills, information has one crucial goal to achieve: clarity. When describing your marketing collaborations, save some energy and focus on what they do and what’s your approach to promoting products and services.
About page for dedicated departments
Reaching this point implies a few different things. On the one hand, it means that you have internal processes that make this flow of working run. On the other hand, it could imply that you want to direct your visitors and potential clients to the best people to help solve specific problems.
Having dedicated departments does not mean that you need 100 folks on your payroll. It can be eight souls, as we are, at Pixelgrade. We’re distributed in different areas, depending on our skills and job responsibilities.
For instance, even though our customer support zone comprises two people, it’s essential to mark it accordingly. In the end, Alin and Alex are in the tranches, replying to our customers’ requests, directing them to the best solution, going the extra mile to find better alternatives, and such.
It’s easier for clients to make mental anchors directly to the people they are working with. It also helps them develop stronger relationships along the way. We have dozens of examples of customers who reached out to our guys and shared all kinds of stuff outside the professional area, from how things are going on their side of the world in terms of the pandemic to all sorts of travel tips and stories.
I wrote a stand-alone article on the storytelling challenges when creating your About page. If you have a hard time putting together a narrative that gets the job done (answers your visitor’s questions), make sure you give it a go.
The About page is a piece of the entire digital puzzle. It’s important to craft it in a way that showcases your current version of the story. If you’re a one-person show, then don’t pretend you’re a small company because people will soon realize and feel betrayed. Harmonize everything to your reality, and once it changes, make sure you update the page and the overall website, too.
We need more such pages that are built with care towards the visitors. Less shamelessly self-promo that lacks meaning, and more authentic narratives that awake feelings and emotions. These are the hardest to forget or pass unnoticed, trust me.
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