Your “About page” is one of the most important pages on your website. Not only that, it is one of the top 3 of all viewed pages on your website. This is because travelers want to know who you are, what you stand for, and why they should hire you. So why do few tourism brands leverage this page to their advantage.
It’s because who likes to write about themselves? After all, didn’t your mother tell you never to brag and talk about yourself? or Similarly, remember going to a job interview and someone asks you to summarize you and your experience? Where do you start? (without rambling!?)
Your About Us Page is not a resume either. – Remove the corporate fluff it won’t help promote your business. You will have prospective customers drop off your website as fast as you can say “work with me.” Instead, use this page to help you build trust because it can help emotional decision makers move to purchase from you.
Why Your About Us Page Is a Secret Weapon For Your Tourism Business
1. It has traffic – a lot of traffic. Whether you run a personal website, blog, or corporate site, this page can capture viewers and convinces them to buy. The better the copy, the more it will benefit your business. Think about how you read About Us Pages for products you buy, do you want to know what the company is about and who they are?
2. It helps people EVALUATE you on a different level compared to your Home Page. People want to buy from people they like and share their beliefs.
3. It serves as a significant component in building trust, and when you build trust, you move potential guests down the funnel – meaning, you move them from just looking to booking. When you create this page, it sets you up to take advantage of the content for so many aspects of your marketing communications.
4. It saves you time and effort. Once you create this page, you can use and reuse the copy you developed in your marketing and communications.
**Please don’t make this mistake: some businesses take their About Us page entirely off the website’s top navigation because it is not deemed necessary compared to the other sales-driven pages on their website. Please keep this page visible on your top navigation.
Your About Us Page is about you, but through the eyes of your target guest.
This means that every section that you write, should answer “how does this help them” even though it is a page about YOU.
A. Your Goals for Writing Your About Us Page
1. It is written in a way that your target guests can relate to you. Meaning, share who, what and why but how it benefits them.
2. Perhaps they admire what you are doing, or you have shared values and beliefs, or you have made massive changes in your life to live the way you want on your terms. You want the reaction to be, “Wow, I can relate to that Dorene, she totally gets me.”
3. Answer questions: You write this page in a way that conveniently answers the questions customers probably have about your business (ie. those questions that address their needs).
4. Your About Us page uses story-telling to share stories about you. Story-telling is one of the most powerful ways to explain anything. In travel, it is one of the most compelling ways to talk about your services, your business, and the experiences of your guests.
5. Share your purpose and get emotional – honest – and authentic – customers want to work with real people, the people behind the business. This avoids it coming off corporate, instead, it should come off as personal
6. It is not written like a resume; rather, it is written like you are talking to a friend you haven’t seen for 15 years and catching up on everything and sharing what you are deeply passionate about.
So, as your potential guest reads about you, they are validating if you and your business can help THEM.
B. How to Write Your About Us Page – Structure
There is a couple of ways you can structure your page
1. BACKSTORY
It can be a backstory about you (or “we’ your company), which leads you to why you started this business.
The key is that it should be an exciting story that your target guests could be interested in or admire.
You can use an Ah-Ha moment as the way to tell your story. What were some challenges you faced while developing your company? How did this discovery shape what you are today?
For example: If you say you were tired of the corporate world, and you had to get out, so you decided to start bed and breakfast, it won’t cut it. However, if you had some major struggles that compelled you to create and do something you are passionate about and believe in – now that is golden!
2. Passion Story/Change Story
This is about how you evolved as a company. There is no shame in admitting that your business has changed, or personally, you, as well as the ideas you’ve adopted, have changed since you began.
When you have a story about your Passion for doing better, being a better human being, helping others, becoming a better person, realizing your business was going this way but you decided to change it – these are admirable traits that are respected by potential guests.
Whatever you choose: hit the Emotions. Remember how we want to connect with feelings here? So, tell your story and the struggles you faced. Explain how you felt and what you did to overcome them.
What Should You Include in Your About Us Page?
1. The best About Us pages START WITH WHY.Your purpose is an absolute must-have. It can be woven into your story or included upfront. It can be written as a statement, or you can include some additional context like how you do it. You can also write this as a mission statement. Further, you can include the what’s and how’s (e.g. We believe that _______so that ________). The important thing is that it is visible and easy to follow. Then ensure you include why your WHY is relevant to them.
2. Who do you serve? Talk to your target guests – their issues and how you help them and try to weave it within your story. Use You and Yours to bring them into your copy and demand attention.
3. Answer who you are, what you do in the point of view of your reader. Write it in a way that it is relevant for the person reading the page. (How does all this help your reader)
4. Answer the question – how is your business different? what is your point of difference and then bring it back to then- and why this will benefit your reader.
5. Add a Call to Action at the end. We want to leave them with something to do and to think about. Now, to figure out what your CTA should be, start by asking yourself, why is my potential customer visiting my About Us page? How can I help them get the information and solution they want the most? Perhaps, it’s downloading a free tool or an eBook, joining your email list or Facebook group, or contacting you to learn more about your business.
6. Your Staff – Highlight your staff and include pictures of you all. You can include a bio or a fun fact about each of them. Better yet, you can interview them and include a phrase like: “why do they love to go to work every morning”.
7. Facts, Credentials and Reviews – Include these further down in the page, to answer the question: “Yes this company seems great, but do others trust them?”
8. Use this page to show off your personality. It is ok to share a few of your quirky and unusual interests and passion, as long as it’s a minor part of the overall page.
Three Types of Frameworks for Your About Us Page
OPTION #1: The simplistic, story-telling, and preferred structure. Use bold subheads and some simple design elements. The goal here is to lead into your why and who you are. Use pictures to tell the story – show the struggle you had and the solution you took to overcome.
OPTION#2: The FAQ, frequently asked questions, or a Q and A format. This format is excellent for supplying in all the random things you know people want to know about you and your company. It’s also an ingenious way to bypass the writer’s block because it is easy for us to answer questions. I’ve seen some travel brands use this for group tours because there are often so many questions your guest has about the group, the amenities, and locations, that it may be easier to create a bulleted list of information.
OPTION #3: So there’s a reason that the 25 things you don’t know about me meme were such a big hit. Lists are effortless to write and often entertaining to read as long as they address the needs of your guests, but if they aren’t written well, they tend to feel braggy. This method is not my preferred method, but if you have a quirky brand and can get some copyrighting help, this page could come off as very unique.
Looking For Inspiration From Great About Us Pages?
Here are a few pages that are fantastically written and uphold some if not all of the elements we discussed in this article.
Impulse Travel – These guys are clear on their purpose and explain it well, I like the drop down menu of how they break it down and how its easy to read in sections
Taste of Thailand Food Tours – These guys state their purpose up front and they even include a infographic of their values.
Taste of Toulouse– Well-crafted About page and story telling
Pure Trek Canyoning – They recently updated their page with their mission upfront – it is well done.
Southwest Airlines – These guys are the kings of purpose driven companies, which is why their about page is written well, its a big company so its done alot differently and worth looking at.
This is a new one for Black Cab Heritage Tours – we worked on this with them – I think it turned out great!
Send us a note and let us know how you are getting along with writing your secret weapon – Your About Page? How did these tips work for you? You can reach out to us here.
* note: These tips are inspired by the Copy Cure course and CopyHackers content that has been road-tested on many travel brands.
What are your best tips for writing your About Us page? Looking for more help with your marketing? You can find more tips here.
