When you’re building a website, it’s tempting to get distracted by all the bells and whistles of the design process and forget all about creating compelling content. But having awesome content on your website is crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business.
So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your web design needs? Why, with your 'About Us' page, of course! For a remarkable about page, all you need to do is figure out your company's unique identity, and then share it with the world.
I know ... easier said than done.
Still, there's no excuse for you to neglect one of the most important pages on your website -- which also happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked pages. Let's read on to discover some companies with awesome 'About Us' pages and see how you can emulate them on your own website. By the end of this post, showing off how awesome your company is won't seem like such a challenging feat.
Download more awesome 'About Us' page examples here, and get tips for making yours great, too.
12 of the Best About Page Examples
1) Yellow Leaf Hammocks
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It tells us a story.
Have a cool story about how your product or service was helps change lives? Put it on your 'About Us' page. Good stories humanize your brand and provide context and meaning for your product. What’s more, good stories are sticky -- which means people are more likely to connect with them and pass them on.
Yellow Leaf Hammocks does an amazing job of telling you about its product by describing how the hammocks empower artisan weavers and their families. The company uses a combination of words and easily digestible graphics to paint a picture, rather than using big chunks of text. They're clear about why they're different: "Not a Charity," the page reads. And then: "This is the basis for a brighter future, built on a hand up, not a handout."
Every company has a story to tell, so break out your storytelling skills from that random English class you took years ago and put them to work on your 'About Us' page. Using descriptive and emotive copy and gorgeous graphics, an 'About Us' page with a story works harder for your business than a generic one.
2) LessFilms
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It shows some personality.
You’re not like everyone else -- so why should you sound the same as everyone else? Stand out with an 'About Us' page that shows off who you really are.
That’s exactly what video production company LessFilms accomplishes on its site using witty copy and the image of a large, tatted-up wrestler. (Yes, a wrestler.) Although the wrestler dude and the funny headlines have nothing to do with LessFilms' business model or product, they show off the founders’ sense of humor and give the brand a personality.
For your 'About Us' page, you don't need to pretend to be a comedian if that isn't part of your brand's personality. Find another aspect of your brand's personality to showcase and make a lasting impression on your website visitors.
3) Eight Hour Day
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It's human.
People tend to think that 'About Us' pages have to sound formal to gain credibility and trust. But most people find it easier to trust real human beings rather than a description that sounds like it came from an automaton. Trying to sound formal on your 'About Us' page results in stiff, “safe” copy and design -- the perfect way to make sure your company stays invisible.
Eight Hour Day does a great job of showcasing the people behind the company to make the brand seem human. Including the founders' names in the header of the website and featuring the photos of them on the 'About Us' page drives home the point that Nathan and Katie are a "couple that loves to create."
When you’re whipping up your 'About Us' page, make sure to avoid industry jargon and instead use your authentic voice to describe your product or service. Sure, it needs to be polished and free of errors, but it should always sound friendly and real.
4) Grove Labs
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It shows and tells.
One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester Research's Dr. James McQuivey. Want to tell your story in a quick, digestible, and engaging way? Tell it through video.
Grove Labs is built on an innovative concept: that we can create a more resilient system where the means of food production is spread out, in part by making it easier for anyone to build and grow healthy fruits, vegetables, and herbs right in their own homes. It's a cool story, and one that makes for a very intriguing story on video. So as soon as you arrive on Grove Labs' 'About Us' page, you're greeted with a high definition video preview that spans the entire screen and invites you to play it to meet their founders and learn their story.
What's more, the 'About Us' video is responsive. This is super important not only because it offers site visitors a great mobile experience, but also for Grove Labs' Google search ranking -- especially now that mobile search queries are beginning to surpass desktop and more people are finding and browsing websites on their smartphones.
Video is a unique and compelling way to share your story and explain what your company does and your team values. But be sure to include text along with your video in case your visitors can't watch a video at the time or are having trouble playing it.
5) FortyOneTwenty
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It lets customers do the talking.
Would you rather trust a company talking about how awesome it is or a colleague raving about the company's work? I'd bet a lot of money you'd prefer the latter -- that colleague is more likely to be unbiased and give you a realistic understanding of what the company is like. Including customer testimonials on your 'About Us' can give prospects and leads a more down-to-earth view of your company.
Although FortyOneTwenty's 'About Us' page starts out with a classic (but well-designed) value proposition, the key part of the page is the testimonial section below the fold. By including testimonials (with pictures so site visitors can put faces to names) and a list of companies that "trust" the company, FortyOneTwenty automatically becomes more likable and trustworthy.
Personal testimonials build credibility and trust, which is why they have a natural home on your 'About Us' page. If you have a customer who has nothing but good things to say about your company, why not hand them the mic and let them do the talking?
6) Rent the Runway
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It lets the employees do the talking.
Customer testimonials are a great way to show your value. But what about employee testimonials? The 'About Us' page is a great place to showcase some of your culture, too.
While Rent the Runway's 'About Us' page covers a lot of ground, including a really cool section on how their dress rental model works, we love that the section coupling anecdotes and quotes from the company's employees with fun pictures of office life and company parties. It's gives visitors a glimpse into life at the company in a fun but not overstated way.
Employee testimonials and pictures humanize your brand in a different way than just headshots of the leadership team. Put in a "We're Hiring" call-to-action button at the bottom, and you're golden.
7) Apptopia
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It skips the business babble.
Think industry jargon makes you sound super smart on your 'About Us' page? Think again. People want -- and appreciate -- straight talk about what your business does. After all, if people can't figure out what you do, how will they know they need your product or service?
So, skip the industry lingo like Apptopia does on its 'About Us' page. The startup's simple but polished language effectively communicates the company's offering while still allowing the Average Joe to understand it.
The moral of the story here is that you should try to get rid of jargon on your 'About Us' page whenever possible. Use short and punchy sentences to explain complex products and ideas in a simple way. Show your smarts through simple copy -- not business babble.
8) Moz
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It's unique and visually interesting.
Basically every company has an 'About Us' page -- why not make yours stand out? Instead of following the classic script and writing a few paragraphs about the company's mission and how it was founded, there are plenty of ways to make it a little more visually compelling.
For example, a lot's happened since Moz was founded in 2004, so they chose to share those milestones using a timeline. They did a great job by using a fun and clean design, clear headers, concise blurbs, and little graphics to break up the text. We love how humbly they preface the timeline, too, with a thank you to their community: "We owe a huge thanks to our community for joining us on this awesome journey, and we hope that you’ll continue to be a part of our story."
People like visual content because it's visually pleasing and easy to skim and absorb. Think about ways you can use more visual formats to break the typical 'About Us' page style of paragraph text.
9) Cultivated Wit
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It totally breaks the mold.
You don't always need to wait for a website visitor to get to your 'About Us' page to make a statement. I know this whole post is dedicated to 'About Us' pages, but it's important to remember that you don't always have to fit the mold to showcase your company's personality.
Cultivated Wit is different. The creative agency and media company communicates that point with both an edgy name and an incredibly fun story told through video and parallax scrolling, right on their homepage.
Below is their actual 'About Us' page, which is a gem once you get there. But it's great to see a company embrace its own brand of quirk throughout the site.
Even if you have a dedicated 'About Us' page, there are plenty of ways to creatively showcase your company's personality throughout your website. Breaking the mold is harder than filling a stock 'About Us' template, but it can have a significant payoff for your brand.
10) Re/code
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It really connects you with their team.
One signature piece of any 'About Us' page is a list of company leaders and executives -- a team roster, if you will. Most companies include names, positions, headshots, maybe some short descriptions, and then call it a day. But no one said you had to stop there -- turns out there's a lot more you can do to connect the people visiting your website actually connect with your team.
For example, take a look at what Re/code's done with their roster. Not only do you get each person's name, position, and headshot, you also get their biographies, ethics statements, a list of recent articles they've written, and social buttons linking directly to their Twitter and Facebook pages and/or emails. Plus, the user experience for these links is great: The information pops up within that window instead of sending me to another webpage.
You want your visitors to connect with the folks on your team -- so why not give them easy access to your team's social media pages and other relevant information? (Here's a cheat sheet for creating social media buttons if you want to give this a try.)
11) Pebble
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It's lovable and memorable.
What's the difference between "average" marketing and lovable marketing? It's the difference between creating generic webpages that provide great information, but in a straightforward, black-and-white kind of way -- versus creating webpages that provide great information and are infused with color, personality, and stay true to a company's unique brand voice. When you create lovable marketing, you can start a movement of brand evangelists and advocates who will help you grow.
Where does this fit in to a company's 'About Us' page? The folks at Pebble, a smartwatch company known for being one of the most-funded Kickstarter campaigns ever, could have typed up a few paragraphs about how they started with just an idea and then decided to quit their jobs and make it a reality, and then their crowdfunding campaign became a huge success, and now look where they are today ... blah blah blah. That would've been pretty "average."
But instead, they chose to turn their 'About Us' page into a funny, timeline-like set of graphics that puts the company in the context of computing since the 1940s. "Zis iz ze future!" says a very pixelated Konrad Zuse, the inventor of home computing, in the graphic that greets you when you first arrive on the page.
Infuse personality and a sense of humor (if that's your brand voice) right into your story to make the people who visit your page feel something. That's how you create memorable, lovable marketing.
12) Marie Catribs
Why the 'About Us' Page Rocks: It's unexpected.
Let's face it: 'About Us' pages aren't usually the most riveting pages on a company's website. In fact, most companies kind of make theirs look like an afterthought. But even if you don't have budget for juicy graphics or video or parallax scrolling, there are other ways to make your 'About Us' page unexpected just with the copy.
Marie Catrib's is a restaurant, so you might think their 'About Us' page would be your typical "here's how we started, here's what we believe in, etc." story. And that is what Marie Catrib's page tells us -- but they do so in a really interesting way. The first thing your eyes are drawn to on the restaurant's 'About Us' page is a header that says, "It's okay to make a mess, experiments can lead to beautiful things." Quite philosophical for a place to have dinner. Next comes the story about the owner, but it starts in an unexpected way: "It's hard to imagine, but at one time Marie was banned from the family kitchen." A line like that draws in the audience because we know it's not going to be a typical story.
Think about ways you can tell your story in a unique, unexpected way to really draw the readers in. It's amazing what impression you can make on site visitors just by getting creative with the copy.
Which companies do you think have awesome 'About Us' pages? Share your favorites with us below!
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in May 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
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