Focusing on the people behind your business is a very strong way to set yourself apart from your competitors. Few websites tell a good story about their people. So here are 3 tips on how to construct an engaging About page via tried and true storytelling techniques.
“People don’t buy products,
they buy people.”
Despite the adage’s gross overuse by ever corny sales manager, at Webmium we think this old saying has a notable lesson for small business websites. Focusing on the people behind your business, in fact, is a very strong way to set yourself apart from your competitors. Few websites tell a good story about their people.
How do you focus on your people? A good, 3-5 paragraph story on your About page. After all, before you can begin to trust someone, you must first get to know them.
So here are 3 tips on how to construct an engaging About page via tried and true storytelling techniques.
1. Creation Myth
A Creation Myth is a culture or religion’s story that explains how the earth as we know it came into being. The term is also used in marketing to describe a well told and appealing startup story. You can probably recall the romantic details of a few large businesses that were started, from Jeff Bezos driving around the country with Amazon’s business plan in his back seat, or Facebook as a dorm room project at Harvard.
Even though your business may not have the elements of these familiar stories you probably faced some pretty interesting challenges along the way that made your business into what it is today. Don’t go on for pages, keep the story telling to the point, but don’t forget to tell your potential customers what got you into the business in the first place.
2. Arc
Arc is the fancy way of saying every story needs a beginning, middle, end and some kind of conflict or challenge that drives the story along.
NOTE: For what the author thinks is the most brilliant, humorous representation of narrative arc see Kurt Vonnegut’s writing and charts on arc.
For example,
Beginning: The Creation Myth, what lead you to start the business and take the first steps.
Middle: Establishing the business probably involved overcoming a few big challenges, like landing your first ‘real’ project or building up a customer base. What was your biggest challenge and how did you manage to overcome it?
End: That’s all in the past now though, so how has the history affected what your business is now? Even better, how has that experience prepared you to offer a unique specialization or service that your competitors can’t match?
3. Focus
A jack of all trades is a master of none
It’s easy to be long winded when retelling the story of how you managed to fight tooth and nail to get the business off the ground, but don’t forget to stay focused on what your customers are interested in. If possible, try to link your storytelling to addressing a major concern or barrier to entry that prevents potential customers from becoming actual customers.
Think of it as a preemptive marketing strike, Norman Schwarzkopf style.
