(Reprinted by Permission from
WebMasterForHire.US, a
West Palm Beach, Florida-based Website Management and Design Firm)
Though it's called by many names (About Our Firm, Our Company and About Us, for example), you have captured the visitor's interest if they click on this page. Most likely, they have been on your other pages that are client-focused, educational and promotional. Now, they want to know about you and the business behind the offers. They want to know you are credible, experienced and skilled — able to actually do the things you offer with quality.
- Don'ts -
First, don't undersell yourself. Many people, even professional writers, have a hard time writing about themselves and "toot their own horns" effectively. If you are one of these people, consider hiring a professional writer — at least for your About Us page.
Webmaster for Hire in West Palm Beach, FL or
KME Internet Marketing in Washington DC/Northern Virginia can assist you with this, should you have an interest.
Second, don't oversell yourself with hype and unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims. If you cannot back up these claims in your writing, you lose credibility. Phrases such as: "We're the best ...", "Our service is unique ...", "We're #1 ... ", and so on should never be used, unless you can substantiate it directly below the claim with appropriate testimonials or third party statistics. Unique is probably the most overused. It means that no other business offers your idea, method, process or product in the world. If you actually offer something unique, specifically name it.
Next, avoid clichés and obvious statements, such as:
"We work as a team" — don't most companies?
"We put our clients first" — in this day and age, if you don't, you won't have a business!
"We partner with our clients" — isn't this part of doing business and expected by clients?
These and other weak statements don't really say anything to the reader and wastes your precious writing space, where you could be saying something really important. Use of such statements looks as if you don't really have any credible statements about yourself and are using fillers.
- Do's -
Your
About Us page should be presenting the reader with a compelling marketing message of credibility, experience, quality and reasons why they should trust you to deliver on your offer.
Credibility. Give evidence that you are qualified to do the work you offer. Stick to the specific data that illuminates your important accomplishments. Illustrate how your specific skills support your claims.
Where's Your Passion? When you speak to a business owner in person, they have so much energy and passion as they discuss their business. This same energy and passion should be translated into words on your About Us page. Make this easier by speaking to someone about your business, using a tape recorder. Then, use the recording to pick out "sound bites" to use in writing the About Us page.
Voice. The majority of people write in what's called an inactive or passive voice, such as: We will, You may, We did, etc. A passive voice basically is always speaking in the past or future. An active voice is speaking in the present. For example:
We implement the process vs. We will implement the process
Clients appreciate ... vs. You may appreciate ...
We received ... vs. We did receive
Active voice makes your writing more immediate and urgent in the thinking of the reader — "pay attention, this is important to YOU" — rather than "think about this whenever you have some free time", which translates to "I'll forget this before I even get to your competitor's site!"
Language. Your writing needs to be powerful. Such as: "This is what we do for YOU!" vs. "We offer the following services". The second statement is in an active voice but doesn't have any power to it. Secondly, your writing should always be positive. NEVER introduce a negative. For example: "We have very few complaints". This automatically puts into the reader's mind that you DO have complaints. Always, always, always use positive language.
Take a few minutes now to review your own About Us page.
Put yourself into a potential client's shoes.
Would you call the owner of your site?
West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Jupiter, Lake Worth Web Design and Website Management.
Labels: florida web design, florida website management, webmaster, west palm beach web design, west palm beach website management
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