How to write a more brain-pleasing ‘About Us’

Many company websites include a section called ‘About Us’. Its purpose is to explain the company’s identity, essence or history.

For a corporate website, the product is the company itself. If a company is liked and it generates a positive tone, selling its products or services will be much easier. So, the corporate web can have a significant impact on both the business performance of B2C and B2B companies.

However, writing the ‘About Us’ section can be as complex as writing a CV. Both are persuasive narratives where we say good things about ourselves. In this regard, we perceive three risks:

1. If the strengths are not highlighted, the ‘product’ may not stand out as it should.
2. If the strengths are overly emphasised, it can lead to overpromising and possible frustration later.
3. And worst of all, by its nature this type of content can be us-centric or ‘product’-centric. This would be detrimental because in the market the customers are the referees. They decide.

And, so, writing this web section involves a sound degree of complexity.

4 tips on how to make an ‘About Us’ more brain-pleasing

1) At its heart, this is about ‘them’.

When talking about ourselves, we may be tempted to use terms like 'we are', 'we do', or 'we have'. These are correct. They are useful. But if we start with these, we run the risk of making the person reading feel: ‘And, what’s in this for me?' 'Are you ignoring me now?’

Our suggestion is to talk about what your strengths manage to bring to your customers. Tell them what they will achieve if they hire you or purchase your products.

For example, on our own home page, we could say: ‘Our agency serves managers by helping them rethink their marketing and branding approach using brain-pleasing marketing.’

But, if we said it this way, we would be making the reader’s cortex suffer a great cognitive load, due to the number of conceptual and abstract words contained in this sentence. Torturing the brain of those we are trying to persuade is not a good strategy.

That is why at our home page we prefer saying:

‘They call on us to increase their brand desirability.? And, therefore, their Gross Margin.’

In other words, we focus the sentence on the outcome of our methods.

This way,

our ‘About Us’ is translated into

‘What you will achieve’

when you hire us or purchase our products.

This statement is written like a story that is addressed not to an ‘audience’, but to the person browsing our website. The storytelling offers the great advantage of minimising the tiredness felt by the brain when consciously paying attention. Of course, the content of such sentence must be faithful to the technical reality that the service provides.

If that initial sentence is well understood, the company will most likely achieve 3 things: draw people’s attention, be relevant to the readers and, above all, make them imagine something very positive that they can achieve in the near future. These three things are cornerstones in the decision making process.

2) Title and Subtitle

At the previous example the initial statement becomes a Title, a phrase that sounds good to managers with a lot of responsibility, those who understand the necessary link between marketing and finance.

Right after that it's time to move on to the Subtitle. Here it is no longer about surprising, or grabbing their attention, but rather showing the base that supports the initial headline. The Subtitle can be descriptive or assertive, without the need to generate a great emotional impact.

Continuing with our earlier example:

‘We do so by using Brain-pleasing Marketing,

that is, applying cognitive neuroscience to marketing and branding.’

We cite the tool, although without fully explaining it. Anyone who is interested will be able to find out what this method is about later, if they continue exploring the web.

In this Subtitle the focus is on the tool, thus avoiding being too us-centric.

3) The product’s life cycle still applies

Few traditional marketing methods continue being as useful as the ‘product category life cycle’?The well-known stages followed by a product category: introduction, growth, tipping point, maturity, and decline.

Ultimately, it is about considering the market context in which that category of product or service is now immersed.

If a company offers something very new, it is highly likely that the ‘About Us’ sentence should be more assertive and explanatory than if what is sold is widely known.

In this last case, the ‘About Us’ heading could be much more striking, or even unconventional, because the readers will have previously related that type of product to something that resides in their deep memory.

Technical note: This method is not applied to the evolution of the sales of a product of the company, but to the evolution of the entire category. Therefore, competitors sales must also be included.

4) Tone and style really matter

When it comes to achieving the preference of the company itself, the verb that must be kept in mind is "to feel". Specifically, what we want to make them feel. This is the most brain-pleasing verb. It does not cause a cognitive load, it almost does not tire the reader’s cortex.

When we like a company, we find it more pleasant to delve deeper into what it does, what it offers, its characteristics and its range of products or services. That is, we are more willing to get tired looking at its information.

Hence, having a story that flows well and appealing semiotics (graphic design, illustrations, aesthetics, etc.) are ways of achieving the necessary differentiation, especially if the category being sold is mature.

Logically, there is no single ‘one rule fits all’ here. The ideal approach is to adopt the tone or style that best fits your target customer profile. If your company is serving sensibly bold managerial people, you can't have conventional and orthodox look and wording.

You asked for it!

If the visual and writing style of your corporate website enchants the customer profile you want, and instead repels others, congratulations!

If you are looking to be just as compelling to everyone, you are wishing or dreaming something unattainable. Except when using not very democratic methods, no politician will manage to get 90% of all votes.

Strategy is an exercise of denial. Understanding what type of customer will better appreciate what your company is able to do and, then, blatantly focusing on them is a smart way of achieving market authority.

? Authors:?Lluís Martínez-Ribes and?Marina Font. Reviewed by?psychologist Rosa Franch. m+f=!, Barcelona, January 2023.