10 Innovative (& Authentic) Ways to Elevate Your Brand’s About Page

A beautiful, engaging website is vital in a creative field like interior design. But for too many design firms and individual designers, the “About” page is just an afterthought. There’s a generic bio, a boring headshot or two — and that’s it.

If your About page looks like this, you’re missing out on a chance to engage new clients, build trust, and establish your personal brand. As a designer, you know how important it is to create a welcoming space. Your About page should be like a cozy living room where you invite new friends to kick off their shoes, stay awhile, and get to know you.

But how exactly do you create a page like that? Here are 10 tips for revamping your About page — and how those changes can bolster your interior design marketing efforts.

1. Center Your Story

Every brand has a story. When you create a narrative (even a very brief narrative) on your About page, you humanize your business. To your potential clients, you aren’t a faceless design service — you’re someone who had a goal or a vision, worked toward it, and made it happen.

Not sure how to start? Go back to your “aha” moment. That’s the idea that became a pivotal point in your journey. For example, maybe you were so good at creating beautiful spaces with thrift shop finds that your friends and family started asking you for help. You then went on to create a design business focusing on value.

Having a compelling story is a key part of marketing for interior designers, so make sure to take your time with this step!

2. Share How You’ve Impacted Clients

When potential customers visit your About page, they want to learn something about your business. But realistically, they’re mostly trying to figure out what you can do for them. Can they trust you to design a space, or do they need to look elsewhere?

One of the best ways to reassure these customers is to include a few concise but meaningful glimpses into how you’ve made a difference in your clients’ lives. Make sure you do this in an engaging way.

For instance, you could include a scrollable collection of before/after pictures with a quote or testimonial from a client beneath. If you wish, you can also frame these testimonies as more in-depth case studies.

Customer testimonials or reviews are an integral part of marketing for interior designers. If a would-be customer sees that past clients are satisfied with your work, they’re more likely to choose you.

3. Don’t Just State Your Values — Demonstrate Them

“We value honesty and integrity, and we’re committed to serving our local community.” Sound familiar? Businesses in every industry have quotes like this on their About pages.

But often, they’re just buzzwords with no backup. They appear on company About pages so frequently that they’re virtually meaningless — unless you do something to substantiate them.

One of the best ways to start building trust with potential clients before you meet them is to show how you put your values into action. For example, if you say you’re committed to the local community, you might mention how you sponsor an annual food drive or volunteer with a local charity.

Building credibility is an important part of interior design marketing, and if you show that you embody the values you talk about, you’ve already begun to build credibility with your audience.

4. Show Your Process

Offering a behind-the-scenes look at your process accomplishes two things — it helps humanize your brand, and it establishes your credibility as a designer. Both are important in interior design marketing. You don’t need to give your site visitors a detailed look into a particular project — even a brief video or photo series will work.

For example, imagine you recently designed a client’s living room, completely transforming it in the process. You might include a series of photos and video clips showing things like this:

• The original space
• Your early sketches
• Picking out furniture/wall art/other design elements
• Your updated sketches
• The finished product
• The client’s reaction

Having interactive elements on a web page is always a good idea, so you might want to consider making a series like this clickable or scrollable.

5. Look Into the Future

This is another way to establish your credibility. Sharing your business’s past and how you got to where you are today is great, but so is sharing your vision for your business’s future and the industry as a whole.

Of course, you don’t want to make this the focus of the page. Even a few sentences will do.

For example, you might say you want to expand your team in the next year or so. You also might include a paragraph on how the design industry is moving toward greater sustainability and how you’ve begun sourcing furniture and other design elements from local artisans who use sustainable practices.

6. Make It an Interactive Experience

One of the primary purposes of your About page is to convince potential clients to engage with your brand. So why not begin engaging them on your website?

You don’t have to make the whole About page an interactive experience. But if you include fun interactive elements like relevant quizzes, you might be able to draw in even ambivalent site visitors.

7. Share Your Insights

Your About page is a great place to showcase thought leadership and begin to demonstrate authority in the field. Potential clients are likely comparing you to other designers they may work with, and if you can show that you’re a respected voice in the field (or at least that you have valuable, original insights to offer), you’ll have an edge.

That’s not to say you should copy and paste your design-related think pieces on your About page. However, it is a great place to link to guest posts you’ve written for other design websites, any books you’ve written, and even some of the best posts on your own blog.

8. Include Targeted, Personalized Content

When you think of user-targeted content, you probably imagine targeted ads. However, the world of personalized content goes far beyond advertising. Even something as simple as a welcome message based on the time of day (like “Good Morning” or “Good Evening”) can add a valuable personal touch.

You can also use this kind of personalization to keep visitors on your site longer. Various kinds of site integrations can suggest content (like your videos or blog posts) to site visitors based on which parts of your site they’ve previously viewed.

If you really want to get into audience segmentation and hyper-personalization, you can. Some AI-powered software tools can use site visitor data to create personalized experiences. This isn’t a necessary part of having a great About page, but if you’re interested in it, a competent web designer may be able to help.

9. Give Visitors a Tour

Engaging visuals are one of the most important elements of any website — and especially an interior designer’s site. If you’re comfortable sharing your office or other workspace, consider including a visual tour.

There are a couple of different ways you can do this. An easy way is to do a video walkthrough. You can also use a software program or external website to create an immersive 3D walkthrough — if you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a lot like Google Street View.

10. Make Bios Fun

While bios (for you and any staff members) shouldn’t be the only thing on your About page, they’re still important to include. Someone interested in working with you will likely want to know your educational background and how long you’ve been in the field.

However, bios are also a great place to start building a genuine human connection with potential customers. You might consider including animations, interesting facts, or informal introduction videos.

Feeling Stuck? Behind the Design Can Help

You’re a creative person. But if you’re like many creative people, you’ve found that writing about yourself is a lot harder than it sounds. If you’re having trouble creating a great About page (or are just looking for some guidance regarding marketing for interior designers in general), we can help.

Behind the Design started as an online community for interior designers and architects to make connections after college. Since then, we’ve expanded to include software training and continuing education courses, and we also offer online marketing for interior designers and architects.

We’ll develop a customized interior design marketing strategy — leaving you more time to focus on your business. Get in touch with us if you have any questions or if you’re ready to get started!