Why most "About Us" pages are forgettable
Read the About page of almost any company and you will find the same shape. Founded in a certain year. Committed to quality. A team of passionate experts. Customer satisfaction at the heart of everything. It is all accurate, and none of it sticks.
The problem is not the facts. It is that facts on their own rarely move anyone. People remember stories: a problem, a struggle, a turning point, and what changed as a result. Brand storytelling is about finding that shape in your own business and telling it honestly.
What storytelling does that facts cannot
In a well-known 2003 interview with Harvard Business Review, screenwriting teacher Robert McKee argued that leaders can engage people far more deeply, and far more persuasively, by putting aside their slides and statistics and telling good stories. His central point is that the most powerful way to persuade people is to unite an idea with an emotion, and story is the best way to do that.
McKee also explains what makes a story compelling. It is not a tidy account of everything going to plan. Great stories show the struggle between what someone expected and an uncooperative reality. A company story that admits the difficulty, the problem it set out to solve, the obstacles, the moment things nearly went wrong, is far more believable than one where everything was always excellent.
The parts of a good brand story
A clear starting point. Why did the business begin? Often it is a frustration: a founder who kept seeing clients let down, a gap nobody was filling, a better way that nobody was offering.
A real problem. What does the business help people overcome? The more specific and recognisable the problem, the more readers see themselves in it.
Tension. What made it hard? What did you have to learn, change, or push through? This is the part most companies leave out, and the part that makes a story believable.
A turning point. What changed? A new approach, a breakthrough client, a decision that defined how you work.
What it means for the customer. The story should end with why it matters to the person reading. The best brand stories are ultimately about the customer, with the company as the guide, not the hero.
Where to find your story
You probably already have it. It is in:
- The founding moment. The frustration or idea that made someone start the business.
- Customer stories. The clients whose problems you solved, told with their permission and in their words.
- Your craft. How you make what you make, and why you do it that way rather than the easier way.
- Your values in action. A time the business made a harder choice because it was the right one.
When we wrote the case study for Boston Mattress, the most powerful part was not a feature. It was the story itself: a mattress maker that had spent 80 years supplying hotels and institutions, and had never sold directly to a household until now.
How to tell it well
Be specific. "We care about quality" is forgettable. "We were tired of seeing clients wait months for projects promised in weeks" is not.
Be honest. Readers can sense exaggeration. A modest, true story beats an impressive, inflated one.
Keep it short. A brand story should be told in a few paragraphs, and summarised in a sentence.
Show, do not just tell. Real names, real moments, real numbers, and real photos do more than adjectives.
Tell it consistently. The same core story should appear on your website, in your pitch, in your social content, and in how your team introduces the company. Repetition is how a story becomes a reputation.
Storytelling beyond the About page
Story is not only for company history. It shapes how you present everything:
- Case studies that follow a client from problem to result.
- Social posts that share a lesson through a specific moment.
- Product launches that start with the problem the product solves.
- Sales conversations that use a relevant client story instead of a feature list.
Every one of these is more memorable as a story than as a list of facts.
The bottom line
Facts tell people what you do. Stories make them care. The most memorable brands are not the ones with the longest list of achievements, but the ones that tell a true, specific story about the problem they solve and why it matters.
If you know your business has a story worth telling but are not sure how to tell it, our content and marketing team can help you find it and put it into words.
