Many about pages open with a founding date, and many case studies with a list of deliverables. Both tell the business’s story to visitors who came to find out something else: whether this business understands their problem. Good website storytelling turns that around.
It doesn’t mean inventing anything. It means putting facts you already have in the order a reader cares about, with the customer as the hero.
Below is that framework, applied to the about page, case studies, microcopy and every language you publish in. Homepage section order is covered in what to put on your homepage.
The short answer
Website storytelling means arranging what your site says as a narrative in which the customer is the main character, facing a problem, and your business is the guide that helps solve it. In practice:
- An about page built on beliefs and reasons, not a timeline.
- Case studies that follow challenge, approach and result, using only numbers you can verify.
- Specifics instead of adjectives, and real photographs instead of stock.
- One voice from headline to error message, carried into every language through transcreation.
The website storytelling framework: your customer is the hero
Most memorable stories share the same bones: someone wants something, hits a problem, meets a guide with a plan, acts and ends up better off. Marketers will recognise the shape from Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework, set out in his 2017 book Building a StoryBrand, which reworks classic story structure for marketing. On a website, what matters is the casting. Your customer is the hero; your business is the guide. A business cast as the hero opens with its awards and history; a guide opens with the customer’s situation.
| Story part | Where it shows up on your site |
|---|---|
| The hero: who the page is for | Headlines, case study context |
| The problem: what’s wrong, and how it feels | Service page intros, case study challenges |
| The guide: proof you can help | About page, credentials, client work |
| The plan: the steps to the result | Process sections, “what happens next” copy |
| The outcome: life afterwards | Case study results, client quotes |
A guide needs empathy and authority
Miller asks two things of a guide. Empathy shows you understand the problem, ideally in your customers’ own words. Authority shows you can solve it: work, qualifications, results you can prove. Warm words without proof read as untested; awards without empathy read as a company talking to itself.
Check it yourself. Underline the subject of every sentence on your about page. If nearly all are “we” or your brand name, the business is the hero. Don’t ban “we”; start more sentences with the customer’s situation, and let “we” arrive as the answer.
An about page built on beliefs, not a timeline
People open an about page with questions. Who is behind this? Do they understand situations like mine? Can I trust them? What would they be like to work with? A timeline answers a question nobody asked: what happened in which year.
Before and after
A timeline opening, for a fictional components manufacturer:
Founded in 2004 as a small workshop, the company moved to a larger factory in 2011 and added a second production line in 2018. Today we are a leading supplier of precision components.
The same facts, told as a belief with reasons:
A production line rarely stops because a part is wrong. It stops because a part is almost right. So every component we make is measured against your drawing before it leaves the factory, and the inspection report ships with it. We started doing that in a one-room workshop in 2004, and it’s still the first thing new customers notice.
The second keeps the founding year, but as evidence, and gives the reader something to check: the inspection report.
A structure that works
- The problem you exist to solve, in your customers’ words.
- What you believe about it, and what you do (and refuse to do) as a result.
- Proof: the clients you serve, work you can show, figures you can back up.
- What working with you is like: process, people, promises.
- Your origin, briefly, if it explains the belief.
- One next step, such as seeing your work or getting in touch.
Pair every belief with a practice
“We believe in transparency” is an adjective dressed up as a value. It becomes part of your brand narrative when it’s tied to something a visitor can check: “We publish our prices, and the quote you sign is the price you pay.” If you can’t name the practice, leave the belief out.
Keep a full timeline only when age is the point, such as decades supplying the same customers, and even then place it lower down.
Case study structure: challenge, approach, result
A case study is often the most persuasive story on a website, because the hero is a real customer. It’s also where writers slip back into listing deliverables: “We designed a modern, responsive twelve-page website.” That’s not a story.
| Section | The reader’s question | What to include |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | What changed for them? | The outcome in the client’s terms, not your service name |
| Challenge | What was wrong, and what did it cost? | Specific problems, ideally in the client’s words |
| Approach | What did you do, and why? | Three to five decisions, each with its reason |
| Result | What changed? | Verified numbers with a time frame, plus observable changes |
| Their words | Would they recommend you? | A short verbatim quote, used with permission |
Keep the client as the hero throughout: they made the decision, and their team now works differently.
A worked example
Our property developer case study follows this structure.
The headline is about the client’s sales team, not the redesign: “The website sales now sends every buyer to first.”
The challenge lists problems that cost sales. The old site took nine seconds to load and broke on phones. Enquiries arrived only by phone, untracked. Marketing couldn’t change a photo without paying a developer.
The approach is four decisions, each with a reason: restructure around the buyer journey, rebuild in WordPress so marketing can update everything, give each language its own SEO, and put tracked enquiry forms and LINE on every project page.
The results mirror the challenges: load time down from nine seconds to two, 40% more buyer enquiries in the three months after launch, no developer hours needed for content edits, plus page one of Google for three project keywords.
Copy that pattern: the slow pages, untracked calls and developer invoices from the challenge each reappear, resolved, in the results. Then the client’s Sales Director has the last word, quoted verbatim. What a property developer’s website needs explains the thinking behind those decisions.
Rules for the numbers
Numbers are where case studies earn or lose trust. Before one goes on the page:
No reliable numbers? Skip vague ones like “improved engagement” and describe what changed in a normal week: customers book online rather than phoning, or marketing updates prices the same day.
Get the story from the client
The story lives with the client, not in your project files. Once there are results to talk about, ask:
- What was happening that made you start looking for help?
- What was it costing you, in time, money or stress?
- What’s different in a normal week now?
- What would you tell someone in the position you were in?
The first two answers become your challenge section. The last often gives you the quote.
Replace adjectives with specifics
Adjectives are claims, and readers discount claims. For each one, ask how a customer would know it’s true, then write that instead.
| Adjective | The specific version |
|---|---|
| Experienced | “Every project is led by a licensed engineer who visits the site weekly” |
| Responsive | “You’ll get a reply by the end of the next working day” |
| Personal service | “You deal with the same project manager from first call to handover” |
| High quality | “Each part ships with its inspection report” |
If a line only works as an adjective, cut it. Website credibility covers how visitors weigh this kind of evidence before getting in touch.
Real photos are specifics too
Stock photography is the visual version of an adjective: it says “professional” without showing anything. Photograph the people who do the work, where they do it, and show finished work in use. A caption naming who, what or where turns a picture into evidence.
Carry the voice into headlines and microcopy
Stories rarely break in the middle. They break at the edges, where a human-sounding about page hands over to a form that says “Submit”, and suddenly the visitor is dealing with a different company.
Let the headings tell the story
Read only the headings of a case study. If they say “Overview”, “Our solution” and “Results”, skimmers miss the story. “Enquiries arrived only by phone, and nobody tracked them” carries it at a glance, and tells search engines and AI tools exactly what the section covers.
Write the small words in the same voice
| Element | Generic | In the same voice |
|---|---|---|
| Button | “Submit” | “Request a site visit” |
| Form field label | “Message” | “What’s holding the project up?” |
| Confirmation | “Your form has been submitted successfully.” | “Thanks. An engineer will reply by the end of the next working day.” |
| Error message | “Invalid input” | “That number looks a digit short. Could you check it?” |
Microcopy is where you keep the promises the story made: if the about page says you’re easy to deal with, the form has to prove it. The website branding guide shows how a written voice guide keeps every writer consistent.
Keep the story intact in every language
A literal translation keeps the words and can lose the story. Idioms turn into nonsense, an informal “you” can sound rude in languages where business writing expects the formal form, and familiar examples stop being familiar.
Transcreation retells the story in each language instead of copying it word for word. Give every translator a short brief:
Client quotes are the exception: translate them faithfully and have the client approve each version. How to plan a multilingual website covers the wider translation workflow.
Where to start
Begin with the page that does the most selling, often a case study read just before someone decides. Then check your core pages:
Storytelling is content work, with owners and deadlines like any other. Preparing content for a new website shows how to plan who writes what, and by when.
Sometimes the words aren’t the real problem: the pages themselves are organised around your company rather than your customers’ questions. A website redesign reorganises them around what your customers need to decide, keeps the content that already works and gives every page one clear next step. Not sure which you need? A free website audit checks whether a first-time visitor can tell what you do and why to trust you.