Who are you and why should I buy what you're selling?
Typically, especially when it comes to small businesses, an ‘About Us’ page is seen as a vanity exercise, an afterthought. Perhaps that’s where your contact details live and some social media links and maybe even a Google map. But, did you know that an ‘About Us’ page is one of the most visited and, if done properly, can be one of the most highly converting pages on your website?
Think about it - you’ve gone to a website of a business you don’t know much about. They appear to have the product or service you are after at a price you are OK with, so that’s a good start. What next? How credible is the business? How do you know they know what they are doing? Unless they are a massive retailer or well-known corporate, then you don’t and the “trust” question is a big, although often unconscious, part of buying behaviour.
I was talking to a new online retail business last week who are looking to launch in August and one of the biggest hurdles I see them getting over is establishing credibility in a crowded marketplace. The story of the business owners is a great reflection of the products they will sell, so their About Us page will need to establish the facts about them, visually represent them in accordance with their brand and provide enough information to assist visitors to their site in getting over that ‘trust’ hurdle.
“Make sure your About Us page always matches what you would say if I asked you about your company today...””
The above quote came from a great article at Inc.com about changes you can make to the wording and style of your page that will kick start it along to make it a valuable cog in your buyer experience process. Have a read and let me know your thoughts! I would recommend taking care of your ‘About Us’ page ASAP and, after a bit of the research I was looking at today, I’m going to make my own About page a top priority next week. Here are some great examples of About page designs to take a look at - even if your is a lot simpler that these (text and image rather than the full shebang), use these as some inspiration!
While you are looking at your About page, check out this Mashable article on the how and why to make improvements to your Contact page as well.