For many sites, visitors who find their way to the About Us page tend to have a somewhat higher conversion rate than those that don’t. Potential customers that do visit this page are showing more than a casual interest in what your site has to offer and are looking for additional signals of trust.
The About Us page can play an important functional role in the process of providing visitors comfort and assurances in your company and your ability to meet their needs. While this page is technically about your company, it’s really about your customer, or rather about what they need to know about you to pull the trigger on a purchase. You need to provide specific information that visitors both expect to find and that will help them feel “safe” with the offerings you provide.
Here are 5 things to focus on to make sure your About Us page effectively does both:
1. Company description
Information on your company, such as when it was founded, primary owners/managers, and product/service offerings, should be provided. Don’t tell visitors what you want them to know but what they want to know.
To that end, a complete company history is not necessary. However, telling your story in a compelling way can help build the visitor’s trust and bring them into your story. Talk about why you came into being, what makes you different, and how you can help customers overcome their struggles.
2. Team Biographies
People do business with people. That’s why it’s important to showcase the people your potential customers will be doing business with. Larger companies may not be able to profile each employee, but key personnel, at the very least, should be included.
Brief biographies should be provided along with a quality photograph of each. If the biographies are too long for this page, you can easily provide links to more details on each individual. This information helps visitors feel as if they are getting to know you and allows them to achieve a level of comfort with who you are.
3. Mission statement
More and more, customers are looking beyond price when making a purchase decision. They want to do business with companies they can identify with. By including things like a mission statement, company philosophies, beliefs, and a vision for the future, you can demonstrate that your values align with those of the visitor. This can tip the scale in your favor as they decide which company to give their business to.
4. Content Timeliness
Keeping content on the About Us page current and up-to-date is an important usability factor. Be sure that outdated or irrelevant information is removed immediately to avoid the appearance of a “stale” website. Avoid time references and
Avoid time references and instead, use specific dates. For example, if we said on our About Us page that we’ve been in business 19 years, we’d have to change that every year or the page would be out of date. By instead saying that Pole Position Marketing was established in 1998, we have a page that is always current.
5. Additional links
A big part of usability is ensuring that visitors can easily continue their journey through your website (and hopefully to conversion). Your About Us page should, therefore, include links to other relevant portions of the site, such as contact page, investor relations, company news, registration information, job opportunities, etc.
Getting all the right pieces of your About Us page in place can improve its effectiveness dramatically. Not only will you provide your visitors a positive impression of your company and team, but you will have provided them subtle reassurances that may just help them choose you over a competitor.