Have You Optimized Your Website’s 'About Us' Page?

I was recently in a Quick Win Intensive, working with the MECLABS Institute team to optimize the conversion rate of a professional services firm’s website. According to the analytics, the About Us page was getting a significant number of visits.

However, when we took a look at the page, it clearly wasn’t built with conversion—or even customers—in mind. The webpage seemed to focus more on pleasing the company’s employees.

There was a bio for the founder, but other than that, there were just pictures of employees and the departments they were in. No titles. No bios.

But more importantly, no real understanding of who they are, how they can help a customer or why the customer should trust them.

The only clear qualification they had to be trusted by a potential client was a face. (After all, what client would trust a person without a face to handle their account?)

Understanding the Role of Your Company’s About Page in Conversion

This company is certainly not alone in overlooking their About page. For a lot of websites, About Us pages are an afterthought. Or at the very least, not considered by marketers in the customer journey.

But for certain companies—like companies that have a complex sale, offer services or otherwise require high levels of trust—the About Us page can be a key part of the customer’s decision-making process. Here are some reasons why:

• If the customer is purchasing the services of an individual or group of people—attorneys, medical professionals, advertising agency, etc.—they may click to the About page to understand who they will be working with before filling out a lead form or calling a phone number
• If an influencer is considering recommending a company as a vendor, they will search for information to justify why they are making their recommendation
• If the customer is coming to the website from an ad and has never heard of your company or brand before, the customer may simply want some reassurance that it is a legitimate company before considering a purchase

And as the customer journey gets deeper with your company, the About Us page becomes even more important. Customer interest in company info is higher in the Negotiation and Purchase phases than in the earlier Awareness and Research phases of the buying cycle.

Let’s discuss some ways to optimize your company’s About page to increase the likelihood of conversion.

Humanize Your Company

There’s nothing wrong with having employee pictures on your About page. But they should have a purpose and communicate value to the customer, not just be a set of pictures.

If your company has a unique culture or viewpoint, the About page is an opportunity to humanize your company and let that passion shine.

For example, to compete with larger competitors, Evogear treated its About page like a social networking site to highlight its employees’ passions for outdoor sports. The online retailer of outdoor gear and fashion apparel included employee profiles with answers to questions and prompts like:

• Brands I am stoked on.
• What do you like to do besides work at Evogear.com?
• How did you get your start with Evogear?
• First time skiing or snowboarding?

As with any social networking site, each staffer's profile includes a button so visitors can contact that individual directly.

And they even promoted the About page on the website. An ad on the homepage included three staffers’ headshots along with the copy “Who is Evogear? Click here to find out more about us.” And the team added a link to the About page as a standard part of the footer on every product page: “Why Buy From Evogear? Take a peek into our world.”

You can read more about Evogear’s effort in the case study Personable ‘About Us’ Page Lifts E-commerce Conversions 30%.

Reduce Anxiety

According to the MECLABS Conversion Heuristic, a repeatable methodology marketers can use to identify the elements that affect likelihood of conversion, anxiety is one of the negative elements that will lower your conversion rate. Anxiety in a marketing context is defined as “a psychological concern stimulated by a given element in the sales or sign-up process.”

Your company’s About page can help reduce customer anxiety by building up your company’s credibility. The About page is a great place to include credibility indicators like:

• How long the company has been in business
• The size and scope of the company—revenue, number of employees, amount of sales, number of locations, number of stores your product is sold in, etc.
• Biographies of key company leaders, which could include their education, previous companies they worked at, professional accomplishments, awards, how they have helped similar customers, etc.
• Company awards or other recognition
• Brief mention of press coverage with a link to a more complete page
• Information about a parent company, industry memberships, or other key affiliations
• Prominent customers your company works with

Communicate Your Company’s Primary Value Proposition

There are four essential levels of value proposition your website should communicate to visitors. For example, while a potential customer may first get brought to your website from an email or ad that links directly to a product page where you should lead with a product-level value prop, the About Us page is an opportunity to clearly communicate your company’s primary value proposition.

According to MECLABS, a forceful company value proposition will provide a clear, credible, appealing and exclusive answer to the question “If I am your ideal customer, why should I buy from you instead of any of your competitors?” You can learn more about optimizing your company’s value proposition in Aligning the Brand with the Value Proposition Is the Most Powerful Way to Create Value Momentum.