Forum Moderators: not2easy
Personally, I find myself clicking on the About Us page quite often when visiting new sites. Sometimes I'm trying to learn more about the people behind the site; on some confusing sites, I'm trying to figure out what the site and/or company actually does.
I think this page is often under-utilized as a tool to promote the site's objectives - orders, inquiries, etc. All too often the About Us page is an afterthought that is filled in with some canned copy lifted from an old brochure.
As site designers, how do you use this high value real estate? You've got a few paragraphs to tell your (or your client's) story - what do you focus on? How do you hook the reader's interest to get him to scroll down? Do you talk about history? The owners or founders? Satisfied customers? And if you monitor your page traffic, do your visitors frequently check out the "About Us" page?
The main problem I see with web sites in general is the "it's all about me" syndrome, where the web copy goes on and on and on about company history, great people, blah blah blah, before they've even made any attempt to connect with the prospect and his needs. If the home page and every other page on the site is 100% customer focused, the "about" page will serve its proper function -- to give enough information about the business so that the prospect has confidence in them. But if "about us"-type copy is on the home page, they'll lose too many prospects.
Every "about" page is going to be different, because every company is different. For one of my clients, a company that sells an environmentally friendly product/service, I made darn sure that the biographies of the company founders clearly demonstrated their commitment to the environment as well as their relevant business expertise. Why? Because most of their clients were Generation X-ers with a "green" value system and who value others who "walk their talk." This "about" page also provided a conversational but vital statement about their company philosophy, again tying it into the green value system.
For a consulting firm client where credibility is everything to their customers, key staff member biographies were a must, and those bios had to demonstrate their expertise. For yet another client of mine, selling an old-fashioned homey product, a folksy yarn about the business history worked well without mentioning people by name.
The "about" page is also a great place for companies to announce their awards, certifications, and milestones (such as 30 years in business). Putting that information elsewhere puts the cart before the horse and goes back to the "it's all about me" syndrome. Once you've connected on the home page and other site pages with the prospect, then and only then does your background become relevant to them. And if you do it right, you'll win them over even more.
Hope that helps. :)
Eileen
Since the site is about widgets, this is where I briefly talk about our widgets and our very different preferences in widgets. On the rest of the site I really try to not show a preference for one kind of widget over another, but on this page I felt ok doing that.
Hopefully this humanizes the place a bit for the people who find their way to the page.
As far as traffic goes, I don't recall ever checking it for this page, but I also don't ever recall it showing up in the top 100 pages either.
[added] This is a hobby oriented non-ecom, info/resource, nostalgia site[/added]
Most clients have no clue what to do or say in this area, so we put on our Customer hat and start asking questions about everything that would prevent us from becoming customers -- we play devil's advocate basically. What's your return policy? Privacy policy? What's your background or experience? What do past customers say about you? Things like that -- stuff that, as Eileen said, will give the visitor the confidence to become a customer. That's what it's about.
When we have a client whose products or services are going to be a hard sell -- due to being new, innovative, or whatever -- then the About Us page becomes as important a selling tool as any other page on the site. We give it a prime spot on the nav menu, often making it the very first link on the list. And in those, cases, yes, it's a highly-trafficked page.
I do find that there are too many sites for smaller companies where you can't even find one person's name, let alone a photo -- the internet isn't warm & cuddly by nature & it's even more distanced if you can't "see" something or have a name...
Depending on the company, if there are personal profiles I usually try to convince the client to put in something that makes them sound human -- a one-liner eg "loves Russian tearooms" "has a collection of Spiderman comics" -- and often people will write in just to say hey I love that too...
That makes sense - compared to in-person or phone sales, the web is mostly devoid of human contact. Just knowing there are humans involved in the business adds credibility. And, as Lucertola suggests, including some personal details humanizes their profiles even more - it might be more valuable even than something relevant but sterile, like "10 years widget experience".
These are high ticket widgets ($7-20k +). Prospects want to have an idea of what/who they are dealing with prior to engaging in negotiations.
WBF
If you want to look bigger than you are -- if you don't want customers to realize it's just you and your spouse, for example -- then you probably don't post your portrait and talk about your personal interests and such. (That's not to suggest you mislead customers. Fact is there are many successful small businesses that are just 1- or 2-person shops, and the customer doesn't need to know that. I'm sure a forum for web developers can appreciate that.) But, as lucertola suggested, the personal touch can be a real benefit in situations where the smaller business is okay with being known as a smaller business.
This whole size and image thing is one of the issues you have to discuss up front with your client so that you can make the About Us material as effective as possible.
Potential customers don't need to know how you pull it off -- they just need to know you're capable. And in that case, as was mentioned, it's better to emphasize "10 years widget consulting in a multinational" than "working at home from her desk in Vermont where she watches the leaves turn while filling your order"...
