Why do you need to have an About Us page on your website

A website is not only a sales channel but also a brand’s digital identity and one of the most important ones too! (One of the most important ones too!)It speaks volumes about what the brand is, what it stands for, and the relationship it wants to have with its visitors. Most Ecommerce websites that are huge today, have built their loyal clientele based on years of customer service, word of mouth, and the quality of their products. People already know the brand before they even visit their website!

That being said, what about the relatively newer or lesser-known ecommerce websites? Their stories, challenges, triumphs go unheard, right? Not necessarily!

Understanding your website users

To understand how newer or lesser-known Ecommerce websites can get the same success major Ecommerce websites have, let’s first take a look at the generalized types of visitors any website can expect:

• The ones who know exactly what they want and head over to the necessary pages to make the purchase aka The Informed Shoppers!
• These visitors are the best and the worst! The best because they know exactly what they want and do not dilly dally and worst because they have no intention of forming an emotional connection to the brand. Their relationship with the brand is purely transactional.

• The ones who are casually browsing through your website to see what you have in store aka The Window Shoppers!
• These visitors know they want something and for them, the choice to purchase is subconscious and impulsive. They see something, like it and they purchase it! It’s that simple! Whether they turn into regular customers or not depends on their level of satisfaction with the quality of the products they received.

• The ones who are mildly interested but want to know more about the brand before making a purchase aka The Reluctant Shoppers!
• This is an interesting type because these visitors are the ones interested in forming a long-term relationship with your brand. They want to know everything about you before they trust you with the fulfillment of their needs!

The Golden Goose

Now that we’ve looked at the type of clients a website can expect, let’s narrow down on the third category. This is a brand’s golden category! For these visitors, the price of the product or usability of the website goes hand in hand with their ability to trust you! The visitors want to know you and understand you on a personal level! They want to form an emotional connection! They want the story of your brand to resonate with them. They want to know the people behind the screens who put in the efforts to make the brand what it is!

Leveraging the Golden Goose

Why are they so important? Because once they form that emotional connection with you, they will be your LOYAL CUSTOMERS!

However, the first step towards ensuring that they are your loyal customers is to give them what they are looking for; a story. Your Brand Story i.e., an About Us page! On a subconscious level, when visitors read about YOU, they start separating you from a brand to an actual entity! One they can believe in and trust!

So, how do you make an About Us page that leverages the golden goose?

As tech solution providers, we’ve worked on multiple Shopify Plus websites! We’ve had clients come to us with queries on whether they should even have an About Us page on their website! We don’t just stress on having it, we insist on having a pretty damn good one! For us, it’s not about the design or the time it takes to get it done, it’s about the benefit the client will have in the future if they agree to go ahead with it! Over the years, we figured out a pattern of sorts when it comes to all things tech! We know the psychology of websites users, so believe us when we tell you this; for an About Us page there are some things a brand absolutely must do and absolutely mustn’t do! This is critical to establishing a strong connection with your visitors!

The MUST DOs:

• Talk about who you are as a brand
• Talk about what your brand believes in
• Talk about your history; how you started, why you started, where you come from
• Talk about the challenges you faced and how you overcame those. This is important as it humanizes your brand and makes you relatable.
• Talk about the people in your team that make it valuable
• Talk about why it is important for you as a brand to form a relationship with your visitors
• Talk about something that gives your visitors a reason to trust you

The MUSTN’T DOs:

• Don’t forget to talk about what your brand does or sells
• Don’t overwhelm your visitors by giving them too much information
• Don’t badmouth others when talking about your challenges
• Don’t paint a picture of the future you know you cannot fulfill
• Don’t try to build credibility by putting in statistics or numbers that are untrue
• Don’t say the same things on your About Us page that you’re saying on your home page
• Don’t forget the type of audience that you are trying to appeal to

Conclusion

A brand’s digital presence is all about building a relationship with its visitors by communicating your story, in this case, through the website! The more a brand connects and interacts with its visitors, the better the chances of them turning into loyal customers. Interaction does not have to be a two-way street on a website! Simply communicating about the pillars the brand is built on is also enough!

When we spoke of the types of visitors a website attracts, it's paramount to remember that the categories are not set in stone. Your brand may have had visitors who are impulsive buyers but one day, those impulsive buyers may suddenly turn into curious customers wanting to know your story. This may happen today, tomorrow, or after 6 months. That is why having an About Us page is so important! There’s no timeline on when your visitors can turn into loyal customers but you can set the ball rolling from day 1 so that when it does happen, you already have everything in place for you!

An About Us page may seem redundant in the beginning, but ask yourselves this:

Are you willing to lose loyalty just because you felt something was redundant?