Your About Page should fill trust gaps your site visitors encounter on their way to becoming customers.
The next few paragraphs are a general intro shared by all of my About Page Reviews. If you’ve read it before, feel free to skip to the good stuff.
Each page of your website, your social media posts, lead magnets… and all other media your prospects encounter should be working to build trust, but the About Page is often the place site visitors go to decide if you’re someone they want to work with or buy from.
Let’s look at it from a site visitor’s perspective.
A new visitor lands on your homepage and in a matter of seconds your visitor is answering basic questions for themselves as they look at your site and read your copy.
1. What’s in it for me? (Or, is this service/product for me?)
2. Do I trust this service or product to fix my problem?
3. Do I trust this person to deliver the service or product?
If your site visitors can’t easily answer the first question, it doesn’t matter how great the rest of your page is or how well your copy and page elements answer the trust questions.
Before I spend a second optimizing an About Page for conversions, I review trust markers on the web pages site visitors likely visit prior to landing on the About Page.
A trust marker review tells me where the trust gaps are so I know how to boost trust on the About Page.
Let’s take a look at today’s About Us page from Airtable.
Initial impression of the Airtable site:
There are trust markers everywhere
Let’s jump right in and take stock of the trust markers found along the site visitor’s journey. As Airtable is a SaaS product, we’ll look at the homepage, pricing page, and the about us page.
If you’ve been aware of Airtable for any length of time, you might remember the earlier versions of their website were more colorful and targeted a general audience interested in its spreadsheet and database features.
The site design and copy have changed to match their focus on enterprise companies.
Homepage trust markers
+Differentiation: Airtable has differentiated itself from other spreadsheet software by planting its flag firmly in the app-building space. Strong differentiation builds trust.
+Clear identification of market: Airtable identifies its market as enterprise businesses.
+Association with recognizable brand logos: If you’re trying to attract enterprise customers, one way to build trust is to show that you work with other well-known enterprise customers.
+Clean web design with lots of white space: The clean design and corporate look should appeal to Airtable’s target market.
+Comprehensive list of integrations: Knowing that a solution integrates with other tools you use can ease the fear of switching and this helps prospective buyers trust the solution will work for them.
Pricing page trust markers
+Pricing clearly displayed: There are obvious reasons to not show enterprise pricing since the cost will vary based on the number of users, but all other pricing is clearly visible. This ensures the sales and support teams will be focused on helping Airtable’s bread and butter clients.
+Features clearly listed per account type: When a buyer is trying to compare your product tiers, you build trust when you make it easy for them to see what they get with each tier
+Well-organized page: When it comes to a pricing page, people want to be able to quickly see which pricing tier offers the features they need and a well-organized page will help them feel confident they are choosing the right product to suit their needs.
+FAQ answers clarifying questions: Pricing and billing questions are important to clarify and doing so in the FAQ allows you to keep your features page clear and easy to read. Putting this information at your potential buyer’s fingertips so they don’t have to reach out to sales or support makes them feel in control and builds trust.
Airtable is already doing a lot right on their website to appeal to and grow trust with their ideal customer.
They’ve set the bar high for their About Page. Let’s see how it stacks up with the rest of the site.
Here's where Airtable's About Page shines
Airtable scores big on their About Page by including several powerful trust elements on the page. However, the page lacks the compelling brand narrative needed to artfully tie these trust elements together and give them greater meaning and impact.
This is the opposite problem identified in the Gymshark About Page Review where the page highlighted brand voice and mission without including many trust markers or differentiators.
+Clearly identify what they do and who they do it for right up top: One of the best questions to answer for your site visitors when they land on a page is, “Is this for me?” Airtable does that well, right at the top of the page.
+More trusted logos: Airtable adds to the list of trust-building logos that will appeal to their ideal market – enterprise companies
+ Leadership team bios – Airtable doesn’t have to talk about diversity because they demonstrate diversity in the leadership team images. The bios are short and highlight trust-building details about each team leader.
+Awards: Listing awards and achievements – especially if they are well known, can build credibility and trust in a company, product, or service. Airtable does a good job listing awards from big name companies, but there is no way to know whether they are current.
Here's what will make Airtable's About Page better
As good as Airtable’s About Page is, there are quite a few improvements that can be made to the page to bring it up to the standards of the rest of the site.
Page design: The overall page design is weak on Airtable’s About Page. There is no true hero section and the different page elements have nothing tying them together.
The page sections are full page width and make it difficult for readers to follow the content of the section. Creating a center column that is 650 to 750 pixels wide can make it easier for readers to consume the information.
The bottom of the page has a call to action, but it is buried beneath a distinctive section featuring blog posts.If you want new subscribers it is better to place the call to action directly under the award section, so that is the first action people will take. If you want people to navigate away from your page before subscribing, then lead with the blog post section.
Customer stories: The three pieces of feedback showing aren’t very strong and aren’t related to using Airtable for building apps. This proof would not satisfy enterprise customers.
Add a brand story and narrative: The page is choppy with trust-building elements spread throughout the page. Airtable isn’t a new company and it has niched over time. Tying all of the trust elements together with a compelling brand story will make the page stronger and will make it more likely readers will stay on the page long enough to get to the close and call to action.
This About Page has a lot of the important trust-building elements on it, but it lacks the type of cohesion that’s provided by a strong brand narrative. Appealing to corporate, enterprise customers doesn’t mean you have to remove all personality from your copy and website.
A quick way to improve the narrative on your About Page
Adding story elements or narrative to your web pages can feel intimidating.
If you don’t think storytelling is your strong suit, don’t worry. You aren’t trying for a Pulitzer. Let’s make this as easy as possible.
Choose one of these ideas to help create your narrative:
How you got the idea for your business or your signature offer
Why you chose your specialization or niche
What have been defining moments in your business that led you into this work and how does that align with your ideal buyer’s needs?
These should give you a start. Now, weave the proof bars, testimonials, reviews, ratings and other elements on the page into your narrative.
Get your About Page primed for conversions with a
Rapid Results About Page Audit
- Full trust marker review across key pages of your website
- Complete conversion optimization report
- Actionable review results delivered within 3 days of your scheduled review
