Your About Page should fill trust gaps your site visitors encounter on their way to becoming customers.
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 it answers 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 navigate to prior to visiting 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.
Since it helps to use a live site as an example, I randomly chose the search term “athletic wear.” Then, I chose Gymshark because I’d never heard of the company. I thought it’d be more interesting to work with a brand I know nothing about.
Initial impression of the GymShark site: No red flags
GymShark has a simple top navigation – women, men, accessories.
As a shopper, the minimalist navigation is appealing and makes it a little less overwhelming as each word expands to reveal a mega menu.
I typically buy athletic wear from Fabletics and the shopping experience on GymShark is similar to that on Fabletics. I could find styles and specific clothing items fairly easily.
Having a similar shopping experience to an older, more established brand isn’t a bad thing. It helps instill trust when shoppers feel a sense of familiarity.
Here are the main trust markers and trust busters:
The simple navigation in the main nav menu carries across the site. The sections of the homepage reflect different collections offered by the brand.
The website is attractive with plenty of white space and high quality imagery.
Shoppers benefit from a clean, well-designed site
The product and product collection pages are designed very much the same way as they are on other eCommerce sites. The familiarity of design helps remove friction and it builds trust.
There is a lack of significant differentiators for the US market.
I see a lot of the same styles I find at Fabletics and I already trust Fabletics, so without an important differentiator that compels me to buy from Gymshark, I’m going to Fabletics.
While there aren’t any major red flags, without a differentiator or a compelling reason to buy from GymShark, I would probably stick with my regular vendor.
The About Page is often where a brand will differentiate itself. Lacking other differentiators on the site, let’s see how the About Page fills the gaps.
Here's where GymShark's About Page shines
The strongest feature of the About Page is the distinctive voice of the brand. We also get a section clearly stating brand values and philosophy.
What we don’t get are more trust markers or anything that distinguishes the brand from others, except for the voice.
Here's what will make the GymShark About Page better
Team bios
The existing page includes a list of the leadership team, but there are no bios, data, or images to go with the list. The list feels like an afterthought – the sort of thing you’d do the night before launch with the intent of fixing it later.
I recommend they complete this section for the leadership team complete with pictures and short relevant bios. There’s plenty of research that shows showing human faces helps increase trust and conversion rates.
Relevant awards and designations
The founder was recently awarded an MBE or Member of the British Empire and he’s also been awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the year. That followed on the heels of GymShark becoming one of Great Britain’s newest $1B unicorn’s.
GymShark is a British company and according to fairly recent articles they intend to do more business expansion in the US market. The above designations are impressive enough to include on their site regardless of the market.
Include ratings and reviews
A section on the About Page that touts customer ratings and testimonials or reviews is always a good idea for a growing business.
They should include testimonials or reviews that speak to differentiators if possible.
Fabric sourcing and manufacturing
If there is a differentiator to be found in their fabric sourcing and manufacturing process or location, GymShark should use that information on their About Page and across their site.
Differentiator
GymShark should display a brief statement with a link to the most recent Modern Slavery Statement.
The modern slavery compliance statement may be required in certain locations, but not every brand adds this statement to their site in such a public way.
The statement not only differentiates Gymshark from the dropshippers that are potentially supplied by sweatshops, it differentiates Gymshark from Fabletics and other top athletic wear suppliers that do not make this bold statement.
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
