A recent Harris poll suggests that consumers don’t trust a lot of big businesses and less than 20% of people trust companies in the banking, pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.

Now if you’re in any of these industries then perhaps it makes sense to ‘educate’ your clients and prospects about how you are different – why you’re not like everyone else out there.

That’s why your About Us page is so important. It’s your opportunity to inform, to educate, to enlighten your web visitors about what makes you different.

If you’re a small business then the cards may be stacked in your favour. An article published on Yahoo Finance explains that large corporations and their actions may have brought about some negative attitudes. As a result many consumers love to hate big businesses…

 

Think abut this.

Established companies are in the business of keeping their shareholders happy. While you, the small/medium business owner, are driven by the desire to serve your customers, big companies are focused on squeezing more profits more efficiently. Naturally making a profit is also important to you. You need to make a profit to stay in business. But you’re probably more concerned about keeping your customers happy than generating maximum profit for shareholders.

Big businesses are the Goliath to the small business David. The Goliaths are known for squeezing Davids out of the market. Many of those giants will stop at nothing to run a monopoly in this country. They will even go as far as influencing politicians to increase the barriers to entry in the industry to rob you of your market share or to push you out of business!

Of course, that is not about them ‘caring’ about the consumer, they only want a bigger piece of the pie for themselves. Chances are that you get out of bed each morning with a totally different focus. Make sure you explain ‘that on your About Us page – talk about your values, passions and business purpose.

Use your ‘smallness’ to your advantage. You need to educate your marketplace about what makes you different. There is no better place to do that than on your About Us page. Leverage the fact that you are a local, customer-focused and community-oriented business and use the points above to rewrite your About Us page; chances are that it needs a little tweaking!