Clients are regularly amazed when we tell them that after the homepage, the most frequently visited page of a business-focused website is the People Page. More popular than the About Us Page, more popular than the Products Page and more popular than the Contact Us Page.
This surprising statistic simply affirms what we’ve been telling Challenger Brands for years, there is no such thing as Business-to-Business. No business has ever done business with a business. People do business with people. Always have. Human-to-Human. And people want to know who those people are.
Do I know anyone at this company? Where did they go to school? What’s their business philosophy? What do they value? Do they like dogs? Effective communication requires one has an understanding of the individual with whom they are communicating. A universal truth that applies most directly to Challenger Brand Marketing.
When building a traditional business-focused website, most of the development time is spent on the home page, with reduced priority given to various interior pages. Commonly, the People page is relegated to the last priority, thrown onto the site with little thought like so many social media icons.
Of course, that’s if the business chooses to include a People page on the website at all – many do not. This can be a costly mistake. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your prospect.
Embrace the People page.
Take the time to consider what your prospect wants to know and build that into your “People” page. Call out your leadership team by name and with photos. Share a brief bio. Demonstrate expertise and relevance that translates into reassurance and confidence with your prospects. And, take advantage of this opportunity to humanize your team and your business.
Call out special interests amongst your personnel. Visitors should know if the CEO is a Giant’s fan, or the HR Director was an Eagle Scout, or that the CFO kiteboards, or the VP of Sales volunteers at the local Humane Society. These non-business activities makes your organization relatable and offers areas of commonality from which conversations and connections can initiate.
Now that we’ve agreed the “People” page is an integral component of a high-performing website, consider how to aesthetically display your team. Certainly, your company culture will dictate the tonality of the page.
Is yours a more formal organization that would be best suited with a corporate approach to photography? Staged portraits with everyone dressed alike in their business best? Or, perhaps your team’s environment is more casual where shots of staffers with their pets would be more consistent with your atmosphere.
Individual photos versus a team picture? Ties or jeans? Candid snapshots of employees around the office? Maybe characatures of your executives? To demonstrate our fun and irreverant nature, at Gumas, we use our baby pictures on our “People” page enhancing engagement and making our site more memorable.
Does your website offer an updated, culturally consistent People page? If you would like some advice about your current “People” page, or any other page on your website, please drop us a line at: editor@gumas.com.
Until next time…
