Many businesses operate just to make a profit. They don’t care about how they get there, as long as they’re able to sell products or services. Unfortunately, this kind of business practice rarely works out long term. In order to create a sustainable and profitable business, you need to consider the company’s values and how they relate to the target audience.

Creating a philosophy for your company allows you to create a statement that lets customers or potential customers better understand who you are, what you can do and how you hope to help the individuals who work with you. A philosophy also keeps employees working toward the same common goal, which can help your team function as one.

However, simply creating a business philosophy isn’t enough. In order to truly connect with your target audience, you want to feature it on your website. Here’s how to do it.

1. Keep It Simple

Your company’s philosophy doesn’t need to be overly detailed or complicated. In fact, a simple philosophy may actually make you more relatable to your audience — and make it easier to infuse your philosophy throughout your website.

Life Is Good has a simple philosophy — “Spreading the Power of Optimism.” Its philosophy page focuses on seeing the positive side of life and helping others when they can. Throughout the rest of the page, you get glimpses of this philosophy, including in the frequent notices of donations to charities and their foundation.

2. Inform Your Audience

Your philosophy should be used to help your target audience better understand what you do and how you do it. By creating a philosophy page that is helpful and informative, you can stay transparent with your target audience. Once they understand how you bring your business to life, they will trust you more and will be more likely to purchase from you.

Yalla Mediterranean uses its philosophy page to give the visitor a glimpse into the day-to-day life at the company. From sharing bits about what it does to help create great food, audience members can better understand the goals of the business. We see that the preparation of food is important to them — something visitors can notice throughout the other pages of the website, as well.

3. Tell Your Story

Telling the story behind how your business was created can help you become more human. When a potential customer only sees you as a business or a website, they can have a hard time connecting with who you are and what you offer. Without some human element, they may struggle to feel a need to purchase from you. You can use storytelling to help create this bond.

Sweetgreen’s philosophy page takes visitors through its story before jumping into its core values and mission statement. This allows users to get a better feel for who the owners are, why they started the business and what goals they have. They are able to get a big-picture feel for the business early on.

4. Show Your Personality

Many companies have a serious tone when talking about their business philosophies. Because their philosophy typically involves changing the world in one way or another, businesses may feel uncomfortable trying to let their personality shine through. Instead, they focus on the serious nature of their philosophy, throwing off the feel of the entire website.

Warby Parker does a great job of infusing their witty and playful personality throughout its philosophy page — and the entire site. It’s clear, honest and open about why it started the company, what it hopes to achieve and what problems it wants to solve. This honesty is reflected throughout the rest of the site.

5. Focus on Your Customers

Your philosophy page should be about what you hope to achieve, but it also needs to focus on the benefit you can bring your customers and clients. While it’s great if you want to help a charity or create a new way of doing things, the people who visit your website need to understand why they should also care about those ideas.

IKEA does one of the best jobs at focusing its philosophy page on its clients. With a mission statement about making life better for as many people as possible, it’s clear the main goal is to help customers. This creates the perception that the company and the customer are in it together, which can improve trust with target audience members.

While your philosophy page is just one part of your website, it can often be one of the most important. When potential customers are shopping for new products or services, they will look for companies that share their values, support causes they believe in or seem genuine in the way they do business. If they’re unable to find this information about you, they may turn to a competitor.

Your philosophy page should mesh well with the rest of your website. If it doesn’t fit with the other pages, content or language used throughout your site, your philosophy can easily come across as insincere or fake — which may be off-putting for your audience.

When creating a philosophy page for your site, consider these five tips and case studies. Stay true to your business, the target audience you’re trying to attract and the goals you hope to accomplish with your business. When you’re authentic, your philosophy page and website will succeed.

Author

Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.