How to Write a Company Profile
Posted: Sunday, April 16, 2006
by Allison Bliss
Allison Bliss Consulting
How To Write a Company Profile: 3 Keys to Succeed
A great company profile can engage a
For media attention, a business needs an intriguing profile to entice editors or reporters to gain an understanding of the company's mission, products, services, personnel and uniqueness.
To acquire financing, a comprehensive company profile should be submitted with a business plan to feature unique qualifications of the company or personnel, that aren't generally outlined in a business plan.
Without a well-crafted company profile, a company may not be attracting the best candidates when posting job descriptions,or even suppliers and vendors to help them grow.
These 3 steps will help any company craft a commendable company profile that is true to your vision, perception and even beliefs.
1. Provide useful information in lay person's terminology.
A profile should include key personnel, descriptions of the company's products or services in a manner that laypersons, as well as industry personnel, can comprehend. Why?
Because, a reporter might be looking for relevant businesses for a story they are preparing. Naturally, including your company could possibly bring great 'free exposure' to your intended market (if it's a positive story, of course). But if the reporter -- or anyone else who is googling the product/service you provide -- cannot figure out what you offer, your profile won't help sell your products, nor entice media to interview your company personnel.
This does not mean you cannot include high level industry information, just be sure to also include some easy-to-comprehend lay terminology in your description.
2. Infuse some personality. A great company profile should be filled not only with descriptions of products (or services), but also some sense or personality of the business' culture. Adding information about the company's purpose, community support or mission (not one of those trite mission statements, though) can add human personality to a profile, thus adding interest to the reader.
People relate to people. So, add something from a human perspective.
Your business could explain how profits benefit local animal shelters or homeless populations or you might even employ a humorous style in the description if it's appropriate to the company's products.
My own profile talks about my belief that 'marketing is a spiritual practice' because in my experience a company thrives the closer it matches it's values and purpose that is at the 'soul' of that company. No, it's got nothing to do with religion. But it has everything to do with marketing not being hype, but being a deeply felt expression of a company's core competency, attracting clients who are right for one's company--that's the reason to infuse personality.
I've always enjoyed the clever and silly product descriptions of Benefit Cosmetics--and I don't even wear makeup. The company's co-founders are twins who feel they 'benefit' by learning from each other. They share this love by, yes, 'benefitting' the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. Hype or personality? You be the judge. Either way, it grabs a readers attention.
3. Claim your unique assets.
By explaining a founder's uniquely circuitous route to the company's development, or stating the special awards and honors a company has garnered, the donations or volunteering it's employees provide the community, it gives the reader some grasp of how the company is unique, special or different from others in it's same category.
Elaborating a bit on the education, training, credentials or experience of personnel excites customers and helps them identify the company that fits their own beliefs and criteria.
Being generic and obtuse in your company description makes it really hard for any readers to understand why they would want to do business with a company or buy products/services that sound like any others.
Above all else, be honest and interesting, since plenty of bland, boring and hype-filled profiles already abound.
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Top-level comments on this article: (10 total)honestly yes.
Thanks l got what i was looking for.
I like the advice I go about adding some personality to the documents. Thanks a lot
quetionnaire that is useful when writing a business profile
so clear that im to adopt it.thanks alot
I,m really new to business..as in brand new. Finding out the hard way what other company's require so that I can do business with them (ie. Business Profile , letter of Intent).What I think I know is that the business community expects certain letters of information to be formatted in a certain way.Your article does not come close to explaining that information....I give you a fail. I also give you a A+ on the information you did provide and the style you use to communicate with other people. Yes I googled..and found companies that sell formatted templates that are add-on features to MS Word, just fill in the blanks to have a complete "Company Profile".I am writing this to see if you would also consider a "link" that sends me to a down-loadable Company Profile template.....all I do is pay you to download your template and fill in the blanks.Copy's of the template (so we can see what we are buying) would be attractive to the end user, posted on your web site.
Thanks for your comments, Guy. Yes, as mentioned in my bio, there is a downloadable template on my website for under $25 on my website but gee, if I showed you what the questions were why would you purchase it?
It cost me many years & programming development cost to develop that template so I'm not showing it for free, but it does format a company profile the way people need to access that information. Examples of how people used it and what was created are also given. And if you'd asked nicely, instead of just criticizing, I might have even helped you for free :)Allison
Thanks for the fresh tips ...i am asking please help with how a graphic artist can add personality to their profile just 1/2 pointers
I like advice
i search for the format of company profile but not able to search if able please send me one profile of firm
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