| |
| |
|
Marketing Resource Center |
|
|
|
How to Develop an Effective Company Profile -- and Why
What is a company profile?
A company profile is essentially a resume for your company that you use to establish your credibility with the market you serve. Your company profile helps potential customers to understand your business as well as to understand your company's approach, unique strengths, and relevant experience. Your company profile demonstrates your company's ability to effectively meet customer needs. Your company profile also helps others who are in contact with you such as lenders, the media, and job candidates to better understand your business.
Who would benefit from having a company profile?
A company profile would benefit any company wanting to establish its credibility including:
* A consulting firm where it's critical for the company to establish the basis for its expertise * A service provider with a service that can't be evaluated before the sale where the prospect assesses the company's ability to provide the service based on its assessment of the company itself * A company that lacks a recognized name in the market it serves
How can a company profile be used?
There are many ways to use a company profile such as:
* Including it on your web site as a means of establishing your company's credibility * Using a print version as a sales tool at trade shows or in mailings to prospects * Providing it to lenders to help you secure financing * Adding it to your media kit and including it with press releases to give the media background information about your company * Using it as a recruiting tool to promote your company to job candidates
What should be included in your company profile?
As a guideline, shoot for a company profile of approximately 250-400 words in length covering each of the following key areas:
Summarize your company's background information
Use the first paragraph of your company profile to summarize your company's background information. Include in this first paragraph the year the business was founded, where the business is located, a top-level description of the products or services your company provides, a top-level description of the clients and industries you serve, and the geography you serve. Also include details about your company's philosophy and approach to serving customers. Finally, be sure to mention achievements that quickly help to establish your company's credibility such as awards, the number of clients you have served, or the size of your business.
Provide more detail on your company's products or services
Use the second paragraph of your company profile to list the products or services your company provides. Use this paragraph to touch on the expertise and experience your company has that enables your to meet customer needs in these areas. You can also use this second paragraph to further define your target customer for the products or services you provide.
Highlight your company's strengths and successes
Use the third paragraph of your company profile to highlight your company's unique strengths as well key successes your company has had. To develop this paragraph, take the time to list the top 3 competitive advantages you feel your company has over businesses in your market space. Weave these competitive advantages into this paragraph of your profile. Next, list the top 3 successes your company has had and incorporate these successes into your company profile.
Include qualifications of your company and your staff
Use the next paragraph of your company profile to demonstrate your company's qualifications by emphasizing areas such as patents, publications, business partnerships and alliances, tools or technologies used to meet customer needs, accreditations, certifications or the educational background of staff members.
Summarize your selling statement
Use the final paragraph of your company profile to provide a 1 or 2 sentence closing selling statement that explains why a client should work with your company.
Close with company contact information
After the final paragraph of your company profile, provide your company's contact information including the mailing address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, and web site URL.
Whether you use internal resources to create your company profile or work with an outside resource, your business will benefit from having a company profile to establish your company's credibility with prospects, lenders, the media, and job candidates. Ann Hackett is the founder and President of Quest (http://www.questcareer.com). Quest helps businesses develop effective company profiles. Quest also can help with development of professional bios for business owners, consultants, and key executives. To receive a copy of a Company Profile Checklist to help you develop your company profile, send an e-mail to profile@questcareer.com. Ann can be reached at ahackett@questcareer.com or 952-929-4197.
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Getting Into Marketing Momentum ... The Accelerated Way GETTING INTO MARKETING MOMENTUM: The 5 Power Principles for Getting Your Business into High GearDo you know the #1 reason why most businesses fail and why you could become a fatal statistic as well?The answer is .. Your Secret Marketing Weapon As a professional service provider, you're paid for what you know. People come to your firm for the expertise you offer, first and foremost. Attracting New Business on a Shoestring Budget In a recent marketing workshop I attended, I discovered that most business owners rely on just two or three strategies to attract new business. Even well-established companies tend to rely on one or two strategies. Avoid These 5 Web Site Blunders! The Web is intended to help people find information quickly and easily. So why do so many sites make it difficult for users to get what they need? While neat design can add impact to your message, make sure the message itself doesn't get lost in the mix. Postcards: Awareness Tool or Selling Tool? Are postcards better for building awareness or for selling?In my opinion, the answer to the above question is, "They can do both jobs. It depends on what type of business you're in. Time for Marketers to Clean Up Their Act! Some years ago, a prominent Australian hi-tech company launched a product called Maestro that bundles community-building features like chat rooms, file sharing and instant messaging into one application. The company envisaged smaller Internet service providers (ISP's) as their main target market for the software. How to Put the Profit Producing Power of Couponing to Work for You Coupons have proven themselves to be highly effective sales tools for every conceivable size and type of business.Because coupons "pull in the business" they have gained remarkable acceptance and popularity among astute marketing managers. Know Thy Competition BREAK FROM HO-HUM MARKETING ? IT'S TOO BORING!Once you break from ho-hum marketing, and learn to put your deeper beliefs and values into your promotion, a remarkable thing will happen: You will beat your competitors at every turn, attract precisely those clients who really need and appreciate the products or services your company provides, and have a really good time in your business. In other words ? once you know what your clients really value, and how you are different from your competitors then it's an incredibly simple process to promote your company's products or services. Promotions for Mobile Detailers Mobile businesses are quite unique in the way they must promote to stay in the customers mind; it takes creativity, savvy planning and a lot of listening to your customers. After years running a franchise system in 23 states with mobile detailing units everywhere. First to Market Theory AGE OLD QUESTIONBusiness scholars throughout the planet keep asking the same question and have come to the conclusion that being first into the market place is preferable. Preferable to what? They say every product has a life cycle? What about milk? If that is true and many academia will classify products and services in order to make a point and simply lump them all together. Principles of Marketing 101 Marketing results should be measured in only one way - increased sales. Marketing should not be considered an art form. Create a Blueprint for Your Success Having a strong foundation enables you to build a thriving,profitable life and business. A simple method to create thisfoundation is with Discovery, Vision, Planning and Benchmarking, the four cornerstones of your life as wellas your business. Tracking Your Way to the Top! I often wonder how people without a plan know where they're going. Or, how they know when they've arrived at their destination. The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy Available To Small Businesses Most small business owners want to generate huge profits, with little effort and in the least amount of time. If you fall into this category then joint venture marketing is the fastest, easiest and most profitable way to do that. Radio Ads That Get Results Radio advertising can be a small business's best friend. It's relatively inexpensive, very effective, and allows you to target your audience pretty specifically. Business to Business Direct Mail Offers that Say Free In direct mail, the offer is the incentive or reward that you dangle in front of your prospects to motivate them to respond to your mailing, either with an order or with a request for more information.Offers follow a "you do this and we'll do that" format. Features and Benefits Brainstorming This is it what I use BEFORE I begin to write any marketing copy or launch any new product or service. You can complete this with the by-hand method listed here or use the form that I've created (available in the FORMS section of our web site, http://www. Sowing and Growing Your Network The N-word! We all know the value of networking and we feel we should be doing more of it. Unfortunately, for too many of us the very thought of attending an event where we have to mix and mingle with total strangers is enough to drive us into hiding until it's all over! What a pity we often force ourselves to go to a potentially great conference, but we're so busy worrying about the networking part that we forget to enjoy the event!But networking is like so many other activities in life-it's easy when you know how. Selling To Your Affiliates While success with any internet marketing program falls on the head of the marketer, what the program offers in pay outs and products plays a big roll. What I am going to focus on is the product side of the business. Every Days a Holiday! You probably know that February 2nd is Groundhog Day. But did you know that it is also Kiwi Fruit Day, Laugh and Grow Rich Day, and Bonza Bottler Day(tm)? Each of these holidays was created by someone who wanted to commemorate or promote something.
|
| home | site map | Advertising Articles |
| © 2006 |
