In 2018, you’d be hard-pressed to find a serious business that doesn’t have some kind of online profile, whether it’s through LinkedIn, Yelp or a business listing site. Why? Because a concise and engaging company profile can turn a prospective buyer into a customer. Of course, not all company profiles are created equal.
It can be tempting to use jargon to sound professional or focus solely on a flashy layout, but falling into these traps can prevent you from establishing a real rapport with potential customers. That’s where we come in: We’ve put together a list of examples of effective company profiles and tips that will help you improve yours.
- Do Your Research
Before you dive into the process of creating or updating your company profile, it’s important to do some reconnaissance work. Your current and prospective clients are a great resource to mine. Ask them what questions they have about your company and what reservations, if any, they have about your products and services. Once you’ve completed your draft, workshop it with your stakeholders to determine whether the document would influence their purchasing behavior.
- Bolster Your Branding
Just like your company’s social media profiles, your business profile should encapsulate your brand’s image. You want clients to know exactly what you’re about at a glance. You can do this by making your mission statement and values clear and readily accessible on your company profile.
You can see a great example on this Crunchbase profile. Here, the business manages to summarize its role, reach and locale in the first paragraph. This gives enough information to tell customers they’re in the right place. Then, subsequent paragraphs form a more comprehensive narrative about the business that serve to reinforce its credibility and the unique services it offers.
- Optimize Your Page
Regardless of which sites you’re using for your company profile listings, it’s vital to optimize it with SEO-friendly keywords and content. (LinkedIn, in particular, is a valuable tool for driving traffic and increasing engagement.) Make sure you’re fully completing your profile and using the most commonly searched keyword associated with your company in your job title.
You can also extend your reach by connecting up your other social media platforms, your company website and other business listings. Amazon’s LinkedIn profile is a perfect example, and makes great use of the “Showcase Pages” and “Affiliated Companies” features to showcase its extensive connections.
- Create a Narrative
Company profiles don’t have to be a dry and dull affair. By transforming a generic “About Us” page into an exciting narrative, you’ll inspire stakeholders to keep reading and become invested in your company story.
You can see a good example of this technique on the Coca-Cola LinkedIn profile. Not only does the profile succinctly tell people what the company is all about, but it also includes a list of charitable organizations its supports, painting a picture of the brand’s values. Additionally, they often link fascinating content from their digital magazine, which has published over 2,000 stories since its launch.
- Champion Your Causes
One way to set yourself apart from your competition is to highlight your company’s charitable ventures. You can do that in a number of ways, from including photos on your business pages of your employees participating in a blood drive to listing charity organizations you’re affiliated with.
Tito’s Handmade Vodka has found a way to do this that highlights its altruistic side while providing potential customers with clever, cute and highly shareable content that will encourage engagement. How? Through a secondary Instagram page entitled Vodka for Dog People. This creative page highlights the company’s collaboration with a nonprofit pet-adoption agencies by posting hilarious pictures of adopted pets wearing branded bandanas.
- Use Visuals
Almost all of our top tips to improve your company profile center around grabbing (and keeping) the attention of your stakeholders. One easy way to do this is to use captivating images on your business page. Images are an intelligent way to get information across without bogging potential clients down in a sea of text, especially as research has found that visual aids can improve a person’s ability to learn by up to 400%.
Additionally, we tend to process visual information a whopping 60,000 times faster than text. A great example of creating a powerful narrative can be seen in this Starbucks company page, which combines relevant text with inspiring imagery that showcase its values.
- Join the Conversation
A lot of business listing sites give you access to groups or forums where you can connect with other like-minded individuals. This can be particularly valuable if you’re operating a B2B company. The key is to identify groups in which prospective clients, influencers or investors are active. Then, establish yourself as a thought leader by posting relevant content from your industry and answering other member’s questions.
This will help increase your credibility and make prospective collaborators more likely to notice you through the digital clutter. Joining groups that contain members of your customer base is also a clever way to conduct inexpensive market research. Don’t overdo it, but make the most of polls to establish growing trends in your industry and find gaps in the market.
- Keep Things Up to Date
One of the most important ways to leverage your company’s page is to keep things up to date. This means frequently checking that important details, like employee statistics, locations and contact numbers are current. It also involves updating your content to reflect upcoming company events and promotions.
By updating your page frequently, you’ll add an air of professionalism to your brand and let users know that you’re a highly responsive company. Google, for example, makes posts on their LinkedIn Page almost daily.
Knowing how to construct a quality company profile can make a huge difference to your business. By following these eight simple tips, you can transform your business page from a generic entry to an engaging read that’ll inspire stakeholder interaction.
