When we have a killer business description, we have a default go-to story whenever we need to explain what our company does. To help keep a consistent message across our company communications, we can start from this core story each time we write new content to describe our company. This can also save us time since we don’t need to start from scratch each time.
Below, we’ll go through a few common ways we can adapt our business descriptions to maintain a consistent message in different formats and lengths.
Create a Tagline
We can create a tagline by shortening our business core stories. Try taking a phrase or a sentence from the story that captures our main message and summarizes who we are and what we do. Potential places to use a company tagline include business cards, email signatures, and social media profiles.
Align Website Copy
We can also add more detail and examples to turn our descriptions into copy for our About Us section on our websites or in our business plans. Additionally, we might be able to include some of the elements in our professional bios, especially for entrepreneurs and company founders.
Create a One Minute Pitch
We can also turn our core business story or description into a brief 30 to 60 second elevator speech. We can use this at networking events or any time we are asked what we do for work.
Build a Message Map
We can also build a message map with our business description as the starting point. Working off this as our core story, what other stories can we share to further illustrate our key points? For example, we might share testimonials from customers and employees or tell the story of how we founded the company. Perhaps we tell our audiences about the inspiration behind the name of our products or give a behind-the-scenes look at how they are made.
Speaking of audiences, building a message map with different stories and messages helps us to tailor our communications for different situations and people. For example, if we have a group of customers that particularly care about one aspect of our company, we can make sure we have stories that speak to that aspect of our business.
Take Action
We should revisit our business descriptions once a year to confirm it still matches who we are as a company and what we feel is most important to highlight. (Want more help thinking through your business description? Check out our course on How to Write a Killer Business Description.) Then, consider the different ways to tailor it into other elements of your brand and communications to make sure it is a consistent message across our different channels.
