To help you save some time, we’ve created fact sheet templates for a variety of industries and topics.  Each fact sheet template is $20 or you can buy all seven for $100.  The templates are chock-full of valuable tips and are already formatted. We tell you exactly what information to write and where to put it.  The fact sheet templates we created for you include:

Crisis Fact Sheet

Event Fact Sheet

Nonprofit Fact Sheet

Political Candidate Fact Sheet

Product or Service Fact Sheet

Restaurant Fact Sheet

Retail Fact Sheet

Remember that your PR fact sheet condenses the most pertinent information about your company, products, and/or services into one page.  The fact sheet includes at-a-glance information for readers broken up by categories, such as contact information, company history, vision, mission, purpose, future, etc. This makes it an invaluable springboard for all of your other communication materials and collaterals.

If you’re going to develop some fact sheets, check out our other fact sheet posts from How to Write a Fact Sheet to the Top 3 Rules for a Powerful Fact Sheet and more.  If you’re going to get more specific, there’s no need to start from scratch. Purchase our topic- and industry-specific fact sheet templates, and customize them for your business.  With our pre-set format and valuable tips for your industry or topic, you’ll be on your way in no time.

Starbucks

Keep it current, Starbucks.  This fact sheet is dated February 2008, kind of old.  Also, Starbucks has gone full boar into the major social media venues from Twitter to Facebook and yet the company’s social media contact information is missing from their fact sheet.  The graphic quality is also poor and not up to par with the company’s top-notch image.  Another brand mismatch is the tone.  This full-on corporate fact sheet is cold and businesslike and seems apart from the Starbucks’ brand of being a fun, friendly, warm place.

Gap

This fact sheet has a nice, easy-to-read layout that looks consistent with their image, but where’s their contact information or even a link to their website and store locations?  It seems incomplete and stops before the bottom of the page.

Gatorade

Gatorade’s fact sheet contains good information, including some unexpected facts like the athletes they sponsor, but it’s dated 2006, much too old to be considered current.  It’s also a bit long at two full pages, though we like that it has all of their product web addresses at the bottom.  Links to those addresses would be even better.

St. Jude Medical

We like how this fact sheet is integrated into the company’s website and the reader can choose whether or not to click on the PDF version or not.  The links on the left and right to the fact sheet topic areas are all active, making it user friendly and the use of web links allows them to make the fact sheet brief while supplying a lot of information.  The only down side is that the PDF version of the fact sheet didn’t open up in our browser so we’re not sure if it contains the same information that’s available on the website fact sheet.

Before creating or revising your company fact sheet, take a look at other companies’ fact sheets to see what works and what doesn’t and let that guide you in perfecting your own.

For more information on fact sheets, see our recent blogs.  Also, do you need to create a fact sheet for your business and don’t want to start from scratch?  Purchase our topic- and industry-specific fact sheet templates, and customize them for your business.  Every fact sheet template includes a pre-set format and valuable tips for your industry or topic.

For more information on writing fact sheets, click here or choose one of the following posts:

How to Write a Fact Sheet
Top 3 Rules for a Powerful Fact Sheet
How to Use Your Fact Sheet as a Springboard
Fact Sheet Critiques

Remember that your fact sheet condenses the most pertinent information about your company, products, and/or services into one page.  The fact sheet includes at-a-glance information for readers broken up by categories, such as contact information, company history, vision, mission, purpose, future, etc. This makes it an invaluable template for all of your other communication materials and collaterals.

When we create a collaterals package for a client, which might include a website, PowerPoint presentation, brochure, business cards, and letterhead, we always start with a fact sheet.  Why?  Because the content in a fact sheet includes your core messages and they should always be consistent to promote a strong company brand.  Inconsistencies in your messaging will lead to confusion, internally and externally, and weaken your brand.  The more repetition you have among your communications, the higher the likelihood that your target public will retain and act on your messages.

That said, here’s how to use what you’ve already created in your fact sheet to produce another communication:

- Press Release: Every good fact sheet has a little gem embedded in it, and this gem can be used on all of your materials.  That gem is your boilerplate.  Somewhere on your fact sheet, there should be a paragraph that explains concisely what your company is about, what you do, and how you do it.  This boilerplate consists of your company’s three to five key messages in one short paragraph.  When you use the boilerplate for a news release, it should appear at the bottom and say at the end, “For more information about Company Z, visit our website at www.CompanyZ.com.”

- Website: The boilerplate in your fact sheet can also be used as the opening paragraph on your website. Each category on your fact sheet could be included on your “About Us” page or as separate pages. When doing the latter, the fact sheet copy can be used as the introductory statement on those pages.  At this point, you’ll have a good portion of your website copy completed without having to spend time creating new verbiage.

- Letterhead and Business Card: A boilerplate can even appear on the back of a business card, on your letterhead, and definitely as the opening paragraph on your website.

We know that you’re now catching on to how to apply your fact sheet to your other promotional materials, which are not limited to the above listed items. Think of how you can do the same with advertising copy, logo items, blogs, and so on.  Even non-traditional mediums, such as listing your mission on your invoices or on your voicemail are ways to maximize the information on your fact sheet.

Please note that it’s best to duplicate the copy on your fact sheet as closely as possible (taking into consideration search engine optimization for websites, etc.) in your other communication vehicles.  In other words, if you say X about your company’s vision on your fact sheet, you must also say X about your company’s vision on your brochure.  Again, when your consumers are exposed to the same messaging over and over, it helps them to process and comprehend it so that your business, product, and/or service is top of mind, and most likely, one of their top “buys.”

So if you’re creating new company materials or revising the old ones, start with a fact sheet.  From there, use your fact sheet as your springboard to PR success. For a free fact sheet template, click here. For more detailed instructions on creating and customizing your fact sheet, purchase our topic- and industry-specific fact sheet templates, and customize them for your business.  Every fact sheet template includes a pre-set, detailed format and valuable tips for your industry or topic.  Templates available include crisis, event, non-profit, polictical candidate, product or service, restaurant, and retail.And, check out our Top 3 Rules for a Powerful Fact Sheet.