Following up on my Company Profile tutorial, I decided to take a look at writing the company introduction within your company profile. Your company introductions appear under the heading About Us within your own Alibaba.com mini-website and is your opportunity to give potential customers an overview of who you are and what you do.

When browsing supplier websites I often see company introductions that could use a little work. In this tutorial we will be looking at ideas for topics that you may wish to include in your company introduction and a number of things that you shouldn’t do. Remember, your company introduction is a major contributor toward the first impression buyers will have of your company and is a great opportunity to gain their trust, so use it to your advantage.

When writing your company introduction it is important to remember that its length must be between 400 and 4,000 characters, including spaces (200-4,000 for Free Members). With this in mind, it makes good sense to plan how you are going to structure your information and its presentation. Although you are free to format your company introductions in anyway you wish, I would suggest using paragraphs.

You may want to think about using the first paragraph to introduce your company and want to include:

1. The year your company was established
2. Your company’s location
3. If you are a member of a group company
4. What products/services you offer
5. Any Foreign investment that you may have

Simply state the year in which your company was established. As for your company’s location, the city and state/province are sufficient so don’t waste valuable screen space writing a historical overview of your surrounding area. People want to read about your company, not where you live.

If you are a member of a group company, telling readers which group you belong to can be helpful, but remember this is your company’s introduction and not that of your group.

After introducing your company in paragraph one, the second paragraph would be an ideal place to establish your:

1. Product range/services offered
2. Machinery and technology used
3. Production experience
4. Number of staff (and foreign language speakers if you have them)
5. How orders are handled
6. Share significant achievements that would be meaningful to buyers

When introducing your products, avoid lengthy descriptions as they belong in your product description section. Certain industries will be interested in knowing what machinery and technology you use and your production experience as well.

Stating the number of people that you employ will give your reader an indication of your company’s size. If you do employ speakers of foreign languages, make sure that you make this clear as potential buyers will feel confident that they will be understood when they contact you.

Making buyers aware of significant achievements that your company has made is another effective way to differentiate your company from your competitors.

Quality certifications (such as ISO) allow for an increased level of trust and mentioning them in your company introduction can only benefit you. You may also wish to inform buyers of the quality control procedures that you have in place and whether you use or welcome third parties approved by buyers to handle QC operations. Additionally, adding your monthly output volume, countries/regions serviced and any major clients that you have will also build credibility with buyers. It is important to keep in mind that awards or certifications that are specific to your city or area only will be meaningless to readers and so you may wish to omit such certificates to save the reader from confusion.

Many companies use the final paragraph of their company introductions to state their corporate values and invite buyers to contact them.

1. Replace long words with shorter ones.
2. Make sure paragraphs are focused.
3. Do not over claim or use flowery language.
4. If your product is new, tell the reader what is new about it.
5. Don't write using capital letters, it looks as if you are SHOUTING! and not as important information.
6. Write facts not opinions - you must be able to back up statements such as 'biggest', 'best,' etc.

I hope that this tutorial will help you when you are writing your company introduction. If you would like to share your views or request a future tutorial, please send me a message using the feedback box below.

Milton