Writing Your Business Story

Business name, address, and phone number (NAP) has been a key set of information for businesses since the first directories…going back to the ones that got dropped off on doorsteps and front porches. Early on, directory publishers realized that people wanted more. Of course, in those directories, anything more than NAP would cost you!

More Than Just A Name

Fast forward to today…people want a lot more information about you. Your business is more than just a name, address, and phone number. It has a life and a story of its own. We just made it easy to share the information customers might want to know.

McHenry Life will help tell your story without spending a dime.

We think it is so important that we require every listing to include their story. It can be a simple description, but we hope that you’ll take this opportunity to tell your story and help your business stand out from all the others.

What’s your story? What stands out about your business that may be important to your customers?

We understand that the idea of writing about your business may be a bit intimidating. What to say? Where to start?

Here are some tips to keep in mind and get you started. Start with something quick and simple when you first claim or add your listing.

  • Start with a bulleted list of words that describe your business, your products or services.
  • Add other details about things that make you unique, awards you may have received, etc.
  • Now, look at this list as a customer and circle those things that really jump out, that you would be interested in knowing.
  • How long should it be? That’s really up to you and the listing package you have chosen.
  • Start rearranging your bulleted list by importance. Think journalism, note novel…you want to make sure the reader gets the important stuff upfront.
  • Forget some of the things you were taught about proper writing. Rather than one or two long paragraphs, you’ll want to try to break those up into more, smaller paragraphs.
  • Write everything except your intro first. Once you are done with everything, spend most of your time on an intro sentence or paragraph with a compelling “call to action” in the first 150 characters or so. That’s your hook to get them to read more, or at least something compelling to remember.
  • Good thing is, none of this is permanent. In fact, we encourage you to refresh and update your story throughout the year. And you can do so as many times as you’d like.

These are just some helpful tips and some general guidelines, rather than rules. Any of these can be “successfully broken,” but make sure you have a good reason for breaking them and an idea of what you are doing to make sure they are successful.

Happy story telling!

Tell your unique story.