Though relegated to the bottom of a news release, the boilerplate is more than just an afterthought, footnote or formality. It carries vital corporate information typically not found in the text above. It might tell a reporter on deadline how many employees a company has, or provide an investor with a snapshot of the competitive landscape. A potential customer may go to a Web site listed in the boilerplate to find out more about products and services.
Unfortunately, many companies treat the boilerplate as a postscript. All too often they pour in marketing-speak and unproven claims ("ABC company is the market leader…"). The result? Objectivity and clarity surrender to promotion and jargon, and readers often give up trying to find any useful information buried among the fluff.
Determining what constitutes appropriate boilerplate material - and length - depends on a company's position and challenges. Is it a well known global enterprise that only needs two sentences to describe itself, or a startup that must describe how it stands out in an emerging market? Boilerplate writers need to toe the line between adding just enough information to achieve their company's goals, and trying to fit "War and Peace" at the bottom of their release.
Here is an example of a wordy, jargon-saturated boilerplate for a hypothetical company:
About Traffickeeper.com
Traffickeeper.com is the leading provider of groundbreaking traffic shaping technologies that provide QoS and SLA enforcement for today's high-powered IP networks. Traffickeeper.com's Traffickeeper 6.2 sets an unprecedented standard for throughput performance by supporting up to 350 Mbps throughput for clients' high-bandwidth needs, including P2P and video streaming. Traffickeeper has won several prestigious awards for its unmatched throughput support. For more information call 1-800-traffic or visit the Web site at www.traffickeeper.com.
Did you want to stop reading it before the end of the first sentence? Most people would. Unproven claims, unnecessary adjectives and adverbs and endless gobbledygook keep readers from finding pertinent information. Citing individual products minimizes the boilerplate's scope and often repeats text from the release. Talking about specific technological feats such as "supporting up to 350 Mbps" dives way too far into the weeds for a boilerplate, which should provide general information.
Startup companies trying make a name for themselves should be a bit more aggressive in their boilerplates than more established companies:
About OpenMFG
OpenMFG, LLC, develops enterprise software tailored to the needs and budgets of small, entrepreneurial manufacturing companies. OpenMFG products give companies visibility into costs, supply chains, processes, inventory and financial operations with a lower cost of ownership than competing enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, and are sold to end-user customers through a network of value added partners throughout North America. For more information, visit the company Web site at www.openmfg.com, or contact sales@openmfg.com.
This startup's boilerplate tells readers why they should pay attention to the company. The boilerplate clearly describes what the company does, what its product does, who its customers are, and what competitive difference makes this product stand out. The language is simple and straight foward. Aside from its location and URL, what else does a reader need?
A more established company with revenues between $50-150 million per year can afford to be more succinct:
About Groove Networks
Founded in October 1997 and headquartered in Beverly, Mass., Groove Networks Inc. provides secure "virtual workspace" software that allows you to assemble people, information and tools to get work done, online. Groove software helps organizations, large and small, save money, time and eliminate travel by being 10x better than email alone for getting work done online. For more information about Groove Networks, visit http://www.groove.net.
This boilerplate does a good job of delivering only the information its readers seek. It combines fundamental background information with a simple, declarative explanation of what the company does - while emphasizing competitive benefits - all in a tightly packaged statement.
The largest companies and market 'gorillas' often have the shortest, most compelling boilerplates:
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at www.cisco.com.
Cisco is a global brand, and therefore can condense its boilerplate into two sentences that give the ticker symbol, URL and a brief, crystal-clear description of what it does. Most readers will know it can back up its competitive claim that it is truly "the worldwide leader."
Here are a few tips for writing effective boilerplates:
- Tailor the content to your company's mission. If you're a startup, include just enough information to establish who you are, and why you're important in your market – without writing a novel. Keep it to five sentences or less. If you're an established company, just include the most pertinent facts about who you are and what you do. Keep it to four sentences or less.
- Don't try to tell your whole story. Save it for the Web site. Jamming "Moby Dick" into a boilerplate defeats its purpose.
- Eliminate all unsubstantiated claims and hyperbole. They only call into question the veracity of anything else you say.
- Avoid jargon. Readers don't want to be taken into the weeds, particularly in a boilerplate.
- Ban unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. Too much color in a boilerplate slows the reader down.
- Paint the big picture. Be general about what you do and your high-level business value. This is often the snapshot readers are looking for.
- Include your Web address. That's the reason you can be concise. Readers who need more info will go there.
- Don't include information likely to change often. It's a chore to keep changing a boilerplate every month, and it can give an unstable impression if key information changes frequently. Try to write a "sustainable" boilerplate that will continue to be effective months and even years down the road.
