A fact sheet template is used by a company, business, or organization to present information in a shorter document that contains all relevant information. This document can be very useful. It is a short and concise document which is also referred to as a fact sheet, one-sheet, white paper, or information sheet. Additionally, it outlines the most important points of the presentation briefly.
What is a fact sheet?
A fact sheet is an effective tool that can be used to present a total view of your company or organization. It is used as a supplement document for a website or news release. It also takes the place of a brochure about the company or as an attachment to a press kit. This document is only 1-2 pages long. Furthermore, it contains 5Ws i.e. who, what, where, when, and why all relating to the organization. It includes information about;
- Products,
- Technical data,
- Statistical results,
- Educational material,
- Informative answers to common queries,
- Helpful advice.
What is a personal fact sheet?
A personal fact sheet is a document that contains a precise summary of important details regarding an individual. It includes the following basic information about an individual;
- Name
- Age
- Religion
- Work history and experience
- Educational background
- Skills
- Abilities
- Characteristics
What is a fact sheet of a company?
A fact sheet of a company includes the following information about the company;
- The name of a company
- The president or CEO of the company
- The founder of the company
- The business partners
- The nature of the company’s business
- Their products and services
- The historical background of the company
Benefits of using fact sheets:
The fact sheets provide you various benefits. Some of them are as follows;
Short and direct:
We discussed above that it is only 1-2 pages long. You just need a single page to share the most relevant information about any issues, services, or products in an organization. This one page contains all that information the people would be read easily. Also, it’s a fact that people get bored when they read documents with too much content. Hence, this fact sheet document reduces all the information to a single page.
Easy to read and understand:
These sheets are designed and formatted in such a way that they look like websites. They have headers that explain the most important points. With the help of headers, the readers can follow or skip the whole point if they want. You have to place relevant information on the headers. Thus, this can make your sheet easy to read and understand.
Cheap to produce:
By using your company letterhead, you can print it out easily. Your document should not have a colorful and fancy design. You just have to distribute them among the people who need to be informed. Moreover, you can also send the file in an email or post it on the website.
Save your time and effort:
These sheets are short so you don’t have to spend much time or effort to read them. Also, they contain headers then you can skip the points you don’t want to read.
Resources for fact sheets:
Let us discuss some resources you can search for when creating a fact sheet;
Demographic facts:
By searching demographic facts you can get a lot of results. It can help you to obtain information about worldwide statistics, nationwide statistics, or even statistics based on your city. General demographic statistics include;
- Statistics on race and ethnicity
- Statistics on population
- Statistics on gender
- Statistics on age
- Statistics on housing status
However, you can search for these demographics according to the countries, states, towns, or cities.
Economic facts:
You have to search for economic facts if you are looking for productivity, employment, and, salary rates. In addition, with the help of this fact, you can learn more about the workings of the economy of the country, city, or even of other organizations. You can make important decisions in your organization and increase your productivity and employee retention.
Children and the younger generation facts:
You may have to look at facts and statistics about children and the younger generation. However, it all depends on the kind of organization you have and the objectives of making the fact sheet. In this way, you know about the youth who come from different racial and economic backgrounds. This is useful information when studying their health, education, and interests.
Health and food facts:
These are the most important facts because they indicate what trends are dominating the market today. The information provides by these facts is used by the food industry to identify what new products should be introduced or what current products should be removed from the lineup.
How to make fact sheets?
Here are some helpful tips on how to make fact sheets;
- Firstly, you have to keep it precise. You can find a lot of facts, statistics, and information when you do research but you have to restrain yourself and select the important data that can be fit on a single page.
- Don’t stick yourself to just one source, you should use different sources.
- Select those facts that are the most accurate. Then, use them in such a way that they are structured and flow well in the fact sheet.
- You are using different sources so include those in your document that prevents you from any emerging issues.
- You should present your facts in your document logically. The first fact must speak about the importance of the issue you are dealing with.
- Ensure that all your facts are relevant. If they are not relevant, don’t place them in your fact sheet. Include the facts that are related to the key points and focuses on the significance of your document.
- It’s a better idea to include comparisons in your fact sheet.
Your document should include the following information;
- The people whom you are in contact within the media
- The name or the title of the event
- Date of the event
- Address of the event
- Time zones of the event
- Relevant information about ticketing
- Other important information like phone numbers, email addresses, and the website.
How to create your own fact sheets and fact sheet templates?
Here are some simple steps and tips to make an effective company fact sheet template;
- Take input from a varied group of people while creating your fact sheet. Doing so is important to make sure that all the information mentioned in it has no bias and doesn’t show anyone in your company negatively. You can communicate your message a lot better when you work with a diverse group.
- To ensure that your information is accurate, involve people who are experts in the field you are going to write about.
- You are going to work with a huge amount of data and information so focus on key points to condense it all in one page. You have to decide which issue to address first or which information is most essential that you have to explain before anything else.
- After establishing the key points to focus on, you should brainstorm all facts and resources relevant to those points. To include in your fact sheet, find out the most important information about those points.
- You just have to add those facts which you think are important. There is no need to add those facts that aren’t relevant to your key points. You just have to keep your fact sheet be one page.
- You can start designing your fact sheet when you have done defining and finalizing your facts. To highlight important points, it’s up to you whether you create a bulleted list of the facts with headings or create a visual representation of all your facts. For reference, you must include all your sources.
- You just need to ensure that your fact sheet can fit on a single page or a maximum of 2 pages. Keep your sentences precise and don’t use flowery words.
- Your fact sheet should be easy to read and easy to understand. Your layout should be designed in such a way that it takes the readers from the most basic facts to potential logical conclusions.
- Include interesting and compelling content in your fact sheet which is beneficial and has accurate statistics. All basic definitions and information included in the sheet help the readers to understand the company more.
- Specify the name and contact details of the people who are responsible for making the fact sheet.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a fact sheet template is the most simple, efficient, and useful tool that you can use to communicate in the workplace. You have to do a lot of research and sourcing to find the exact and most relevant facts. The fact sheet should be written in such a way that the reader can draw an accurate conclusion.
