Creating Targeted Content: Part 1 – Writing a Strong Mission Statement

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02/27/2018
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2024

Content is king these days. We live in a digital age where the average person is regularly bombarded with adverts, tweets, blogs, emails, news – a wide range of content vying for people’s time and focus.  

Getting people’s attention in that noise is perhaps the most pressing challenge of digital marketing. The solution is to create a viable content strategy that includes generating content specifically tailored to your target market.

To compete in this crowded digital media space, you have to produce something truly special for your customers. Targeted content is the new norm, and if you’re not targeting your content, you’re just adding to the noise.

But how can you develop unique, engaging and enticing content curated for target audiences that also reflects your company’s mission and vision? A loaded question indeed.

Firstly you need to know what your company’s mission statement and key messages are – this is the main focus of this post, which is the first in a series on Creating Targeted Content through a quality content strategy.

A Good Mission Statement

A mission statement clarifies your company’s purpose and announces to the world why your company exists. The mission statement should be less “what” and more “why”.

According to author and marketing consultant Simon Sinek, you should always start with your “why” in order to sell your vision, not your products.  

Remember, you are competing with millions of other pieces of content to capture the attention of your potential customers. It’s very likely that your products or services are also being sold by dozens if not hundreds or thousands of competitors. So getting a customer to choose your product or service – in this heavily content-flooded digital era – requires getting customers to get behind your mission.

Think about it: Why do you do what you do?

Customers these days are extremely well-informed (thanks Google) and you need to create a personal connection with them. Communicating why you do what you do is a sure-fire way to turn your smart, tech-savvy potential customers into smart, happy loyal customers.

Here are a few examples of solid mission statements of successful companies that follow this ‘lead by why’ rule:

1)   Asana‘s mission statement: “to help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly.”

2)   Starbuck’s mission statement: “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

3)   Nike’s mission statement: “We create products, services and experiences for today’s athlete while solving problems for the next generation.”

In each of these examples, the company explicitly states why it’s doing what it does: “To inspire”; “to solve problems”; or “to help humanity.”

Clarifying your purpose for your customers has even greater benefits for your employees — as a clear purpose is key to a strong, sustainable organizational culture.

The mission statement should not be thought of as a box to tick or a fluff statement that is completely forgotten. The mission statement should form the foundation of your company’s content and communications strategy.

With a strong mission statement, you are then ready to develop your company’s key messages. The key messages help further establish your company’s unique selling points in a concise way.  We will explore key messages in the next post in our series on Creating Targeted Content.

 


Erica Solomon is a writer with over 10 years experience writing copy and editing. An avid marketing researcher, she stays up on the latest trends in everything digital.

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