Write your Content Marketing Mission Statement

What’s the difference between a business mission statement and a content marketing mission statement

Having a mission statement for your business is really important. It only has to be a few sentences to outline exactly what your company does and why, but it is so important for keeping you focussed and for helping you make decisions when opportunities come along. You can ask yourself – does this new opportunity or direction fit with my mission? Yes – go for it! …No – think it through further!

A mission statement should define your purpose and summarise exactly what you do. Hopefully, you have already done this for your business, so the next step is to write a mission statement for your content.

Ideally your business mission statement is connected with your content one. It’s a next step in helping you to achieve your overall business mission.

Define what you want the content you produce to do for your business and why. What will be its purpose? You can even write a sentence for each platform or tool (i.e. website, social media, email, print) but, at the very least, get something down that will help you focus on what you are trying to achieve throughout the year. It needs to be more than just ‘earn more money’ – content is about so much more than that, such as education, growing an audience, making connections, for example.

Why write a content marketing mission statement?

A mission statement is all about focus. It helps you when feel lost to keep direction and provides motivation. We all know we should produce regular content for our marketing, but it is easy to forget the ‘why’. By defining what you want to do and how it will help your business, it can be a great motivator when you are faced with scheduling another week or month of social media posts…or getting started on your latest blog post!

A clear statement can also help you to be consistent. If all of your content has a clear underlying purpose – it’s overarching mission, this is really helpful for consistency and to keep your content ‘on point’.

Write a statement that is empowering and clear.

How to write a content marketing mission statement

When writing your content mission statement, to start with, don’t over analyse things! Go with your gut feel. Ask yourself:

• Why do I create content?
• Why do I spend time on marketing?
• Why do I share certain things or create certain posts?

Unfortunately, “Because I feel I should” is the not the right reason for any of above. Remember you need a statement which will motivate you in your hour of need.

Be selfish – ask yourself what is in it for you:

• visibility
• increasing sales
• educating
• entertaining
• growing your audience
• nurturing your clients
• encouraging engagement. 

It will be a very personal reason. And you don’t have to share this statement with anyone! You may have a few reasons, and that’s ok, but think carefully about the order of the sentences. Rank them by what is more important to you.

What to do with a content marketing mission statement

If you have a planner or spreadsheet that guides your content creation then write it down in there – somewhere visible.

If you have a business plan, write it in the marketing section in there.

If you set annual goals or objectives, write it near those so that you can see what is inspiring them and, ultimately, helping you to reach them.

Put it somewhere visible, whenever you are planning your content.

Once written, go back and evaluate it often. It shouldn’t be something you regularly change but use it when you feel bored or restless with your content. As mentioned above, it is a motivation tool. It is oft reported that creating content is seen as many small business owners’ hardest part of their jobs, so use your mission statement to make it a little easier. It’s a great reminder of the ‘bigger picture’ aspect of your marketing

Need help with writing your content marketing mission statement?

If you can see the point of having a content strategy and writing a mission, but want the support to help you actually do it, come and join me and fellow small business owners in The Content Club.

The Content Club is an online membership that offer support and guidance to get basics like a plan, a strategy and a mission statement done. It offers easy-to-follow guidance on different platforms. It offers a community and a place to go when marketing feels difficult, overwhelming or ineffective.

Join us for £23 per month or book a call and let’s chat through what’s stopping you enjoying content creation.