For the last few years, I’ve had the honor of assisting companies reach their dreams of success by helping them to understand and implement bold, yet daring, marketing strategies. One of my favorite stops on the journey to success is guiding business owners through the process of developing Vision and Mission Statements.
Why is Mission and Vision Statements such an important step?
Developing a well-crafted Mission and Vision Statement sets the stage for success. The reason for this is because, when done properly, you have established your business on a foundation that every other aspect of your company will be built from.
Clear and inspired Mission and Vision Statements communicate to everyone involved with your company – customers, investors, employees – exactly what solution you will provide and how they can expect you to provide that solution.
With all of this said, still the biggest reason I love Mission and Vision Statements is because they can help to create an amazing platform for some of the best marketing communications.
If you create these statements properly, your marketing strategies, campaigns, and materials will always have something to reference back to for support and consistency.
So how do you make these incredibly important Mission and Vision Statements?
Let’s look at 4 key tips to developing these crucial pillars to your business.
Step 1 – Mission Statement – Include Your Value Proposition
Your Mission Statement should always include your value proposition.
What is a value proposition?
This is a statement that positions you above your competition by highlighting solutions or business practices unique to your company.
By including your value proposition into your Mission Statement, your business is automatically highlighted with every marketing campaign and material you produce. Better yet, understanding what your value proposition is and how to communicate that will be a great asset in your marketing arsenal.
Step 2 – Mission Statement – Clearly Define the Problem You Are Solving
Rachel owns a sandwich shop. What is the problem that Rachel solves with her sandwich shop? Well, there can be many (depending on the value proposition).
She obviously solves the problem of hunger by serving food; but Rachel also solves other problems that customers could find in sandwich shops – problems like poor customer service, low quality ingredients, or slow preparation speeds. Any or all of these could go into Rachel’s Mission Statement.
I can’t stress this point well enough: If your business, product, or service does not solve a problem for your customers, they will not buy from you.
The fun part about this one is that you can get creative.
Once you uncover what problems your business solves, you can find creative ways to include those solutions into your Mission Statement.
One extra tip, don’t include how you will solve those problems in the Mission Statement.
That comes later.
Step 3 – Mission Statement – Make It All About You
Believe it or not, I have witnessed with my own eyes business owners that create Mission Statements that look like this: “John’s Auto Tune-Up is not like Mike’s Auto Repair. We actually fix cars and don’t rip you off.”
There are great points in this Mission Statement, but when you read it, you might do what I did – look primarily at the competitor. “Does Mike’s Auto Repair not fix cars? Are their prices really so bad?”
When creating your Mission Statement, remember that this is one of the rare occasions where it is not only acceptable, but imperative that it be all about you. Use the statement to highlight YOUR solutions and what makes YOU so great.
Remember, if you don’t talk about yourself, no one else is going to do it for you!
Step 4 – Vision Statement – Describe the Unique Way in Which You Accomplish the Mission
Remember in step 2 how I told you not to talk about how you were going to provide the solutions you promised in your Mission Statement?
That’s because the method gets its own beautiful spotlight – the Vision Statement.
If the Mission Statement is a 2-3 sentence description of WHAT your company does, then the Vision Statement is a 2-3 sentence elaboration of HOW you do what you do.
When creating your Vision Statement, don’t over-complicate the process. You don’t need to show how you “package the box”, but you can say that you “put great emphasis on product safety and representation when it comes to packing the box”.
Don’t promise the best dining experience by giving your secret recipe away. Rather, express that your food is the best because you “use a special secret recipe handed down from generation to generation”.
It’s Time to Get Writing
Whether you have never created a Mission or Vision Statement, or if it is simply time to re-evaluate what you had set up long ago, it’s time to establish that solid foundation for all of your marketing strategies.
With these 4 steps, you will be well on your way to creating a Mission and Vision Statement that will put you on the right track toward true marketing success.
Need help developing these pivotal pieces of business strategy?
Epic Marketing Partners is here to assist you.
Give us a call today for a free consultation!
What’s your Mission and Vision Statments? Share with us the old versions also what you didn’t like or didn’t work for you.