How to write the vision and mission statements of your company

Writing effective mission and vision statements

These days I’m working on a project where I’m writing vision and mission statements not just for the main company, but also for individual departments.

This gave me the idea of writing this blog post on how to write effective vision and mission statements for your company.

Over the years I have written countless vision and mission statements for different businesses and I can remember just 2-3 instances when the client was passionate about what was to be written for vision and mission statements. Otherwise, most of the clients just ask me to go through other websites and come up with my own (“but highly unique” – quote/unquote intended) versions.

Yes, it reflects on what sort of clients I attract, but that’s another story.

They don’t even know the difference. Just because everybody seems to have vision and mission statements, and without these statements, the “About us” page seems incomplete, they want to have them.

On second thought, why blame them? While trying to research for the topic, I came across many blog posts, even from the so-called reputed websites, that ended up mixing up vision and mission statements. I mean, the topic says something like “20 best vision statements” and they then go on to quoting mission statements from famous companies.

But first,

What is the difference between your vision and mission statement?

Sometime back I read a very good statement on the Internet about vision and mission statements:

Your mission statement is about what you are doing today, and your vision statement is what you are going to do in near future.

You must have come across the phrase “man with a mission” (or for the sake of feminists, “woman with a mission”). Or something like “we are on a mission”.

It means, you are doing something right now.

A mission statement answers the following questions:

What you do?
For whom do you do it?
How do you do it?

Mission statement answers the following questions

This is what I have written as my mission statement:

My mission at Credible Content is to provide business writing services that actually help my clients grow their businesses.

Vision statement is about the future. What are your hopes and dreams? What bigger changes do you want to bring about in the world? What do you inspire to be?

Your vision gives your clients and customers an idea of what are your bigger goals. Remember that your bigger goals define the direction of your smaller goals.

Why is it important to have mission and vision statements?

Above I have written that very few clients take their mission and vision statements seriously. But there are some individuals and organizations, that do take your mission and vision statements seriously.

Your mission statement tells them your current focus. It tells them what problems you are currently solving. It tells them who your customers and clients are. It basically informs them of the nature of your current activities and whether the profile of these activities makes you suitable for them or not.

Your vision statement tells them where you are heading. Serious businesses want to associate with serious businesses. If you are not serious enough to even focus on your vision statement, then you are not reliable.

Hence, if you feel that your website is turning away good customers and clients, maybe you need to work on your mission and vision statements.

How to write a great mission statement

I will say it again: most of the people don’t know the difference between mission statement and vision statement and they tend to mix them up. Even reputed company sometimes end up mixing up vision and mission statements.

Your mission statement is about today. It must answer the following questions:

What do you do?
Who are your customers and clients?
What processes and procedures do you follow?

Providing answers to these questions may seem like a long affair, but it doesn’t have to be. Restrict your mission statement to just 2 sentences and if possible, just a single sentence. But, no matter how many sentences you write, answer the questions listed above.

Here is Google’s mission statement: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Here is Tesla’s: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

You may say that these mission statements don’t answer all the 3 questions above, but if you read them carefully you will notice that, they do.

Take for example Tesla’s mission statement. Sustainable energy means they want to shift the focus away from the current ways of energy consumption. Pretty much everybody consumes energy in the form of fuel, gas and power. So, pretty much everybody is their customer.

What do they want to do? They want to accelerate the process. They want to go beyond simply researching, and provide viable products.

What is Google doing? It is organizing world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. By merely reading the statement, you can make out what they do, for whom they do it, and how they do it.

Keep the following points in mind when creating your mission statement:

Keep it as concise as possible.
Provide answers to questions such as what you do, what are your customers and clients, and how you serve them.

How to write a great vision statement

Your vision statement gives your customers and clients the bigger picture. The give them a peek into your future.

What do you stand for? How do you plan to grow? What impact do you want to make?

This tells them about your work culture. It tells them what moves you and what keeps you going.

This was Microsoft’s vision when it was founded: A computer on every desk and in every home.

It is amazing how this vision came to be true. This was written when computers were a rarity.

LinkedIn vision statement: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

As is clear from these statements, the vision statement is about your overall goal. This is what you eventually want to achieve. When you are writing your vision statement, talk about the next 5 years.

Something like, if you are writing your vision statement in 2020, tell your visitors what you are going to achieve by 2025.

Again, keep it as concise as possible.

Why Will the COVID-19 Crisis Boost Digital Marketing in the Future?

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Digital marketing is more relevant during Covid-19

The field of digital marketing has been evolving for more than a decade now, and its importance is exponentially growing. With all the changes in the use of our devices, technological advances have provided us with more opportunities, along with constant access to the World Wide Web.

And with the outbreak of a global pandemic, people are spending even more time online. Most of the countries are in a lockdown state, with restrictions on travel and general movement, but people still need both products and services. The impact of the current situation will be a long-term one, and it will affect every aspect of the world market.

The new reality

For the time being, virtual reality is the only one where we can actually connect. For this reason, it is essential for brands to continue with the online presence and show people that we’re all in this together.

Many businesses are having a hard time coping with the loss of profits, and are wondering if they’re going to survive. And we are all aware that many people have lost their jobs and financial stability.

The times are quite unfortunate, but no one could have predicted these circumstances. The only way for a business to survive is to adapt to rapid changes, stay visible and relevant, and understand the consequences for when everything gets back to normal.

Staying relevant

It has never been so important to remind people of your products and services. Trying to anticipate the needs of the consumers is a leading idea in marketing in general, but at this point, you have a better perspective than usual.

And you can even get the best out of this awful situation and earn more trust among your customers, by increasing the loyalty levels. You know that everyone is spending more time online, so you need to be present as well.

There are several aspects of your visibility, starting with social media.

This period can be an opportunity to work on your digital marketing improvement, as its importance is going to continue growing afterwards.

Providing relevant content and staying on top of the crisis will make your brand more humane, and you ought to show empathy while raising your brand awareness.

Share the latest updates and helpful advice, ask for feedback and try to entertain people.

You can attract a new audience and possibly convert them into customers.

In terms of branding, this can turn out to be a great phase in which your business can evolve. It is highly recommended to use this time to invest in PPC and SEO services, as those are becoming the new and modern “traditional” ways of marketing.

Experts all over the world have been saying this for a while now, but now, living only in the virtual world, deprived of human contact, it is becoming clear as a day.

Consumer intentions and habits

Digital marketing and peoples expectations during Covid-19

People are adapting to the changes quite rapidly, and their expectations change in accordance.

You need to follow and respond to those because billboards are huge, but the reality is that most people will walk by them staring at the screen of their smartphones.

The importance of e-commerce is also exponentially growing, therefore the need for better online promotion.

It is all connected, and every trend will influence the next one. But, since we’re not talking about fashion, the trends will not come back, but only continue to change.

Your ranking on the search engines is likely to determine the future of your brand’s image and reputation.

Most people will search for the product or service they need before they purchase, so they need to be able to learn about your brand. It is simply not enough to have a website, because, without the proper promotion, the traffic on it will most likely be on a low level. Furthermore, not every one of those visits will end up with a conversion of users into buyers.

The future has arrived, and you shouldn’t leave a head start to your competitors, by staying in the past.

Conduct research of your competition and you will most likely find out they are all investing in paid advertisements and optimization of search engines. The smartest move would be heavily investing in the promotion now and preparing something valuable to offer. Since there is a movement restriction, the best advice is to focus on the local area and include it in your targeted keywords.

Emotional component

When you are there for someone in the hardest of times, people tend not to forget it. They will appreciate a supporting video message from a company’s CEO for example and every other way you can try to engage them.

We are all isolating and staying home, surrounded by the devastating news which are shaping our minds and heavily influencing our emotional stability.

Having the emotional component in the equation can help you trigger the positive ones and create a more stable connection with consumers, further increasing the levels of loyalty.

No one can say for sure how much longer this is going to last, but one thing is sure – the world will not be the same afterwards. Once the habit is formed, it is not so easy to break out of it.

This doesn’t mean people will continue to shop in bulk, but rather there will be many changes in our lifestyle that have happened on a subconscious level.

Accept the fact the virtual reality is becoming more and more intertwined with real life, and as soon as you adapt to it, you will see the results and higher profits.

You can even convert the most loyal consumers of other brands, by appealing to their emotions. Brands that have developed a strategy for promoting the offer of deliveries will be more respected and attract new buyers, for example.

Conclusion

In the world of entrepreneurship, flexibility has always been the key.

Marketers need to focus on the expectations and habits of consumers, in order to find the right approach.

The Internet has changed the very essence of life, and people will most likely continue to shop online, and those numbers are predicted to only grow over time.

One-click purchases, and deliveries are some of the features people are grateful for in the new age.

The time is only going forward, so don’t let yourself be stuck in the past.

7 blog writing ideas during the Coronavirus outbreak

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7 blog post writing ideas during to coronavirus outbreak

You know that you need to blog regularly. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the lockdowns in its wake, everyone is either sitting home or stuck somewhere.

If you run your own business or if you have a small company, this is a good time to improve your search engine rankings by publishing quality content on your blog.

Depending on which source you decide to trust, roughly 2-4 million blog posts are published every day. 70 million posts are published every month just by WordPress users.

Even if the figure has been reduced by 50% due to the Coronavirus outbreak, 1-2 million blog posts every day is still a very big number.

As I quoted one of the HubSpot reports in a previous blog post, businesses that publish on an average 16 blog posts every month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those businesses that publish on an average 4 blog posts a month.

Hence, consistently posting fresh content on your website is particularly important. As it is, business may be down for you and on top of that if you ignore writing and publish content or blog posts on your website, it is going to make things worse.

But what to publish? People’s priorities seem to have changed. They are either very alarmed and worried about their livelihoods, or they are simply clueless and in shock.

Obviously, Covid-19 or the Coronavirus dominates every discourse these days. People want to read about the virus as much as possible. They want to read about how it is infecting, how bad it is and what are its after-effects. They also want to read about its economic impact.

They may already be going through hardships due to the outbreak.

Nonetheless, they also want to know how to do digital marketing in the times of Covid-19.

Content marketing or digital marketing begins with publishing quality blog posts. If you are running out of ideas, listed below are 7 blog top writing ideas during the Coronavirus outbreak.

1. Write about your personal experience

Blogging is about sharing your personal experience. It is usually written in the first person. You can write a blog post on how the Coronavirus outbreak is personally affecting you.

For example, one of my biggest clients has completely vanished. He was a big income source.

Although personally I don’t recommend depending on a single source of income, in the hubbub of life, you end up ignoring many aspects of your business and one of these aspects was, generating more income streams.

How is your online traffic these days? Has your traffic increased or decreased? This data can give valuable hints to other businesses.

How about your employees or business partners? How is the Coronavirus affecting them?

Many topics and subtopics can be created out of this.

2. Write about what steps you are taking to promote your business during the Covid-19 lockdown

Most of the businesses are itching to get back on their feet. In fact, many governments are more eager to ease out the lockdown than they should.

What it means is, whether you are open for business while the Coronavirus pandemic is at its peak or you plan to open after the dust settles, you need to promote your business.

If you are choosing not to promote right now, rest assured that your competitors are.

The wheels of commerce do not stop. Whether you feel like promoting your business right now or not, you must put in some effort.

Hence, if you are actively promoting your business, what measures are you taking?

Are you trying to improve your SEO? Are you filling the gaps? Are you adding quality content? Are you increasing your social media presence? Are you revitalizing your newsletter? Are you working on that e-book you have been planning to write for years?

There are scores of things you can do to promote your business during the Covid-19 lockdown. Write about them.

3. Write about what has been your work from home experience

Literally millions of people are working from home.

Frankly, aside from the fact that one must remain locked down and be very careful, I have been working from home for years. What has changed is, most of my clients are also working from their homes these days.

What is your experience? Has it affected your productivity? Are you looking forward to working from home for many more months? Or do you need the sword of the office hanging over your neck to remain productive and to deliver?

If you have just recently started working from home, what sort of environment have you created for yourself? How is it affecting your productivity and efficiency?

4. Advise your customers and clients on how to remain safe

This is one of the most pressing concerns these days: how to avoid getting infected by the Coronavirus?

This will be a slight digression from your usual postings (for example, my content is mostly about content writing and content marketing) but since you already have some traffic on your blog, you can use it to raise awareness about how to keep safe from the Coronavirus.

Everybody knows that you must wash your hands repeatedly and keep your face covered and avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes when you think you might have touched something infected.

Nonetheless, you can give some interesting twist. You can also write something on how to avoid getting infected and how to avoid infecting your loved ones if you cannot help going out and you must expose yourself due to an unavoidable reason.

5. Write about the interesting stuff you’re finding on the Internet

Everything is not gloom and doom on the Internet. People are finding plenty of time during the lockdown to create interesting stuff. For example, this family is creating chalk drawings with the help of their little daughter.

Activities during the coronavirus lockdown

People are preparing lists of books they can read during the Coronavirus lockdown. They are creating Netflix lists; music lists and all sorts of lists people can use according to their taste. You can prepare your own list and publish it on your blog.

6. Write about your fitness schedule

One of the biggest problems faced by people who are working from home is that their movement has been curtailed.

People cannot go on walks. People cannot go to the gym. Even the usual physical exercise such as walking on the pavement or using the public transport or using the stairs in the office has been brought to a grinding halt.

Nonetheless, people are using creative ways to keep themselves fit and healthy. There is a deluge of mobile apps that help you follow a well-defined fitness schedule while you are in the lockdown.

Share your fitness schedule. Even if you don’t have any, just talk about how you feel about it.

7. Write about the new things you have discovered about yourself while working under the Coronavirus lockdown

Again, I have always worked from home so when it comes to discovering oneself, I think I have made plenty of discovery.

What about you? If you have just started working from home and that too, due to the Coronavirus lockdown, what have you discovered about yourself? Are you able to work without supervision? Are you missing the meetings or the air of importance that an office gives?

Do you like house chores? Recently I was reading an article where a person says that he has discovered that he loves doing house chores which he used to find boring when he was going to office.

Someone else has written that she really enjoys reading stories to her little kids.

Another person has started compiling lists of to-do apps that can help you work in isolation while keeping track of what you have done and what remains to be done.

A big part of writing blog posts during the Coronavirus lockdown is writing about the pandemic and at the same time writing about you and your business. The topic ideas need to revolve around the current context.

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