Why your content needs a mission statement

Mission statements...those 2-3 lines of text that supposedly define a company's purpose in the world. Agonized over for months, tweaked, passed around, then pretty much abandoned when it is buried deep in the "About Us" section of your website.

To me, the intent of a mission statement (or any of its iterations, like Vision Statement of Value Proposition), is to be a checkpoint against strategy, and two recent events made me realize that a mission statement could be a very powerful tool, if written for a different application.

First, I was working with a client on their content marketing strategy and a drip campaign. The goal was obviously more leads, but a shift in core product focus (and buyer persona) meant we needed to rethink the blog, guest articles, and other content initiatives so they would hit the new mark. We had to take a step back and define that those new marks would be, and how each idea we created would contribute to the overall goal and success of the campaign.

Second, I'm reading Ann Handley's book, Everybody Writes. It's fantastic, and the lessons will no doubt be woven into future blog posts. In Chapter 7, Ann talks about a "Think before you Ink" mentality, which means "finding your key point by asking three questions about every bit of content you're creating." Summarized, the questions are:

1. Why am I creating this?
2. What is my point of view?
3. Why does it matter? (also known as the "what-because" exercise)

If you combine the content strategy example with Ann's three questions, every piece of content you write will have purpose, not just for your audience, but for your business.

I'd like to take that one step further, and say you should define a mission for your content strategy as a whole. A Content Mission Statement, if you will.

Why does my content strategy need its own mission statement?

When you have an overarching theme and purpose for the content you create throughout the company, you have a checkpoint for voice, tone, measurement, format, and distribution.

You can go through the "what-because" process much more easily, because you already have the end point.

Your audience will get a consistent dose of your brand voice everywhere they look, building reputation and ultimately new business opportunity.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a Content Mission Statement? Will you create one for your company? Share it in the comments, let's hear what you're all about!