Before you start making major improvements to your site, consider what you want your mission statement to be.
This is not something to take lightly; it is important that you are able to communicate to your audience who you are and what you do. Make sure you are clear about why your business is great and why they should choose it over your competitors.
Businesses need websites these days in order to reach their customers, and you want to design your site to help people shop and contact you online. But the goal of your website needs to be reflected in your site’s content and structure. Including a mission statement for your site can help you keep your goals in mind when you design it and make improvements to it, and a mission statement is a great way to tell your audience about your brand’s values.
Every business has certain goals they want to achieve through their website. You might want to improve sales by expanding onto the digital landscape or educate people on topics related to your business. While your initial goal for your site might be to sell lots of products or boost the number of visitors your site gets, a mission statement needs to run deeper than that. Your mission statement is as unique as your business, and it is intended to share the reason your company exists, what you want to accomplish, and what problems you solve for your audience.
Writing a Clear Mission Statement
Start with writing out the ideas you may have about your statement, highlight the ideals for your company that are not focused on making money. Focus on what you offer your audience. It needs to be relatively short, just one or two sentences, straightforward, something that works in the long term, and that reflects your products or services. What is the value that you have to offer your audience? Try to answer this question while being clear but not so specific that you end up limiting your company in some way.
Questions for Crafting a Mission Statement
These questions can help guide you in making your mission statement. Try answering these questions to determine the exact goals for your business and website. You can always change your mission statement later if your business evolves to the point that the mission statement you make now is no longer relevant.
- What makes your business or product unique?
- Why do you offer this product or service, aside from making money?
- What can people do with your products and services?
- How do your products enhance their lives?
- Why should they buy your products or listen to the advice on your site instead of your competitors’?
Once you decide on what your mission statement says, make sure you talk to your employees about what it means for you and how it reflects on your brand. After you have written your mission statement and communicated it to your team, it is time to tell your audience!
How to Communicate Your Mission Statement
Now that the mission statement is written, you need to place it on your website and get the word out about it.
About or Mission Statement Page
Most sites have an about page to tell visitors about who you are and what you do. This is a great way to communicate your mission statement to visitors. If your site does not currently have an about section, you should consider adding one. This is an ideal section to really help with your branding. It can also help increase the trust your visitors have in your website and brand.
Introductory Content
Since your mission statement is about you, it should impact your website’s rest of the content. Your mission statement is all about what makes your brand unique, so make sure that shows up in the rest of your site; having contradictory things on your site between your mission statement and other pages can harm the trust your audience has in you.
You want to tell people enough information to get their attention right away when they click on your site. Who you are and what you sell needs to be obvious, and since that information is included in your mission statement, putting it on other pages of your site can help you grab that attention before they click away.
Headings
You can also communicate your mission through your headings — the headings of pages and headlines of posts on your page can help you communicate your mission statement as well. Ensure that each one communicates a different aspect of your overall goals for your products and services and are written to get visitors’ attention to your site.
Pictures
You do not need to rely solely on words to communicate your company’s mission. Images are a vital part of any website, and they can be part of your site’s storytelling. When selecting pictures to put on your site, keep your mission in mind. Depending on what your business is, this can be easy or difficult; a clothing store having photos of clothing on their site makes perfect sense, and they can use those pictures in a way that conveys the mission statement.
Final Thoughts
It is important that you keep your mission statement in mind for everything you do or create on your website. You need to remain consistent in your content, headings, picture, and even your site structure to ensure that it clearly reflects your mission statement. This should also be incorporated into your social media posts, advertisements, customer service, and more. Try to keep the experience the same in any way that a person will come into contact with your company.
Businesses are all created because they have something to offer their audience, and your mission statement sums it all up for your audience. This is why it is so important to communicate it with your audience. It is another aspect of branding that is important when making up the identity of your company.
