How to Write a Mission Statement, In 3 Steps

A straightforward guide to writing a clear and honest “About Us” for your project.

Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash

The Why

Mission statements are critical. If you’re a founder or early employee, you probably know all the ins and outs of what you’re trying to accomplish.

But it’s very important that you get this down on paper in a clear, honest and inspiring way. Not only is an “About Us” statement the easiest and clearest way to explain what your business is, but, as you grow, it will also provide direction to new employees and ensure that all team-members are working toward the same goal.

Also, younger consumers are more focused on the company behind the products they buy than ever before. They want to know not just what you make, but why you make it and what you stand for.

A December 2016 Forbes article profiling millennials explained that, “more than 50% of millennials make an effort to buy products from companies that support the causes they care about…”

Thus, this is an easy opportunity to market to these value-driven customers, increase loyalty with existing users, and ensure company cohesion.

So here’s how to do it.

Let’s take it sentence-by-sentence

1. What you do

The first sentence can take one of two formats, depending how formal your company is:

• We are [describe what your business does in 2–10 words].
• [Company Name] is a [describe what your business does in 5–10 words].

The first option is a more informal choice, better suited for a startup or younger company, while the second, more formal option may be a better choice for a business in a more corporate or traditional field.

If you want to include the year you were founded, you should do so in this sentence as well, as shown in the option below.

• Founded in [year], [Company Name] is a [describe what your business does in 5–10 words].

For Quinn, this structure could be filled in as:

• We are content marketers.
• Quinn is a content marketing agency.

2. How you do it

Next, devote 1–2 sentences to explaining how you do what you do.

Here are four options of how to present this information:

• We [verb] [service you provide] for [your audience].
• We [verb] [your audience] [service you provide].
• We [verb] [your audience] [verb] [noun] by [verb] [service you provide].
• We [verb] [your audience] [verb] [service you provide] to [verb] [goal your company aims to achieve].

Returning to Quinn, we could fill in these templates as follows:

• We produce written content and develop marketing strategies for companies and entrepreneurs.
• We help entrepreneurs and companies improve their written content production and strategy.
• We help entrepreneurs and companies improve their marketing by producing written content and optimizing their online strategy.
• We help entrepreneurs and companies create better content to optimize their online exposure, increase customer loyalty, and solidify their brand voice.

The best option for your project will depend on your business structure and how your relate to your customers.

3. Why you do it

Now that you’ve addressed the logistics of your business, you should identify the aspiration of your company, the actual “mission” of your mission statement.

The mission of your company should be the larger objective that your product or service aims to achieve, the final goal that your daily tasks are working toward.

This should be an aspirational statement, but it should still be honest. Don’t feel pressured to make your business sound like a charity when it’s not. Customers can see through that pretty quickly.

Once you’ve identified your mission, you can present it with one of the following structures:

• We want to [verb] [audience] to [verb] [adverb].
• Through [noun], we [verb] [audience].
• We are [verb ending in “-ing”] [audience]

Using Quinn as an example, we could say:

• We want to empower businesses to tell powerful, effective stories and reach the best audience possible.
• Through powerful, effective storytelling, we connect businesses with their best audience.
• We are enabling businesses to tell their story in a powerful, effective way and connect with their best audience.

All Together Now

Once you have at least one option for each phrase, it’s time to put them all together in one, short paragraph and edit for style.

Picking three options for Quinn, we get:

• We are content marketers. We help entrepreneurs and companies improve their marketing by producing written content and optimizing their online strategy. Through powerful, effective storytelling, we connect businesses with their best audience.

At this point, you should get some outside eyes on what you’ve come up with. Have a few co-workers or friends read it over to see if any parts of it seem repetitive or wordy.

Lastly — Share Away

You successfully distilled the actions and goals of your company down to a straightforward paragraph. You can feature this final statement prominently on your website, share with members of your company (especially new hires), and use for bios on social media.

Now that you’ve got your mission written down, time to go out and achieve it.