How to Align Your Company’s Mission With Your Content Marketing Strategy
You may have a strong, well-developed company mission and vision that summarizes your organization’s long-term plans and values. You may also have a brilliant content marketing strategy, capable of attracting thousands of new people to your brand and keeping your current customers engaged. But how well do these two areas of your brand strategy mesh?
My experience in working with small- to mid-sized business owners, in particular, is that content marketing strategies often get treated as separate entities, distinct from a brand’s core mission and objectives. Why? Because it’s seen as an external platform, like an advertisement, when it should be seen as both an external display and a showcase of your internal values. In this article, I’ll show you how you can use your content marketing strategy as a platform to support your brand’s mission and vision.
The Importance of Brand Consistency
First, I want to draw your attention to the importance of brand consistency across all your platforms. This is the only way you’re going to be able to build continuity with your customers; even if you have a personal brand or a logo on display to visibly demonstrate that this content was written by your brand, it isn’t “you” if it deviates from your main identity. This is true no matter what medium you’re pursuing, including social media marketing and paid advertising; whenever a reader encounters your brand, he/she should have the same “feel,” or the same overall experience, which should directly tie into the identity you created for yourself through your mission or objectives.
Drawing Topics From Your Mission and Objectives
Mimicking the aesthetics and style one would associate with your overall brand is a good way to tie your identity closer to your content campaign, but don’t be afraid to draw new topics directly from your mission and objectives to further your association with those causes. For example, if you’ve explicitly stated your desire to reduce carbon emissions through the use of green technology, why not write the occasional post on how to be more environmentally friendly in the business world? If you’re out to improve educational resources, why not highlight an interesting case study or news development in the educational realm?
Tone and Demographics
It’s also important to keep your demographics and your tone in mind throughout your content campaign, with your mission and objectives dictating your operations along those angles. For example, let’s say your mission is to help teams improve communication and bond with one another. Why not practice what you preach by writing in a more conversational, collaborative style, with ample opportunities for your readers to engage directly with you? This is a way of demonstrating your mission through your writing style, targeting exactly the types of people you sought to impress in the first place.
Announcing Your Efforts
If you’re involved in a mission or objectives related to corporate social responsibility, you’ll probably be involved in at least a handful of efforts related to those objectives. For example, if you’re all about building the economy in your local community, you might get involved as a speaker in an entrepreneurial summit, or your team might volunteer for some reconstruction efforts in your area to encourage more business development. When you engage in these opportunities, don’t be afraid to show them off. You can write up and submit a press release, or at the very least develop an on-site post covering your efforts. It makes a big impact when you put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.
Images and Video
Throughout your content campaign, you’ll need to use images and videos to demonstrate your capacity to follow through on your mission and objectives. This can be applied to almost any of the strategies I listed above; for example, you can include photos of your team participating in your cleanup efforts, or you can live stream a video of your speech at the entrepreneurial event. Visual content is more engaging, which will mean higher rates of social visibility and sharing, ultimately producing a more substantial boost for your brand.
Touchpoints and Ongoing Considerations
Throughout your efforts to incorporate more of your mission and vision into your content campaign, you’ll need to carefully evaluate your impact, the same you would any adjustment. Post new mission-related materials only periodically, never neglecting your core content campaign, and be sure to watch how your prospective and current customers react. You’ll almost certainly need to make adjustments along the way.
If your organization has a strong mission and vision at the center of its operations, there’s no reason why your content marketing strategy shouldn’t be there to promote it and back it up. Let your customers know exactly what kind of company is behind the content they’re reading, and make your values known to your readership. As you’ve seen, all it takes is a handful of adjustments, including a few new types of content and a few modifications to your current lineup, and the benefits can be highly significant to your brand visibility and reputation.
For more content like this, be sure to check out my podcast, The Entrepreneur Cast!
