It’s a new year, and many business owners are looking for ways to increase their revenue and brand. However, it’s a challenge to make your business stand out with so much competition in the digital world, it’s time to utilize all the tips you learned in the Playbook for success and win the big game and one of the key components of this is Public Relations.
In this day and age, great PR continues to be one of the most effective ways to grow your business with serious brand marketing. Some impactful benefits of PR include:
· Increased brand recognition
· Raised SEO
· Increase credibility
· Positive brand image
· Lead generation
· Attract investors
· Opportunity to educate your audience
· Media coverage/third party endorsement
· Lead generation
Trust plays an enormous role in determining success regardless of your business, and PR is all about building trust. Bill Gates once said, “If I were down to my last dollar, I would spend it on PR
One of the first things I do when building a PR strategy for a client is to create a mission statement. A mission statement is something that you can do on your own and does not only apply only to business owners. For example, you can create a personal mission statement, a mission statement for a team, a teacher can make a mission statement for her class, and a family can create a family mission statement.
I recognize that it’s often not in the budget to hire a PR team, so here are some guidelines to get you started on creating your mission statement.
Creating a Mission Statement
All strategies, tactics, and company/team decisions should reflect the mission statement. Therefore, building a company/team culture and brand starts with a mission statement.
Your mission statement should be both motivational and actionable. It should articulate a company’s purpose and give both you and your team direction
on your company’s goals. Before you can lead, you have to know where you are going! Think of a mission statement as a combination of what your business or group does. Then, how and why it does it — expressed in a way that encapsulates your essential values.
Start with a brainstorming session on a whiteboard or poster board and ask these questions:
· Describe what your company/group does
· Describe how it does what it does
· Why it does what it does
Use words and phrases that capture the sentiment of your business’ value and purpose. Once you have a good list, refine the words and phrases into one to two sentences. Review and consider if the statement will stand the test of time. Take care to build flexibility yet still hold true to your core values. At the end of the editing process, you should have a mission statement that truly reflects what your company is, how it does it and why it does what it does. You may find that people on your team have different views of what you do and why you do it, and this is why this exercise is so valuable. You need to have a team working towards the same goals and sharing the same values to attain those goals.
Here are some examples of effective mission statements from companies you most likely recognize.
Uber
“Uber is evolving the way the world moves. By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through our apps, we make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers.”
Tesla
“Our goal when we created Tesla a decade ago was the same as it is today: to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass-market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
Pay Pal
“To build the Web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution.”
Google
“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Starbucks
“Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.”
Coca-Cola
“To refresh the world…To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…To create value and make a difference.”
Whole Foods
“Our deepest purpose as an organization is helping support the health, well-being, and healing of both people — customers, Team Members, and business organizations in general — and the planet.”
Greenpeace
“Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organization, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.”
American Red Cross
“To prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”
Nike
“Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.”
A successful mission statement should have both internal and external value. It should reflect a clear expression of your values and purpose and help everyone who encounters your brand quickly understand what you are all about. Internally, it can remind you and your employees why you come to work each day and should be a guiding statement in your strategic business decisions. It’s a clear reminder of your company values and vision. Having a clear purpose should inspire your team.
Externally, your mission statement should be a significant factor in your brand identity and values – communicating who you are and what you do. And, ultimately, why they should choose you!
This article is the first in a series geared to give you the tools to apply some basic PR tactics to your business.
Heather Duffy Boylston is the President of The Duffy Co., a full-service PR
firm based in Los Angeles. www.theduffyco.com
heather@theduffyco.com | IG: theheatherduffy
