Why defining a corporate mission is important for digital marketing?

In a DSM article from 2019, entitled Why a company’s mission is integral to digital marketing, we spoke about how a company must have a corporate mission if they are to have any marketplace success. After all, how can a brand know where they’re going if they don’t know who they are? A corporate mission is arguably the most important piece of branding a company can have. Let’s take a look at why that is, and how it fits in the digital marketing:

What’s a mission statement?

A mission statement sums up, in one or two sentences, the entire purpose for a brand’s existence. It usually features three main components:

• Purpose: This is the reason why the company went into business in the first place. In the context of digital marketing, marketers should ask themselves WHY they’re engaging in the activities they do, and how those activities are aligned with the overarching corporate mission.
• Strategy & scope: Here the company’s mission should reveal what products it offers, and how these are able to enhance the lives of their target audience members. It should also talk to the company’s competencies in their field (like creating effective marketing content).
• Values: This part also includes insight into the company culture, as well as business principles, commitment levels, and insight into what the brand strives for. In the digital marketing context, this can be information pertaining to online ethics, GDPR compliance, POPI compliance, etc.

Why mission statements are important in digital marketing:

Our DSM article on company mission statements lays out three core reasons why digital marketing teams should incorporate the brand’s mission in everything they do:

1. Direction

When brainstorming company missions (which should change from time to time depending on socio-economic and socio-political factors in the macro environment), stakeholders will inevitably think about where the brand is going, as well as what the future may appear like if they achieve all their targets and qualitative objectives. This gives all departments (including the digital marketing teams) a direction towards which to work – a common goal that unites the company as a whole.

2. Consistency

Some say that the only constant in life is change, which was an oxymoron until a few years ago. Today, change and evolution is fast becoming an essential survival tactic in most markets, and it could be challenging to wrap your head around the idea of consistent change. All it means is that a company mission gives all staff and stakeholders a single narrative to tell about the brand. However, this narrative should change from time to time as the marketplace changes.

3. Purpose

Imagine you walk into a retail store, and you’re immediately followed by over-excited sales staff looking to sell you something expensive. Chances are you’d leave and write the store off as money hungry. However, what if you knew that the store donates 10% of all sales to the same charity you support. Would that change your opinion of the sales staff’s over-zealousness? Without communicating things like that, customers will never know why they’re giving you their hard-earned money.

There’s not ever been a more perfect time than right now to launch a digital marketing profession. It can be done completely remotely and has been labelled as one of the top industries to be in for 2020.

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