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Your mission statement is one of the first ways you represent your business to new customers and shapes your brand reputation with your target audience. Along with a vision statement and your core values, your mission statement helps your customers, employees, and partners understand what drives your business.
When writing your mission statement, focus on your brand’s audience, the value you bring to that audience, and how you’re going to accomplish that goal.
What is a brand mission statement?
Your brand mission statement is an expression of your purpose, and it’s the foundation of your brand’s reputation. It communicates what you aim to do for your target audiences.
Usually, an effective mission statement identifies your target audience to highlight who will benefit from engaging with your brand. For example, you might be targeting people aged 30+ who are new parents.
A strong mission statement will also be rooted in action and differentiate your brand from competitors. It should reflect not only your brand’s core products or services, but also the unique ways you deliver them.
How to write a brand mission statement
Start brainstorming by looking at an existing brand’s mission statement. Take the time to understand what makes those mission statements work well. For example, is the value proposition for potential customers clear? Or is it a great mission statement because it helps you understand the company’s purpose or company goals?
There are three core things to remember when crafting a mission statement.
Clearly address the audience you’re speaking to by identifying them.
Inspire them with the value your brand will bring to their lives.
Show them how you’re going to do that, in a way that sets you apart from peers and builds trust with your audience.
Get to the root of your mission statement by asking yourself:
What are the concrete details of how I will solve this problem?
Can I accomplish this vision by developing a product, creating a service, writing a book, or something entirely different?
Is the solution attainable to create? Do I have the financial or physical resources?
Do I enjoy doing this work and have the ability to make this happen?
Who will this product or service serve and will it meaningfully solve their problems?
Remember to think about your long-term goals. A mission statement isn’t just about what you aim to do now, but what you aim to do for the long haul.
The length of your mission statement depends on how expansive you need to be to differentiate yourself. If it takes one sentence to do that—great. If not, don’t be afraid to break the statement up to make it easy on the reader. As a rule of thumb, most mission statements are three sentences or less.
Feeling stuck? Use Squarespace AI to start a mission statement draft.
Mission statement examples
Consider Squarespace as an example. Our mission statement is: “We believe design is the ultimate competitive advantage. We build products that help entrepreneurs stand out and succeed.”
The purpose is to help people stand out and succeed. But which people? “Entrepreneurs,” which includes creators, small business owners, and anyone with a cool idea. How does Squarespace help its audience be more successful? With design, “the ultimate competitive advantage.”
Other good mission statement examples might be:
Helping freelance creatives manage the administrative tasks of running a business with tested expertise.
Help women rethink mental health by providing free resources and individual therapy.
Each of these mission statements could translate into action items in a business plan. For example, the first person might offer tax or legal services to freelance creatives. The second person could start a social media account for sharing mental health tips and offer sliding scale therapy sessions.
Mission statements vs. vision statements
It’s important to create clear mission and vision statements. While they’re closely connected, each statement serves a different purpose for your brand. The mission statement covers how you’ll deliver your brand offering to your customers. Your vision statement, on the other hand, focuses on how the world will be positively affected by that engagement.
You can use these statements internally for yourself and any stakeholders, and externally across your brand touchpoints. They might appear on the landing page of your website or in your marketing campaigns, for example.
The end result of having strong mission and vision statements is that they influence your brand reputation and business goals. When people think of you, it will be in line with your mission and vision. In decision-making, you can refer to your mission, vision, or values to guide choices around the projects you take on and who you work with.
Ready for the next step? Learn how to establish a compelling brand message and voice.
This post was updated on May 24, 2023.