Transcripts
1. Introduction: By the end of this class, you'll have an engaging and
dynamic mission statement you can use as the basis
for your social media bios, profile pages, about pages, resume, and even your
Skillshare class intros. In fact, the versatile formula I'll share with you
today can be adapted for any situation where you need to describe what you do quickly and authentically in
a way that's both informative and that gets across your brand's personality. You don't need any
special writing skills or experience to
take this class, just an appetite to tell
your story. Hello, I'm Ruth. I'm a creative copywriter
and storyteller who writes persuasive copy for
businesses and charities. I'm on a mission
to help you write your own mission statement for your business or personal brand. As a full-time
professional copywriter, I'm paid to write promotional
copy that increases sales, builds customer engagement, and achieves marketing
goals so I know what works. What I'm about to teach
you will take your brand storytelling
to the next level. Let's get started.
2. Get Inspired: In this lesson, we'll gather the resources and
tools you'll need to write your mission statement and complete your project. First, open Download or Print out the mission
statement worksheet. You can find a link in the class description
or the Resources tab. Here is the
full-sentence formula you'll use to craft
your mission statement. You will start by
introducing yourself, then move on to who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and the mission you're
looking to achieve. In the lessons that follow, I'll guide you through each section of your
mission statement. Worksheet contains prompts
and ideas to support you, so you'll find it useful to
have it nearby to refer to. You'll also need something
to write with and on. I always prefer
pencil and paper for more creative
exercises like this but you can also do
it electronically. It can be helpful to have existing bios or profiles handy, both your own and those of
others you find inspiring. In particular, note any
descriptive words or phrases you're drawn to
and would like to include. Have a browse through
the class projects and comments to get
inspiration from the examples I've
curated and the mission statements
of other people who've taken this class. When you've completed this class and written your
own mission statement, please share it here
too as a project, so that your mission
can inspire others.
3. Introduce Yourself: Hello. I'm Ruth. I know you knew that already. But I'm saying it again
because the first step in the mission statement
formula is to greet your reader and to
introduce yourself. This step may seem
simple and even obvious, but the words you use at the very start of your
mission statements are significant because they set
the tone for what follows. For example hello, hi, hey, and howdy, are all informal greetings, perfect if you want
to come across as friendly and approachable. Alternatively,
greetings, welcome, or good day, are more formal
or perhaps a little quirky. They're good choices
if those qualities are central to your personal
or business brand. Other options are
including a greeting in another language if that aligns with your
cultural identity. Or perhaps there's a
greeting that's specific to your role or industry that may resonate with your audience. For example, ahoy, might work well for a
nautical themed brand. Now that you've
greeted your reader, you're going to
introduce yourself. For a personal brand, "I'm" works well as
an informal option, and "I am", for a
more formal one. The business or group
equivalents are plural forms, "we're" and "we are". An important thing to note about these options is that they're
first-person pronouns. They set the perspective for the rest of the
mission statement, which will all be written
in the first-person. When you write in
the first-person using the words I and we, you're writing feels
person and direct. It helps create a connection and empathy with your reader. The alternative is writing
in the third person. This is where you talk about
yourself or your brand from the point of view
of an outside observer. Writing in this way
comes across as more formal and impersonal. So while there might be
occasions where you need to convert your mission statement
into the third person, the first-person is almost
always a better choice, starting right here
with your introduction. To finish this first sentence, simply add your name or
the name of your brand. As with your greeting, think about how formal or
casual you want to sound, the context your
statement will appear in, and the expectations
of your audience. The first few words of your mission statement
are an opportunity to set the tone for what follows and there are lots of options. Write your own intro
now and remember, you can always revisit it
later on and make changes. Next up, you'll
define your identity.
4. Define Your Identity: The next sentence of
your mission statement will tell your reader
a lot about who you are and your
brand personality in just a few short words. Start by identifying
an objective that describes your
personal or business brand. How do you want to come across? What's the most
important quality of your brand that makes
you stand apart? There are so many options
to choose from here. I've listed a handful
on the worksheets. If you search online for
adjectives to describe myself or adjectives to
describe a business, you'll see hundreds more. It's a good idea to brainstorm
possible ideas here. You can ask friends, family, or colleagues for
positive words they would use to describe
you or your brand. This is a useful exercise in itself because it helps you see your brand more clearly and explore what's important to you. Come up with a short list
of six or seven adjectives, that way you have a
few different options to experiment with. When you've written the
rest of your statements, it might be that
one adjective fits better with the overall
feel of your mission. The second part of this
sentence is a noun that describes what you are
or what your brand is. Here are a few examples. The ones on the left apply
to an individual and the ones on the right apply
to a business or group. How specific you want to
be here may depend on your target audience or the context your mission
statement is used in. For example in your
Instagram bio, it might be enough to describe
yourself as an artist. On your Etsy page you
might want to be more specific and describe yourself
as a watercolor artist. In your profile
for an art studio, you could be even
more descriptive, describing yourself as a watercolor artist
specializing in landscapes. Again, create a few
variations and revisit this sentence later on when the rest of your
statement is complete. Have you got a few ideas but defining your identity? Great. Your mission statement is
really starting to take shape. Now let's explain what you do and who you do it for.
5. Explain What You Do: The next sentence
you'll work on sits at the heart of your
mission statement, it explains what you do
and who you do it for. Crucially, it brings
your target audience, so probably also
the people who will be reading your
mission statement into your story and begins to explain what you
can do for them. Start by saying what you do, keep it simple,
and avoid jargon. If you're not sure
where to start, begin with a two-word
verb, noun description. For example, a jewelry maker might start with,
I make jewelry. There's nothing wrong
with that description, but if we look at the
previous sentence of this jewelry maker's
mission statement, we can see it's repetitive, which makes it boring to read. Swapping in synonyms,
words that mean the same or similar will give
it more personality. Some synonyms for make or
create, produce, and craft. Any one of those will work here. Another way of describing
jewelry is wearable art. Or instead of using a synonym, we could be more specific. For example, we could replace jewelry with earrings
and necklaces. Finally, to add a
bit of personality, this jewelry maker could pop in an extra adjective to
describe their work. Consistency is important here. Earlier they described
themselves as maverick, now they're describing
their work as traditional. Those descriptions
are almost opposites and it comes across as jarring. They first need to
decide what kind of brand personality
they want to portray, then choose words
that reflect that. Maverick could
become conventional or traditional
could become zany. Next, name your target audience, the type of person you
do what you do for, your ideal customer or
client or consumer. Bear in mind that in most cases, people in this
group will also be the ones reading your
mission statement, so you'd language that your target group is
likely to identify with. For example, if you
run a restaurant with a target demographic
of young people, the word foodie might resonate, whereas if you're aiming
for an older clientele, gastrinoma might be
more appropriate. Adjectives are at your
service here too, and you can use them to narrow and flatter your
target audience. In this example, we might add the word adventurous
or discerning. Your mission statement
is really taking shape. Now, you've defined
what you do and identified your target audience, now, it's time for the
really meaty part, your brand mission.
6. Craft Your Mission: Congratulations on
your hard work so far. There's just one
sentence left to right. This final sentence
starts with the words, I'm on a mission to. The rest of the
sentence is up to you. The fact that this
part of the formula is so open means that this is the part of your mission
statements where you can really exercise your creativity. Think about your vision, what you want to achieve
through your work, and what you're
passionate about, and put that into words. Here are a few pointers, starting with tone of voice. We touched on the
importance of having a consistent tone throughout your mission statements
in earlier lessons. Choosing individual words
that reflect your story is the perfect way to develop a unique and recognizable
voice for your brand. Here's part of the
mission statements of two different
garden designers. They both follow the
mission statement formula and give the same
basic information, but look at the
difference in tone. One is sophisticated, stylish, and elegant, the other
is down-to-earth, rugged, and vigorous. Here is the final sentence for one of these mission statements. Which one would you match it to? The words prettify, subtle, and delicacy, or a perfect match for our sophisticated gardener. How would you complete the down-to-earth gardener's
mission statement? Of course, there
are many options, but how about this
with its imagery of stamping out blooms
and injecting vigor? Think about your brand's
personality and how you can bring it to life with
vibrant, consistent language. Another thing we touched on earlier is the
importance of putting your audience or target reader at the heart of your mission. Using the word you, somewhere in your
mission statement is a straightforward but
powerful way to do this. Addressing your reader as you in your copy creates a direct
connection with them. It also makes it clear how
your work can benefit them. Let's take another look
at the final sentence of our down-to-earth gardener's
mission statement. Look what happens when
we replace the phrase local gardens with your garden. Just that small change has made this whole statement more immediate and relevant
to the reader. Write the final sentence
of your statement now. In the next lesson, you'll combine all the elements, give your mission
a final polish, and learn how to adapt it
for different contexts.
7. Perfect and Adapt: Now you've written each sentence of your mission statement. It's time to look at the
statements as a whole and see if you need to make
a few tweaks to perfect it. One thing you might notice about your statement is that it repeats the word I or we a lot, this can come across
as a little clumsy. You can see what I
mean in this example, the word we appears four times. One way to fix this is to
combine two sentences into one. The first two
sentences are often a good bet because they're
probably also the shortest, so you don't risk ending up with a sentence that's long
and difficult to follow. The last sentence can
also be altered to remove the word we
simply by replacing, we're on a mission to, with our mission is to. Similarly, if your
mission statement reads, I'm on a mission to, you might replace that
with my mission is to. Those simple changes
have made this statement flow much more smoothly
and as a bonus, they've also made it
two words shorter. When you're writing
social media buyers and most online copy, it's so important to be concise. Those few words can
make a big difference. Spend a bit of time with your mission statement
and see if there are any other small
tweaks you want to make to give it a final polish. One thing I love about this mission statement
copywriting formula is that it's
extremely versatile. Once you've got your basic
statements and it's getting across the right information
in a consistent tone, you can tweak it to make it
suitable for any context. If you need a shorter statement, you can easily cut out some of those adjectives without
losing the meaning. If you have more space, you can use your
mission statement as a foundation to build on. This would be a great
tactic to use for the about page of a
website for example. Your mission
statement can also be adapted for specific purposes. Do you remember how I introduce myself at the start
of this class? It was with the words,
"Hello, I'm Ruth, I'm a creative copywriter
and storyteller who writes persuasive copy for
businesses and charities. Now I'm on a mission
to help you write your own mission statement for your business or
personal brand." Well, I hope we've both
achieved our mission today and that you're happy with your new mission statement. I can't wait to read it.
8. Next Steps: Thank you for choosing
this class today and congratulations you've
written and engaging, dynamic and versatile mission
statement you can use to tell your brand story
and your unique voice. There's just one
thing left to do, and that's to share your
mission statement as a project. I'd love reading your
projects and I'm really excited to see how you
tell your unique story. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like my feedback or help with any aspect of writing
your statements. If you're ready to learn more advanced
copywriting techniques or take a deeper dive
into a particular area of copyrighting check out my
other Skill Share classes for a thorough overview of
the basics of copyrighting, join my copywriting
essentials class, or learn to write better
social content with my social media
copywriting masterclass. Both classes are packed
with detailed walkthroughs, real-life examples and
professional templates, which will help you
tell your brand story and write effective
marketing copy. Visit my profile page to see my full collection of
Skillshare copywriting classes. Thank you again for
joining me today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Ruth Clowes, Professional Copywriter
