Should you include a mission statement in your website?
The age old question: To mission statement or to not mission statement.
I think one of the most common mistakes a business owner can make with their copy is putting their mission statements smack on their homepage, specifically above their services.
I think its particularly tough for sensitive business owners because our why is so important to us, it drives us to our stinkin’ laptops everyday!
But we forget that our mission is a selling factor not the product or service being sold.
A lot of magical biz-owners I work with have non-tangible things advertised all over their homepage, but they need a strong call to action of something they can actually purchase.
Its a lot for your reader to try to understand your heart space before they understand what you do!
Because were taught to write from general to specific, introduce the topic, then get to the goods, we gotta switch our instincts around. That’s why website copywriting isn’t second hand nature, because you gotta get stupidly specific, then you can take the customer into the bigger picture!
How to get specific:
Write down three tangible solutions you offer, THEN COPY & PASTE THEM THROUGHOUT YOUR WHOLE WEBSITE!
Noodle on your offer before stressing about marketing.
Service providers, as they are humans with multitudes, get in their heads about everything they could do for money, every single on of their skills, instead of niching down and dominating one part of the market. Sooooo don’t market before you know exactly what your business is about.
Focus your less about your values (and plans to crusade across the universe and fix it) and MORE on your ideal client, what they want, and their exact problem.
I’m not saying your wider mission has no place in your website. It should just be configured as a getting-to-know-you detail on your About Page, an additional reason to trust you, a cherry-on-top, not the whole damn sundae.
Check out mine my About Page reference!
TL;DR
Should you have a mission statement on your website?
Long story short, yes, but not listed as the first thing you see. If your mission is seamlessly written into your About Page blurb, you have a better chance of readers engaging with it instead of skipping over the titled “Our Mission” section, because that can feel robotic and buzz-wordy.