Marketing > Marketing Impact & Performance > Structure, Workflow & Alignment > B2B Marketing Practice Guide on Mission, Vision & Values: Laying the CornerstonesB2B Marketing Practice Guide on Mission, Vision & Values: Laying the Cornerstones
Make it work: Essential Strategies to Align Your B2B Mission, Vision, and Values with Market Impact
For B2B marketers and leaders, understanding how your organization's mission, vision, and values intertwine with marketing strategy isn't just necessary—it's crucial for sustainable growth and impact. This narrative unfolds the blueprint for aligning these core elements to optimize your marketing impact in a B2B environment.
Definition ➔ Mission, Vision & Values
The Origin of Your B2B Identity: Mission, Vision, Values
To understand your organization's true north, you need to delve into the roots of your mission, vision, and values. These elements are the touchstones that shape your brand's persona and the lens through which every marketing decision should be evaluated.
What to Do
Audit your current mission, vision, and values.
Cross-reference these with your brand identity.
Note the alignment or misalignment.
Setting the Marketing Chessboard: Navigating B2B Strategy
Understanding your mission, vision, and values is your first move in the intricate game of B2B marketing. Beyond these elements, you must master the broader business ecosystem, comprising of competitive analysis, market segmentation, and positioning.
What to Do
Conduct a SWOT analysis.
Define your unique value proposition.
Identify your core marketing objectives.
Incorporate these steps into your marketing roadmap to align your broader business strategies with your core mission, vision, and values.
Call to Action: Your B2B North Star
You have identified your mission, vision, and values, and you've aligned them with your broader business strategy. Now it's your turn to implement. Your next step is to craft a detailed marketing plan, aligned with your core objectives.
By the end of this phase, you should be proficient in the theory behind mission, vision, and values, and their crucial role in your B2B marketing strategy.
Why Mission, Vision & Values Are Not Just Wall Art
Most companies have a mission statement, a vision, and a set of values. However, these are often stashed away in some obscure part of their website or office. Let's start by demystifying these terms.
Mission Statement: Your company’s functional and philosophical goal.
Vision: The overarching objective, often more aspirational.
Values: The guiding principles of conduct.
What to do
Conduct a SWOT Analysis to identify gaps between your mission, vision, and values and your current marketing strategy.
Design a framework for aligning your company's core ideals with your marketing objectives.
Sculpting Your Marketing Strategies Around Core Ideals
The alignment of Mission, Vision, and Values with marketing objectives is crucial in today's fast-paced business ecosystem. But how does this fit into the larger Marketing Impact & Performance picture? At the heart, it's all about Structure, Workflow, and Alignment. For instance, SalesForce has notably hinged its marketing strategies around customer success, a direct take from its mission statement.
What to do
Use a Balanced Scorecard to measure how well your marketing activities align with your mission, vision, and values.
Apply the Eisenhower Matrix for task prioritization within your marketing department to ensure alignment with core ideals.
Tailoring Your Marketing Mix: A Symphony of Ideals and Practicality
For a quintessential example, consider IBM’s famous transition from a hardware company to a service-oriented business. Their marketing mix was radically redefined, but all changes were in perfect harmony with their enduring vision of innovation.
What to do
Utilize the 4P’s or 7P’s marketing mix model as a blueprint.
Apply your mission, vision, and values as a filter in decision-making about Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
Summing It All Up: Your Core Ideals are Your North Star
Never underestimate the power of aligning your Mission, Vision, and Values with your marketing strategy. It not only enhances your brand's ethos but creates a sustainable competitive advantage.
What to do
Continually update a dynamic strategy map.
Keep track of your performance metrics through a Marketing Dashboard.
What we've discussed is not an option but a necessity in modern B2B Marketing. So, pick up that mission statement from the forgotten corner of your website and place it at the center of your marketing strategies.
Phase 1: Research & Planning
Step 1: Understand the Company's Core Ideals
Sub-Step 1: Gather Foundational Documents
How-to Guidance: Collect your company's mission statement, vision statement, and core values. If these do not exist, consult with leadership to formulate them.
Sub-Step 2: Stakeholder Interviews
How-to Guidance: Conduct interviews with key stakeholders like founders, executives, and employees to deeply understand the ethos of the company.
Step 2: Conduct Market Analysis
Sub-Step 1: Identify the Target Audience
How-to Guidance: Use tools like Google Analytics, customer surveys, and CRM data to identify your target audience.
Sub-Step 2: Competitive Analysis
How-to Guidance: Examine competitors' content and marketing strategies. Note how they integrate their core ideals, if at all.
Phase 2: Strategy Development
Step 1: Develop Content Personas
Sub-Step 1: Define Key Personas
How-to Guidance: Create 3-5 buyer or user personas, keeping your company’s core ideals in mind.
Sub-Step 2: Content Mapping
How-to Guidance: Develop a content map that aligns with both the buyer's journey stages and your core ideals.
Step 2: Create an Ethical Marketing Framework
Sub-Step 1: Choose Key Message Points
How-to Guidance: Identify 2-3 key message points that clearly resonate with your mission and values.
Sub-Step 2: Identify Marketing Channels
How-to Guidance: Choose marketing channels like social media, email, or PR where these key messages will be most effective.
Phase 3: Content Creation
Step 1: Assemble a Content Team
Sub-Step 1: Identify Roles
How-to Guidance: Identify key roles such as writers, designers, and project managers. Assign team members to these roles based on their skill sets.
Sub-Step 2: Develop a Content Calendar
How-to Guidance: Create a content calendar that outlines what, when, and where you'll publish. Make sure this aligns with your core ideals.
Step 2: Generate Content
Sub-Step 1: Content Outline
How-to Guidance: Draft outlines for the content pieces, incorporating the key message points you previously identified.
Sub-Step 2: Create & Review
How-to Guidance: Create the content, then review it to ensure it aligns with the ethical marketing framework and the company's core ideals.
Phase 4: Distribution & Monitoring
Step 1: Distribute Content
Sub-Step 1: Utilize Planned Channels
How-to Guidance: Distribute your content via the marketing channels you identified earlier, keeping track of engagement metrics.
Sub-Step 2: Employee Advocacy
How-to Guidance: Engage employees to share the content on their networks for organic reach.
Step 2: Monitor and Evaluate
Sub-Step 1: Track Key Metrics
How-to Guidance: Use analytics tools to measure metrics like engagement, reach, and ROI.
Sub-Step 2: Stakeholder Feedback
How-to Guidance: Gather feedback from stakeholders and audiences to gauge how well the content aligns with the company’s mission, vision, and values.
Phase 5: Case Studies: Real-World Applications
Step 1: Choose Companies for Case Studies
Sub-Step 1: Identify Potential Candidates
How-to Guidance: Create a list of companies that exemplify best practices in ethical marketing. Research their mission, vision, and values to see how these are integrated into their marketing.
Sub-Step 2: Seek Permission
How-to Guidance: Contact the companies to seek permission for featuring them in your case studies.
Step 2: Conduct Research
Sub-Step 1: Gather Data
How-to Guidance: Collect relevant data such as customer testimonials, sales figures, and key performance indicators that support how the integration of mission, vision, and values positively impacts the company.
Sub-Step 2: Interviews
How-to Guidance: Conduct interviews with company representatives to gain insight into their process for aligning their ethical frameworks with their marketing strategies.
Step 3: Compile and Present
Sub-Step 1: Draft Case Study
How-to Guidance: Write the case study, incorporating all the data and insights you’ve gathered. Highlight the tangible benefits of aligning a company’s mission, vision, and values with its marketing strategy.
Sub-Step 2: Internal Review
How-to Guidance: Have the draft reviewed internally for accuracy and alignment with your own ethical marketing framework.
Sub-Step 3: Publish and Distribute
How-to Guidance: Once reviewed and approved, publish the case study through your chosen marketing channels. Consider creating different formats, such as PDFs, blog posts, or even video content, for diverse audience preferences.
Marketing > Marketing Impact & Performance > Structure, Workflow & Alignment > B2B Marketing Practice Guide on Mission, Vision & Values: Laying the Cornerstones