As a freelancer, you probably know that your skills can speak for themselves. But since the freelance market is growing everyday, creating a solid marketing plan is an effective tool to help you stand out as an independent worker. A quick and easy way to differentiate yourself in the talent pool is to create a mission statement for your business. Knowing how to write a mission statement is a simple process that allows you to stay focused while showing-off your professionalism and direction to clients. Crafting one will also give you a minute to re-evaluate your business, what it means to you, and its ultimate purpose in the marketplace.
Writing a mission statement for your freelance business
A mission statement should range from a couple sentences to about a paragraph long—it is key that it is a digestible size for your clients, who normally won’t bother to read anything too lengthy, or muddled and wordy. Intrepid Freelancer says 145 characters is a good amount to aim for. Workhoppers has compiled key advice for how to write a mission statement in just a few simple steps.
The first thing you should do is to ask yourself the following questions and jot down the answers in bullet-point form: What are your reasons for wanting to be a freelancer? What kind of freelance work do you do? Who are your customers? How do you describe your brand and what makes it distinctive and unmistakable from competitors? This should get the ideas flowing and help you find the optimal descriptive words to use in your final draft.
Using ideas and key words from your bullet point brainstorm fill in the following positioning statement template to start shaping the structure of your personal brand.
For [insert Target Market]
the [insert name of product/brand/service],
is [insert Point of Differentiation, single most important claim]
among all [insert Frame of Reference]
because [insert support for claim].
(Source: http://blog.ecornell.com/how-to-write-market-positioning-statements/)
Although it does not need to be followed exactly (and can certainly be re-ordered!) this template on how to write a mission statement addresses the major points needed to position your business. The “Point of Differentiation” is what makes you stand out amongst the talent pool and the “Frame of Reference” is this talent pool itself (i.e. your competitors). The last insert asks you to support your claims: what is it that makes your business all that it strives to be?
Make sure that the language you use is tailored to your target market. If you are doing B2B marketing than your diction and syntax should be different (i.e. more formal) than if you offer services directly to consumers. Make sure wording is age-appropriate—if you are targeting millennials, you might speak to them quite differently than you would to their baby-boomer parents.
Lastly, make sure that you can deliver on all of your promises. If your mission statement seems to be overselling your competency, then tone down the exaggeration! It’s not about making yourself sound like the absolute best in your field, but rather making sure the customers know—honestly—who you are as a brand and as a service.
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