Much has been written about admonishing leadership teams of the need and steps for creating vision and mission statements. There are volumes, even books on the subject. This article won’t duplicate or match the conventional wisdom found on the web or in print. But it will endeavor to highlight the best thinking on B2B vision and mission statements. It will also serve to assist company founders, CEOs, and leaders in sound ways to think about them and inspire meaningful creation and use of them in the B2B space.

Are you in the process of updating your B2B digital marketing plan for the upcoming year? Now’s a good time to perform a checkup of your company’s vision and mission statements. Even if you’re not in the budgeting and planning season, gaining more clarity on long-term company direction and near-term focus will pay big dividends towards achieving more significant results.

Or maybe you haven’t created them yet because you’ve been too busy running the business; you’re not sure how they differ; you don’t know how to get started, and you’re not too sure what to do with a vision and mission statement once you have them nailed down.

No worries. This article will help serve as a practical guide for setting or touching up your B2B vision and mission statements. It will cover the following:

• The big picture of B2B vision and mission statements
• Working definitions of each and how they differ
• Characteristics of great vision and mission statements
• Examples of B2B vision and mission statements
• A proven approach for creating them without any brainstorming
• Putting your vision and mission statements to work 

Industry research studies can serve as a barometer to measure the change in key metrics over time. They are useful for pointing out trends, progress, and challenges among similarly situated companies. They help you compare your own experience and performance to others.

One of the most popular uses of online surveys is for businesses to conduct research. By sharing surveys, companies have the opportunity to perform valuable market research that will aid in buyer persona development, journey mapping, lead nurturing, and to obtain valuable feedback. Additionally, Survey Monkey notes, “Surveying your customers to test branding and naming concepts will help you understand the attitudes motivations, and preferences of your customers, especially in relation to your competitors.” Regardless of your motivation for incorporating surveys into your inbound marketing strategies, utilizing the Survey Monkey Integration in HubSpot allows you to take your data and turn it into something actionable.

People make buying decisions much differently today than they did 15…10… even 5 years ago. Gone are the days where a cold call is an acceptable form of capturing the attention of new prospects and customers. In fact, most people don’t even like answering a phone call from a friend, much less have a conversation with someone they have not met. This is just one example of the drastic change businesses have experienced in recent years with generating leads and mapping their buyer’s journey.