There are many things you think about when forming a company and helping it maintain prominence in the marketplace. They might include which products to sell, the way your logo looks and which company values to uphold.
Together, all those factors combine to propel a much larger element of your company: Its vision. Keep reading to learn what a company vision is and why it’s important, plus how to display it clearly online.
The What and Why of a Company Vision
Your company’s vision is a definition of what you want to achieve in the future and why you started the business at all. Having such a vision is crucial because it gives consumers insight into the company’s priorities and what they can expect by interacting with your brand.
A vision statement is not the same as a mission statement. The latter describes what your company intends to do to achieve its vision.
General Qualities of a Good Corporate Vision
Although it is usually written in present tense, a company vision often looks ahead and could describe things that are at least five years, and potentially as much as a decade, into the future. Craft a vision statement that clearly reflects the nature of your business and don’t worry too much if it seems a little far-fetched for now. You might be surprised what you could achieve with a talented team and the right tools.
Your vision should also be easy to convey to employees. When they feel they can stand behind what you hope to achieve, they’re more likely to show higher levels of engagement. Now that you know some of the things an excellent company vision embodies, let’s look at some web-based examples of businesses that have showcased strong and relevant company visions.
Back Your Words Up With Actions
It’s not essential to write dozens of words for your company vision. In fact, you might just take the approach of Life Is Good and use only five:
Although the accompanying text on the website explains the “Spreading the Power of Optimism” vision further, the white headline on the black background gets the point across immediately. Also, check out the gray banner at the top of the screenshot that indicates Life Is Good donates 10 percent of its net profits to children in need. That banner demonstrates the company is not only promoting optimism’s power but giving it momentum through practical means.
Show Your Ideas Through Words and Graphics
You’ve already learned about how your vision describes what you want to do in the future. However, it can also go a step further, as the one for Y Studios does, and explain how your company is going to positively shape the future.
Using strong language and helpful graphics, the Y Studios statement reveals plans to communicate “the vision of the new business landscape” by studying socio-cultural shifts and putting energy into research programs that create innovative solutions and identify new consumers, among other things.
The nature of the internet makes it easy to depend on graphics if you think they’ll help you get points across with more clarity. Y Studios does that with chart-like imagery that breaks down certain aspects of the overall vision.
Discuss the Vision By Speaking to Specific Audiences
Emphasizing the ways your business can make life better is especially important if you sell products. People have lots of choices when it comes to figuring out which companies to do business with and the ones to pass by. In most cases, individuals want to make their lives better, which is a desire highlighted in IKEA’s vision statement.
The phrase, “To create a better everyday life for the many people” sums up everything IKEA wants to do, and interestingly enough, this vision is communicated on a part of the company’s website devoted to recruiting new team members. Although this is not necessarily a conventional approach, it makes sense, especially because many people want jobs that let them do good things for others.
If you choose to also include the vision in a part of the website geared towards people who’re just there to buy things and aren’t job hunting, make sure to adapt the language accordingly. Focus on things like efficiency, ease of use and convenience.
Use Social Media to Spread the Vision
Depending on the habits of people in your target audience, some people may primarily interact with your company via social media. Amazon recognized that reality and published its vision on the company’s Facebook page.
In the screen shot, discussion about the vision occurs under a “Mission” heading, but it’s important to remember the earlier distinction and not get the two confused. More than likely, the header is a default Facebook setting.
Amazon’s goal of being “The Earth’s most customer-centric company” is something that’s realized through the brand’s characteristically outstanding customer service, including fast ways to get help and return items if needed. The rest of the vision is also clearly shown through Amazon’s gigantic and ever-growing inventory. Almost invariably, if a person wants to know if it’s possible to buy something online, they’ll check Amazon early in the research process.
Notably, the vision is mentioned within the About section of the Facebook page. Since most people are likely to visit there when they’re trying to get a sense of what a company does, it’s a good idea to add content about your vision in that section, too, especially when beefing up your social media presence.
Thanks to these tips and case studies, you now have a firm idea of how to craft a company vision that gets noticed online and elsewhere. It’s also possible to create one that keeps you and your employees perpetually motivated and striving towards better and greater things.
Author
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
