4 Surprising Ways Content Can Show, Not Just Tell, Your Corporate Purpose

What’s the role of content in expressing corporate purpose? Your first thought might be that the content states what the corporate purpose is. You’re not wrong. What might not come to mind is the power of content to demonstrate your company’s purpose. And you’re not alone. 

So, this article sheds light on the role of content in showing, not just telling, your company’s purpose. Every word, image, video, document, email, and more that people encounter from your company can demonstrate its purpose. When leaders in your company overlook the importance of content in bringing its purpose to life, they become at risk of undermining the purpose (and its many benefits such as motivating employees and deepening customer loyalty), coming across as hypocritical, or, in extreme cases, of litigation. 

Leaders also become at risk of underinvesting in the right content and AI strategy, systems, and operations as their company scales or modernizes. For example, if a company strives to be inclusive yet starts using a generative AI application across its content with no safeguards against bias, that company is going to fall short of its purpose.

So, let’s consider briefly why purpose is so important now and four ways content can demonstrate it.

The Importance of Corporate Purpose

Purpose at a successful company today is not just lip service. Purpose brings immense value in the two most important relationships a company has: with stakeholders and with customers.

Purpose Motivates All Company Stakeholders Despite Volatile Times

Witold J. Henisz of the Wharton School of Business shared in Harvard Business Review his findings about how deep and wide (i.e. systemic) the value of an effective corporate purpose extends. Henisz sees everyone related to a company as a stakeholder, from leaders and employees to investors to external partners (even nonprofit organizations). 

He also recognizes that all of those stakeholders are now operating in complex, changing times that often require going above and beyond anticipated requirements or expectations. I’m sure many of us have shifted gears with the disruptive impact of generative AI, for example.

So, a compelling corporate purpose reassures stakeholders that going above and beyond today, tomorrow, and the next day— staying aligned while doing so — is worth the effort.

Henisz explains

The value of organizational purpose is to coordinate stakeholder harmony and punish self-interested behavior by stakeholders in such a system. Such purpose engages stakeholders, binds them together, and motivates them to move forward on a journey that is meaningful to each of them. Such purpose inspires individual stakeholders to make the effort to achieve unknown and unknowable system-level collaboration. Achieving such clarity on a shared sense of purpose is the canonical challenge of modern management.

Purpose also has a meaningful impact on relationships with customers.

Purpose Grows Customer Relationships

When a company brings its purpose to life, customers notice and respond. I like this example shared by Gene Cornfield in Harvard Business Review:

Consider Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. In 2018, the leadership team committed to un-funding industries like fracking, coal, arctic drilling, and tobacco; prioritized funding of renewable energy; and directly connected their financial products to specific causes. In the eight months that followed, according to company CMO Ben Stuart, they saw new customer growth of 37%—the strongest in their history—and sustained growth of 25% or greater.

As Gen Z brings more and more scrutiny to the companies and brands they engage with, it’s not hard to see why purpose matters to customer relationships.

And when a company ties purpose closely to their brand, the level of trust, satisfaction, and loyalty can skyrocket. I personally witnessed this impact as fractional head of content at Mailchimp during a period of high growth and of evolving into a marketing platform. As Mailchimp matured its brand, the SaaS maintained close alignment with its purpose—never losing sight of the “root for the underdog” spirit. Because customers trusted and even adored Mailchimp, they were willing to try new features and be patient with a steady stream of changes. As a result, Mailchimp achieved what nearly 70% of companies fail to do—a successful digital transformation.

Now let’s take a closer look at four unexpected ways your organization can better demonstrate corporate purpose through content.

1. Use Inclusive + Plain Language Consistently

One way companies can show they’re serious about their purpose is to use inclusive and plain language consistently, across stakeholder and customer audiences. This is especially relevant for any company that claims its purpose supports or aligns with social issues, or the “S” in ESG.  If a company embraces equity yet fails to embrace the kind of language most people can understand, the company is at high risk of coming across as hypocritical and, potentially, sued. 

More importantly, if the company operates in an area with high stakes (e.g. people making important financial or health decisions), the consequences can be literally life or death. And using AI can actually worsen the risk. Senior Director of Consumer Education Juviza Rodriguez of March of Dimes explains the issue well for health:

Relying too heavily on AI for health information delivery undermines human expertise. This is especially true for content that’s translated into other languages—AI may not pick up on idiomatic expressions or culturally specific phrases. And biases can creep in, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and exacerbating existing health disparities.

The result? Content that sounds unnatural or may be completely misunderstood by the target audience. Imagine an AI tool recommending culturally inappropriate treatments or reinforcing dangerous misinformation. The potential for harm is very real, particularly for vulnerable populations.

In my experience, most companies want to use plain and inclusive language. The problem is they don’t know how to do so at scale. And the scale for large companies or enterprises is mind boggling—every web page, social media post, email, SMS, and app notification, for starters. AI can help, but it’s not a content fairy that can wave a wand to magically apply plain and inclusive language. That’s where a company with a content strategy and supporting content operations has an advantage over companies that don’t.

2. Make Content Accessible in Format + Structure

A second and related way that companies can show that they walk, not just talk about, their purpose is to make their content accessible to people with diverse abilities and the specialized web browsers or tools they might use. For instance, videos should have captions or transcripts available for people with limited sight. 

Similar to 1, a company that expresses support for social issues and yet offers inaccessible communications or experiences is inauthentic. And the risk of being fined or sued is high because there is firm accessibility legislation in place for most markets around the world. Companies recently facing accessibility lawsuits over their digital experiences include Whirlpool, Hasbro, Domino’s, Sweetgreens, and Barnes & Noble.

In my experience, many companies are prioritizing content accessibility to an extent. That’s great. The problem is companies don’t connect accessibility efforts clearly to their purpose. So accessibility work comes across as a grind or a cost to avoid being sued, not a meaningful contribution. Smart companies make the connection and, again, embrace content operations to achieve accessibility more efficiently and effectively.

Now let’s consider a different way to bring corporate purpose to life.

3. Share Stories + Examples

Many companies today have a corporate purpose statement, which is great. (For more about what makes it effective, check out this article on Harvard Business Review.) But is a statement enough for the purpose to be compelling and memorable over time? To move from something we know to something we feel? In my experience, no. That’s where stories and examples come in.

For instance, Mailchimp Presents offers a range of original video series, podcasts, and documentaries that celebrate and empathize with small business leaders. Because every small business is working against the odds—most businesses fail within their first five years—there is no shortage of meaningful and inspirational stories. With a steady stream of such stories as a backdrop, when Mailchimp says it’s rooting for the underdog, that largely rings true.

Why is storytelling so effective now in our high-tech times? I like how Nick Francis, author of The New Fire and CEO of Casual Films, explained it in our recent conversion (which also appears in The Content Advantage).

To stand out, we must reach past our audience’s overstimulated minds and touch their hearts. Video moves people, fostering connection and empathy in an increasingly disconnected world. The key is to capitalize on artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies, improving workflows and enhancing creativity, while maintaining a human-centric approach to storytelling.

Nick rightfully has a penchant for the powerful video format, but a wide variety of formats can tell amazing stories. 

If you’re a content leader, you might think, “Well we’ve been trying to amp up the storytelling since 2010. What else is different now?” The big difference I see is weaving stories into sophisticated stakeholder and customer experiences, rather than trying to drive people to a corporate communications blog or a specific social media channel. And that sophistication requires a bigger level of commitment now. For instance, Salesforce recently launched a Netflix for business audiences called Salesforce+ that aspires to deepen human relationships. And the Patagonia catalog interweaves product descriptions with stories about protecting the environment, which demonstrate the outfitter’s ambitious purpose. 

Speaking of product descriptions and the environment, they’re a great segue to the fourth way content can show, not just tell, your corporate purpose. 

4. Ensure Content Is Accurate, Useful, + Relevant

This fourth way for content to demonstrate company purpose might not sound or look sexy, but it’s an essential part of content effectiveness. And content accuracy, usefulness, and relevance are much more high-stakes and complicated than you might think.

Let’s start with an example involving retailers such as Walmart. They sold towels and other textiles described as being ecofriendly because the material was bamboo. It turns out the textiles were rayon. It also turns out the U.S. Federal Trade Commission noticed, suing Walmart, Kohl’s, and others for misleading customers, resulting in multimillion dollar penalties. 

Overstating the positive impact on the environment is known as greenwashing. Overstating the positive impact on any cause is known as causewashing. Because many corporate purposes tie into a range of well-intentioned causes, the last thing a company serious about its purpose needs is to be accused of any kind of washing—much less actually fined for it—because their content isn’t accurate, useful, and relevant.

In my experience, most companies would prefer to make their content accurate, useful, and relevant. The problem is companies struggle to do so at scale because it requires excellent content operations and systems. In our most recent study of content operations maturity, 58% of participants reported that their organization operated at the lowest levels (1 Chaotic or 2 Piloting). They also reported communication silos, bureaucracy, and lack of data about content effectiveness as big challenges to maturing.

Imagine an enterprise at levels 1 or 2 trying to get a handle on the accuracy, usefulness, and relevance of hundreds of thousands of product or service descriptions, hundreds of thousands of images and videos, hundreds of thousands of technical documentation pages, millions of emails, millions of SMS or push notifications, and so on. It’s like watching me, an inexperienced and untrained cook, try to prepare a holiday feast for hundreds of guests. Not pretty at best, disastrous for many at worst.

Actually, you might not have to imagine. You might have lived through such a struggle at an enterprise, and I empathize with you. The good news is that it’s more achievable than ever to make progress on content operations and systems. And while AI can be part of those content operations and systems, it is not a panacea that will cure all of a company’s content ills. I like how Carrie Hane, co-author of Designing Connected Content, explained it in our recent conversation, which also appears in The Content Advantage.

Organizations frequently make decisions about content production or technology without understanding their content operations maturity level. They want the outcomes of mature operations but are at the lower maturity level. This discrepancy leads to unmet expectations and unwarranted blame.

So, any company that is serious about its corporate purpose must also commit to aligning its content with that purpose—and keeping content aligned over time. For many companies, that commitment requires

• Imbuing all content with inclusive and plain language.
• Making all content accessible to consume and use.
• Bringing the purpose to life through stories and examples.
• Ensuring all content is accurate, useful, and relevant by maturing content operations and systems.

Companies that make this end-to-end commitment to content will avoid the risks of falling short of their corporate purpose and multiply its many benefits.