These days, the word on nearly everyone’s lips seems to be “value.” No matter whom you’re trying to reach, you can bet you’re competing for time and money. That’s why it’s critical to provide easily recognizable value in each element of your communications plan.

Enter the mission statement. Keeping these carefully chosen words top-of-mind through topic generation, design and implementation helps you deliver substantive communications consistently. The basic steps below can help you get started.

* Identify your target. Get specific about your audience’s gender, age, socioeconomic status, reading level, ethnicity, region and environment. Consider challenges they face with your industry. Generate information from focus groups, mail and phone surveys, and online audience panels.

* Define your objective and how you’ll meet it. Outline what you hope to accomplish in each issue or update. Also, determine which of your audience’s wants and needs you’ll address. Describe kinds of content that will convey the information effectively and a design strategy (including colors and images) that will evoke the response you seek. Also, consider whether a message will be better received in one platform, such as print, over another, like a podcast.

* Craft the statement. A mission statement should never be longer than 100 words, so use active verbs and limit jargon. Be sure it answers this question: How will this initiative meet the audience’s needs?

* Share the message. Be sure anyone who’s part of the initiative’s creation and execution, from senior staff through freelance coders, gets a copy of the mission statement. It’s one way to keep your communication’s value to readers front and center.