Values to Vision: Creating a Content Strategy to Build the Best Company Culture

Organizational culture is the foundation of your company. It can inspire employee loyalty and attract top talent (or repel it), help communicate your brand vision, and ultimately effect your bottom line. When people are motivated to do their best, everyone thrives. If you look to the most profitable businesses in the world, you’ll see it’s this X factor–the human factor–that accelerates their success.

In this article, I’ll explore the importance of building the best company culture you can, and how to create a content strategy that supports it.

What is Company Culture?

Company culture is the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that define a company and its employees. It shapes how your people interact with each other, how they approach their work, and how they represent your brand–both in and outside the office.

The Importance of a Strong Company Culture

Having a strong company culture is essential for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, it attracts and retains top talent. This is especially true in the hybrid workplace. Employees want to work for companies that align with their values and offer a positive work environment. A strong company culture can also improve productivity, reduce turnover, and increase customer satisfaction–thereby maximizing your ROI.

Moreover, your company culture is a reflection of your brand. It shapes how your customers perceive your company and can contribute to their loyalty. By creating a positive brand image through a strong company culture, you can set yourself apart from your competitors.

• A whopping 86% of job seekers say culture is somewhat or very important (MoneyZine).
• Having a culture that attracts high-talent can lead to 33% higher revenue (BonFyre), while having highly engaged employees can lead to a 202% increase in performance (TeamStage).
• Only 28% of executives understand their company’s culture (TeamStage).

Clearly, a strong company culture creates a sense of community, fosters employee engagement, and improves overall job satisfaction. So how do you reinforce company culture as a business leader if a third of executives don’t even understand what it is?

Building a Company Culture That Aligns with Your Values

To build a company culture that can be disseminated through the organization, it’s essential to start by defining those values.

If you haven’t done this already, grab a whiteboard and a handful of colourful markers, and start trying to answer the following questions:

• What do you stand for as a company?
• What are your priorities?
• What kind of environment do you want to create for your employees? For yourself?
• What ideals guide every decision you make?
• What supports your services, products, or offerings?
• What brings your ‘why’ to life?

Don’t worry about making this perfect just yet–just get your thoughts down; there is no such thing as a bad idea. Then, start narrowing it down. Be patient. Get specific. Once you have a clear understanding of your values, you can begin to build a culture that reflects them.

It’s also important to involve your employees and other stakeholders in this process. Ask for their input on what they value in a workplace and how they would like to see those values reflected in the company culture. By involving your employees through surveys, interviews, or even a group whiteboard session, you can create a shared sense of ownership over the culture and increase their engagement and overall buy-in.

The Role of Content in Strengthening Company Culture

Content is a powerful tool for strengthening your company culture. By creating content that aligns with your values and reflects your brand story, you can reinforce your culture and improve employee engagement. Content can also help you attract top talent and build customer loyalty.

Then, distribute and present them to everyone in the company. Hell, put them on your website to share with your customers, too. They can’t get behind your core values if you don’t share them. I’ve worked closely with clients to help them define their company values because it isn’t enough to just list them out and forget about them–you really need to embody them.

Understanding Your Brand Story

To create content that supports your company culture, it’s essential to understand your brand story.

Your brand story is the narrative that defines your company and sets it apart from your competitors. It includes your values, mission, history, and vision for the future.

By understanding your brand story, you can create content across brand touch-points that reflects your unique identity and reinforces your culture.

For example, if your company values collaboration and teamwork, you might create a monthly internal newsletter that highlights successful collaborations among employees or showcases the benefits of teamwork.

Personally, I value people in my work; I’m grateful for my clients, partners, and community. I treat them with kindness, professionalism, empathy, and honesty in every single interaction and touch-point. That’s why I write blog posts like this–to help my community connect more authentically. Because we are stronger together, “we” is greater than “me”, and teamwork always wins.

Creating a Content Strategy that Supports the Best Company Culture

To create a content strategy that supports your company culture, start by identifying your goals. What do you want to achieve with your content?

Are you looking to:

• Attract new talent?
• Strengthen employee engagement?
• Build customer loyalty?

When I work with clients, once we have a clear understanding of their goals, we can begin to develop a plan. This includes the best content types for their audience, such as blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, or newsletters. We also develop a content calendar that outlines when and where they’ll publish their content. By planning content in advance, you ensure that it aligns with your values and supports your culture consistently and effectively. Otherwise, what’s the point?

3 Tips for Implementing Your Content Strategy

Implementing a content strategy that builds the best company culture can be challenging, which is why many clients hire me to work with them on this. If you aren’t quite ready for that, here are several tips that can help.

1. Make your content authentic

The most important thing you can do if you want to seamlessly leverage your content strategy for the best company culture, is make sure your content is authentic and reflects your brand story. People can smell BS from a universe away. So, be honest; only include values, key stories, and messaging that is relevant and true. Avoid using jargon or corporate-speak. Focus on creating content that is engaging and relatable.

2. Get your employees in on the fun

Another vital step to creating the best company culture you can through your content strategy is involve your employees in the content creation process. Ask for their input on topics and ideas, and encourage them to share their own stories and experiences. You can even incorporate employee interviews as part of your information gathering process to make sure you create something that is relevant and meaningful. By involving your employees, you can create content that is more genuine and reflects your workplace diversity.

3. Test, review, and optimize for success

Finally, measure the success of your content strategy and its effect on company culture. This is critical to corporate agility and improvement over time. Use surveys and analytics tools to track employee engagement and monitor how your content is resonating with your people. Use this data to refine your strategy and make adjustments as needed to creative a positive work culture that works for everybody.

Examples of Companies with Strong Company Culture and Effective Content Strategies

Several companies have built strong company cultures and effective content strategies.

One example is Patagonia, which has a culture that values sustainability and environmentalism. Patagonia prioritizes purpose over profit (which actually gives them more returns) and protect the planet. They create content that reflects these values, such as blog posts about sustainability initiatives and videos about environmental activism.

Another example is Buffer, a company that values transparency and employee empowerment. Buffer’s content reflects these values through blog posts about company culture and videos showcasing employee experiences.

Finally, HubSpot is consistently at the top of places to work across all metrics. It’s almost enough to convince me to stop freelancing and apply–almost. They practice full internal transparency,  clearly define and act on core values, and encourage flexibility and career growth. This “Culture Code” has allowed Hubspot to create an environment that not only boosts employee morale, but also substantially improves the quality of work. Win-win for everybody, right?

Conclusion – How to Create the Best Company Culture Through Content Strategy

The data is in and it’s clear: people–both employees and your customers–need an organization they can get behind.

Creating a positive company culture is essential for attracting and retaining top talent, improving productivity, and building a positive brand image.The key to achieving these results, of course, is getting clear on what these values actually are, and consistently sharing the organizational brand story in a meaningful way.

By creating a content strategy that supports the best company culture possible, you will reinforce your values, improve employee engagement, and build customer loyalty.

---