Communication is the exchange of information or news. There are many ways to engage in this process, but what takes it from a cold transaction to a genuine connection is storytelling. There is great power in sharing our stories. Every individual, business or organization of any kind has one – and the world needs to hear it.
If you think your brand’s story is a heaping pile of ordinary with a side of nothing special, we respectfully disagree. We will concede, however, that a great story is only as good as its storyteller; and the best don’t speak just to hear themselves talk. They draw you in and earn the right to be heard by only sharing stories worth telling.
That’s where marketing and storytelling meet. At its core, the best “marketing” is storytelling itself. It creates awareness, encourages engagement and builds trust. A simple exchange of information doesn’t move people to action; yet, connection compels engagement. Stories facilitate that connection.
And through clear messaging, unique creative and sound strategy – every story has the power to make an impact. Here are three tips to help you start a story worth retelling.
Find your voice
Do you ever find yourself thinking that there are just no new ideas anymore? It’s because we are all competing to be heard in a room that’s way over capacity and inundated with noise.
In an information-overload world where everything we could possibly want to know is at our fingertips, it takes authenticity to cut through the clutter.
That’s why it’s so important for brands to find their voice and unapologetically champion it at all costs. To that end, strategic messaging stems from knowing what you stand for, and just as importantly, what you don’t.
When a business has clearly-defined goals, objectives, audiences and messaging, it can all be married together in one cohesive communications strategy. In turn, this serves as a gut check for all players within your business to ensure everyone is working from the same playbook to maximize efforts.
Define your audience
One of our go-to diatribes is, when we try to resonate with everyone, we end up appealing to no one. It doesn’t matter how incredible your words are – if you’re shouting them at the wrong people, at best people won’t hear them, and at worst, they won’t care.
In order to make a connection with your target audience, you first must painstakingly define that audience by learning what makes them tick.
A great way to do that is through completing a buyer persona exercise. A buyer persona is a detailed profile of an ideal customer within a defined target audience. To create one, consult existing data about your current customers. Spend some quality time with the analytics from your different channels – Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. – and immerse yourself in all the glorious demographic information you can get your hands on.
Don’t stop at professional pain points and deliverables – dig deeper to paint a more holistic picture of your ideal customer. What may seem trivial or irrelevant now just might be the difference between a lead and a customer down the road.
Start Sharing
If a business is looking to grow their audience, content creation and distribution is an important piece of a comprehensive marketing strategy. But actually starting this process is hard for many, because of an innate tendency to want to achieve perfection before beginning. But here’s the rub; we can’t improve unless we start creating and putting our voice out there.
Content creation can sound intimidating, like it needs to be this perfectly polished, 32-page master’s thesis that provides an exhaustive overview of a topic. But it’s as simple as this – everyone is an expert at something, whether they realize it or not, and has valuable information that can serve someone else.
At its heart, content creation is all about serving an audience. Think about your primary audience – what are their pain points? What problems are they trying to solve? What inspires them? What makes their life easier? Putting in the work to answer these questions is the makings of great content.
There are many ways to package your expertise and serve it to your audience. Whether it’s a blog post that is pushed out via newsletter to your email list and shared on your social channels, a how-to video that provides step-by-step guidance on how to use a product, or an infographic that takes complex information and breaks it down into bite-sized, digestible pieces – when you regularly show up to serve your audience, you earn the right to be heard or sought out when it’s time to make a sale.
If you’re too busy living out your business’ narrative to put words to it, we know a team of seasoned storytellers who can help navigate the pages. Let’s write your story together.
