Do This Not That Marketing

Marketing Advice, Grow Your Business

Archives for June 2018

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Storytelling for Business

Storytelling for BusinessWin with Storytelling

Whether you want to touch a nerve, reach a new audience, or boost your sales, storytelling is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. As humans, we love a good story, and when it resonates with us, it can drive us to take action when nothing else can.

Think about it—which would you rather read, an interesting story, or a sales letter? Which are you more likely to remember a week from now, a compelling story, or a features and benefits comparison? And which are you more likely to buy, a story you can see yourself in, or a product that does x, y, and z?

If you think back on your most recent purchases, from the business coach you hired to the car you bought last summer, chances are you’ll find a story that resonated with you, and that drove your decision to purchase.

Stories About You

You’ve heard it time and time again: People buy from those they know, like, and trust. And part of getting to know you is hearing your stories. Your potential clients want to know how you came to be in business, what experiences you’ve had that drove your decisions, what lessons you learned along the way.

Your stories don’t have to be directly related to business to be powerful, either. That anecdote about the time you nearly got arrested for not having a valid driver’s license is the perfect lead in to a blog post about better record keeping. Or the story about how you accidentally seated two warring families together at your wedding reception? It’s just what you need to drive home a point about relationship building.

Stories About Your Clients

Otherwise known as social proof, stories about your clients are incredibly useful in your marketing and branding strategy. Testimonials, white papers, case studies and the like are all just stories, after all, and they showcase how you and your products or services have changed a life or a business for the better.

Stories About Your Products and Services

Yes, even your products and services have stories to tell. Why did you decide to create that new program? What will it help your clients achieve? Who is it not suited to? These stories and more can show your potential clients more about your products and services than any sales page ever will. When you openly share your thought processes as you were creating your program, buyers will instantly know if it’s a product or service that will work for them or not.

Clearly, stories have a lot of power when it comes to branding and marketing, but you have to use caution. Beware of the awkward insertion of a story just because you’ve heard it’s good for your marketing. If you find yourself midway through a blog post and you write something like, “but anyway, enough of that, let’s get on with business” and then making a total shift to a completely different subject, chances are the story isn’t working.

But if you can tie your story in naturally to what follows, that’s your golden ticket to better branding, more sales, and a more profitable business. We love stories. Don’t be afraid to tell yours.

If you need some help figuring out which stories to tell or how to tell them, I recommend you check out Donald Miller’s Building a Storybrand or Paul Smith’s Sell with a Story.

But if you’d rather get personalized, immediate help, we should talk. Email me at ron@rontester.com.

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The Best Marketing Plan Starts with You

“How’s business?”

That used to be the question I dreaded most. I had a different answer every day.

“Great!”

“Terrible!”

“I’m too busy to know for sure.”

I was trying everything I knew to grow my company. I had a great staff but I needed more clients. So I bought ads in newspapers, magazines, on television, billboards, etc. I didn’t have a coherent marketing message or strategy. If a salesperson suggested something, I was likely to take a chance on it. 

Some people responded to our ads, but not enough to pay for all that advertising. That was super painful.

In retrospect, I understand why that sort of advertising didn’t work for us at that time. The fact was, I was getting the word out, but I hadn’t built a system that allowed me to share who I was and who we were in an authentic way.

I had an epiphany one day when a brave friend told me, “Your advertising is so generic, it doesn’t feel like there’s any substance to it. I can’t tell if you can really help me or not.”

Ouch. That was a painful lesson, but one I took to heart. I started to look at our advertising messages through the eyes of my potential customer and I had to agree. Generic. Boring. And I was embarrassed. Because the truth is, our marketing messages didn’t reflect who I was, who we were, or how we were committed to serving our clients. Instead, I was trying to play it safe.

Here’s what I know now: generic feels “safe” because you’re not likely to offend or alienate anyone. But generic isn’t safe because your customers don’t really get to see or know the real you, and they sense that something isn’t right. They may not be able to articulate why they’re put off, but they are. So they don’t call, come by, or buy.

Here’s what I recommend instead of trying to play it safe.

Start with you. Who are you? Who are you really? Beyond being an accountant, a physical therapist or a [fill in the blank]? How did you come to do what you do for a living? What’s your passion? What energizes you? What’s your story?

When you share your story, it will resonate with the people you’re meant to serve. Your humanity will shine through, and that will help people to know, like and trust you. And people do business with people they know, like and trust. 

When a potential customer becomes aware of you or your company, they will probably check you out. They may check your company website, your company Facebook page, or your LinkedIn profile. And when they do, they’ll be asking “Do I have a good feeling about this person/company? Do I believe this person/this company can help me solve my problem?” If you tell your story, sharing yourself and your mission to serve others authentically, then people are much more likely to have a good feeling about you.

And if the answer is “Yes, I think they might be able to help me,” they will likely give you and your company more time and attention, an opportunity to earn their trust and their business.

But what if you share your story and some people don’t resonate with it? What if they don’t like your story? Then don’t worry about them. They’re not your people. If you’re doing business right, there will be others that you will be able to serve, and they will be the right ones for you.

So here’s your homework:

  1. Check out your current marketing materials/messages. Do they reflect you and your mission, or are they generic?
  2. Take a look at your website, company’s Facebook page, and/or your LinkedIn profile. If you replaced your name/info with your competition’s name/info, would it make any difference?
  3. Share your story authentically. Why you? What energizes you? What are you excited about? Why do you choose to serve those you do? What specific success stories can you share with your audience?

I know this may be a lot to take in, and it may be helpful to talk to someone about how you present yourself to the world and where you might need to tweak things. If that’s the case, please email me ron@rontester.com . Let’s set up a time to talk. I’d love to be of service to you.

Last but not least, if you’d like to read more about authentic marketing, I recommend this article by Brittni Kinney or this article by Stephen Zoeller.