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Articles filed in: Storytelling
How To Avoid Getting Lost In The Crowd
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
It’s natural to want to create something for the most people we think we can reach. The runaway successes we aspire to emulate seem like they succeeded by appealing to everyone. But if you look a little closer you’ll find that even the big hits started at the edges.
Soul Cycle, Starbucks and Secret Garden weren’t for everyone.
Taking a stand, being this and not that, or choosing one option at the expense of another feels risky, but that’s exactly what we must do to avoid getting lost in the crowd.
There are a hundred different tactics that can help you to be found by everyone, and a handful of small choices that will make you meaningful to the people you really care about serving.
We know that a lover’s whisper is more powerful than a stranger’s bellow.
You get to choose which you want to be.
Image by Eric Sonstroem.
3 Things Your About Page Should Do
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Writing an about page for your website is hard. The reason we get stuck is because we worry about what we need to write, instead of focusing on why we need to write it in the first place. Remember it’s less about blowing your trumpet or filling whitespace with information and more about helping your customer to get the information she is looking for.
Your about page needs to do three things:
1. BUILD TRUST
Your prospective customer has probably never met you, so it stands to reason that she’s looking for clues to help her understand why she should trust you. A photo, short back story about your professional credentials and testimonials from clients you have worked with will help. Add links to social media accounts, media releases, portfolio or case studies to support your story.2. LET THE CUSTOMER KNOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND AND CAN HELP HER
Your about page needs to show the customer you understand why she visited your website and that you can help her to do what she wants to do. Describe some of the problems she has, the challenges she is facing and the products and services you provide to fulfil her wants or address her needs.3. SHOW PEOPLE HOW TO CONTACT YOU
Make it easy for the customer to take the next steps by adding your contact details or other calls to action like, ‘visit our store’ or ’email us’.Think of your about page as a service to your customer rather than a way to selfishly promote and you can’t go wrong.
UPDATE: Need more help?
The About Page Guide will take you step-by-step through the process.
Image by Alex O.
The Marketing Paradox
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
The goal of most marketing is to get people through the door, bums on seats and products sold.
Because much of our marketing effort is front-loaded it’s easy to believe that once we’ve closed the sale, we’re done. And so we latch on to stories of six-figure product launches and multi-million dollar capital raises—often making those the metrics we aspire to.
Getting people through the door is a tiny part of the work we do. The threshold is where the story starts. We need to devote twice as much time, thought, effort and care into continuing to woo customers once they have handed over their money as we do before they commit.
The biggest question facing us is not, “How we get people to buy?”
It is, “How to we earn the trust that keeps them?”
The Best Brand Stories
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
The best brand stories….
Are experienced and felt.
Create affinity, not simply awareness.
Are perceived in micro-moments that are remembered, long after what’s pitched is forgotten.
Give people ways to belong, not just reasons to choose.
Are less about what the brand says and more about how the customer wants to feel.
In a digital world, where people are increasingly responding and reacting, rather than appraising and analysing, feeling trumps logic and telling is a tiny part of what we do.
Words matter, but actions speak louder.
Image by Walt Jabsco.
How All Marketing Should Be
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
This is the story of two homes that are for sale.
“Elegantly renovated, exclusive address. This gracious residence set amid professionally landscaped gardens (approx 600sqm), close to schools and parks, offers formal sitting room, expansive living dining, flowing onto the verandah……”
You get the idea. Contrast that with this one.
“This has been our home for 30 years, and the only home our children have known. Over the years it has been extended and remodelled to suit our changing needs and we think it is now the ideal family home.
We especially love the feeling of space and light in the dining-kitchen-living area and the ability to extend this space into the garden……We have enjoyed many joyful meals with family and friends in the garden, sitting around a table on the large patio.
We are very sorry to leave our wonderful neighbours—the street has a strong sense of community, and we have enjoyed being part of the lives of numerous young (and older!) families nearby.
We are now “empty nesters” and have to recognise that our children, who are scattered around the globe are unlikely to settle in Melbourne or bring grandchildren back to the “family home”. So we are downsizing and returning to our inner city roots. We will maintain one guest room for the children to visit!”
Of course you get the punch line. This isn’t two homes, but the story of one home told it two different ways. The smart real estate agent who is marketing the property gets his owners to write a short love letter to a prospective buyer and her emotions spill over—making the marketing real, and genuine and true.
All marketing can be this way.
When we stop looking outside for the ‘angle’ and start reflecting deeply about what matters to the people who will experience both our products and our marketing.
I know which home I’d want to buy.
Image by Christian Dülpers.
What Are Your Competitors Failing To Do?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Like many new mothers Jessica Alba wanted to buy non-toxic baby products, they were incredibly difficult to find information about and source, this inspired her to found The Honest Company.
Dave Gilboa lost a $700 pair of glasses and couldn’t afford to replace them, his experience was the seed of an idea that became Warby Parker.
Sarah’s partner wanted to send her flowers more often, but they were too expensive, they decided that he wasn’t the only one and started the fastest growing online florist in Australia.
Nick Woodman longed to take great action photos while he was surfing. There was no camera that allowed him to do it, so he invented one.
What if your biggest opportunity isn’t to be better than the competition, but instead to fill the void the competition hasn’t yet noticed or doesn’t care to fill? What are they missing?
Image by David Marcu.
What Marketing Is Not: 5 Common Misconceptions
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
When we think and talk about, teach and practice marketing we are often working on the assumption that marketing is one or all of the following:
1. How we make people want things.
2. Tactics, communications or activities designed to get people do what we want them to do.
3. The way we sell something.
4. What we tell people about our products.
5. A way to find customers.
The essence of marketing is understanding the problem to solve, so that we can create something people want, in order to earn the privilege to serve them. Rinse and repeat.
Image by Jeff Sheldon.
Five Brand Storytelling Lessons From Jamie Oliver
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Who could forget how Jamie Oliver burst onto our screens in the UK almost twenty years ago? While most celebrity chefs of the day adopted the posture of the hero, showing us how to follow their rules to the letter, Jamie made aspirational cooks around the world the hero of the story by making cooking accessible.
And he’s still doing it today….
“Comfort food has the power to make you feel safe, secure, fulfilled, excited, loved and even a bit giddy! True comfort food can wrap its arms around you and give you a great big hug, or can tickle you pink and make you laugh. It can be about the seasons, your childhood memories, your school food, the trips your grandparents took you on, your first takeaway, your first date—it’s all about what a particular dish means to you.”
—From Jamie’s Comfort Food
5 brand storytelling lessons from Jamie Oliver
1. Make the customer the hero.
2. Be authentic.
3. Help people to do things they want to do (address rational needs).
4. Help people to feel things they want to feel (fulfil emotional wants).
5. Trust is your greatest asset.
We win by obsessing about how to make our customers win.
Giving a damn is still seriously underrated.
Image by Scandic Hotels.
The First Rule For Making A Better Product
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Do you remember a time when you went to dinner at that restaurant everyone was talking about? You probably booked the table days, if not weeks in advance and told friends how excited you were about going. When you arrived the staff were polite, you got a good table and the meal was well cooked. But all in all the experience didn’t blow you away and you left feeling a little disappointed. There was nothing inherently wrong with the product—it just hadn’t lived up to your expectations.
In business, we succeed when the experience of using our product or service matches our customer’s expectation of it. How the customer expects the product to work and how he expects to feel when he uses it, is more important than what the product does or doesn’t do (which is why Apple’s job gets harder and harder with every new product release).
We design better products and services by understanding what customers expect and how they want to experience them.
The first rule for making a better product is to think feelings before features.
Image by Santi MB
The Reasons People Buy From You
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
“People tell us who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.”
—Donald Draper,
‘The Summer Man,’ Mad Men, season 4
Our customer’s motivations have two things in common—they are surprisingly few and they are also universal. What’s driving your customer to buy your product or service?
Does she want to…?
Solve a problem.
Fulfil a need.
Satisfy a desire.
Change how she feels.
Change how someone else feels.
Reinforce her beliefs.
Have a story to tell.
Understanding the story the customer tells herself helps you to tell a true story she can believe in.
Image by MG.Stanton.