Unlock the Magic in Your Story Now
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
Articles filed in: Storytelling
The Goodbye Window
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
“Sure we need thrills, spills and big gestures, but we also need closeness, trust and intimacy.” Kevin Roberts. Lovemarks
It might sound like a bit of a cliche but the small things really do matter, in business as well as in life. Children teach us that every day. We might think that they care about grand gestures, like holidays to Disney World and an Xbox on Christmas day. And yes, while these things might seem fabulous in the moment the stuff that really impacts on kids happens out of the corner of your eye. Tiny little things that seem insignificant which are the real highlights of their everyday.
Nigel Marsh tells a story about the day he took off work to drop his son Harry to kindy for the first time. Job done Nigel headed to the local cafe. After his first coffee he met a neighbour who remarked how cute it was that Harry always waited for his mum at the ‘goodbye window’ to wave and blow kisses. In a panic Nigel dashed back to school to find Harry, perched on top of his bag, tears streaming down his face still waiting at the ‘goodbye window’.
Your customers care about the little things too. Things that they sometimes can’t even articulate. They care that you notice, that you understand them, that they matter.
They want to be reminded that they are the reason you exist.
Making people fall in love with your products and services is about paying attention to the little things. The things that other businesses forget. The tiny things that matter most. Like ‘goodbye windows’.
Image by Maskingtaped.
Your Mission Statement …
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Your mission statement…
… is true.
… tells people what you do.
… is personal and relevant.
… talks about what happens today.
… looks at what change is achieved because you exist.
… stems from real values and reflects what you stand for.
… is easily understood by everyone who works for you.
… is known, cherished and practised by every single employee.
… gives you and your staff a sense of purpose and pride in what you do.
… inspires others.
… is unique to you and your company and wouldn’t make sense on a competitor’s website.
… hasn’t been grabbed from a corporate mission statement generator.
… doesn’t just live in a dusty manual or look good in a frame.
… is the foundation for the vision upon which your business or organisation is built.
… is not full of jargon.
… makes you stand out.
… gives people a sense of what it’s like to work with you.
… impacts on customers and clients.
… means something to the people who work in your organisation.
What else?
Image by Steven Rhodes
Your Customer Is The Hero
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.” John Barth
I know your products are beautiful. I also read on the packaging that your juice is packed full of vitamins. And anyone with an eye can see that your designs are amazing.
Knowing all of the facts about how great you are and how well made your stuff is will never be what makes your customer reach for their wallet.
“The challenge you face is that people don’t care about you. They care about themselves, which is pretty natural.” Seth Godin
The only way to persuade people to care about you is to show that you care about them first. Make them the hero of your story. This doesn’t mean starting again from scratch or making up a pile of stuff about your brand or business. You’ve already got the product, the great cause, the proof and the results. Now all you need to do is tell the story from a different angle. Their angle.
Succeed by showing people how to dream bigger and live better. Help them to care more, enable them to do great things and inspire them to be the hero of their story.
Image by Ashley Rose.
Take Your Time
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
The best business stories, the really good ones develop over time.
They’re the stories that the media probably doesn’t notice. The ones that happen drip by drip, created by people who continue to show up and tell a great story with more passion every day.
The best stories are told by people who care enough about what they do not to be distracted by the quick fixes, flashy launches or the sexy overnight success stories. They embody a mission and vision for the brand, embrace a unique set of values and connect to an audience who is ready to listen. A good business story doesn’t often net $8.5 billion in the first year or the year after that either.
If you want to stand the test of time you need to take your time. Focus on what you know you do well, not what every other new kid on the block brand, hot shot coach, designer or non-profit is doing. Then take time to build on that.
Stop being so hard on yourself. Stop looking over your shoulder. Stop trying to be something that they are and something you are not.
You have time to persuade people all the way later.
Image by Damian Tunnicliff.
Different Enough
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
“If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours in the long run.” Viggo Mortensen
Every cafe tells the same story (or tries to anyway); ‘we serve the best coffee.’ Every non- profit tells us how our money will make an impact and every box of detergent promises to clean clothes better than the pack next to it.
So how are you going to tell a different story? One that’s not for everyone.
What other promises can you make and keep? What priceless shortcuts can you offer? What will enable people to connect with your brand? What will make them choose you?
Could you tell a story as different as Sanuk’s, the footwear brand selling shoes that “are not shoes” at all, which “are happiest when they tread the road less travelled”.
How are you going to tell a story that’s different enough to get noticed and true enough to be believed? And who are you going to tell it to?
Image by Fancesco Minciotti.
Taking Control Of Your Personal Brand
filed in Storytelling
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr Seuss
And dead or alive you know that you are going to be ‘Googled’. You may not be able to control what others say about you but you can take steps to tell your own story and actively manage your reputation.
‘Personal branding’ is simply how we market ourselves to others, we do it subconsciously every day in the way we dress, speak and act. Think about it as a way of framing your reputation. In the old days when we lived and worked in the village it was possible to do business and strengthen your reputation just by being the only butcher, baker or candlestick maker in town. That’s a little more difficult to pull off these days.
A Google search for ‘graphic designer’ turns up more than 25 million results and the designer David Airey shows up as one of the first. David has built a personal brand online and stellar reputation in his niche over six years with hard work and generosity.
He did this by:
1. Investing time in creating a reputation by choosing to define who he is and what he stands for with an online presence.
2. Deciding how he would like to be perceived in his niche and setting goals for what he wanted to achieve.
3. Leveraging his online platforms to communicate his ability and showcase his expertise.
4. Building a community and connections around his work and his passion using three blogs, David Airey, Logo Design Love and Identity Designed.
5. Evolving his brand as his reputation grew and authoring a book based on this.
6. Openly displaying his work, ethics and authenticity across all of these platforms in both posts and comments.
7. Giving people in his niche a place to come to stay up to date, interact, acquire and share knowledge.
8. Doing great work for clients he chooses to work with.
All the tools that were available to David six years ago and much more are available to you today.
If your story is going to be told you might as well be the one to tell it.
Image by Shawn Rossi
They’re Telling Your Story
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
“We have to realise that the days of controlling the message are absolutely over.”
Wendy Clark Senior VP of Integrated Marketing Coca Cola.
You work hard to create an impression of your brand or business. To make your idea spread. You tell the story with your packaging, website design, logo, products, copy and service. You share it in print, video, at events and on online networks. Those impressions you work to create are only a tiny part of what makes up the complete picture of your brand.
Of 146 million views generated for Coca Cola on You Tube, 26 milllion were impressions generated by Coke. 120 Million were generated by the expressions created by consumers!
“Who’s controlling the dialogue? It’s not me.” Wendy Clark VP Marketing Coca Cola
Now your business has a fantastic opportunity to engage with customers and fans, to enter into a dialogue, to listen, to reach out to them and understand how and why they use, love or hate your product.
You might have the trade mark, you might even wear the crown, but you don’t own the story.
What you do have though is an opportunity like never before to give your customers a great story to tell.
Which brands (big and small) are doing this best? How are you listening to and engaging with your audience?
Image by Doug Focht
6 Questions For Crafting Your Relevance
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
When was the last time something caught your attention? In our increasingly noisy world things that captivate us for more than a few seconds are few and far between.
We have become experts at shutting things out, at not paying attention to anything that doesn’t hold relevance for us. In any market we need to think about how we can become relevant. Remember relevance in the eyes of our customer might not be the same as relevance in ours.
Six Questions For Crafting Your Brand Relevance
1. Who do we want to care about what we sell or do?
2. Why would those people care about what we do or what we are selling?
3. Why would they cross the street to buy from us?
4. What emotional want are we fulfilling?
5. How can we make this more about them and less about us?
6. What will they be able to say to their friends to recommend us?
We need to give people one reason to care about us, not just a hundred different reasons to buy from us.
Image by Barbara Mazzarella.
So…. What Do You Do?
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Have you ever had difficulty explaining the really cool project you’re working on to people? You’re not the only one! Even really smart people get stuck at trying to tell us what they do.
The founders of Instagram, (the iPhone app that is taking communication in the social space by storm), Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger made an admission during an interview last week. They realised the project they were working on before Instagram, (Burbn a location based app) wasn’t going to fly because they were having difficulty explaining it to people. So they changed tack and built something that they could explain in a single sentence. Instagram is, “a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.”
If your audience doesn’t ‘get it’ then how are you ever going to resonate? Resonance is what makes ideas fly, and spread. It’s what elects leaders, creates lovemarks and propels movements.
We need to get better at helping people to understand what we do and why we do it, so they can figure out where our ideas, products and services might fit into their lives. We have only thirty seconds to convince them, that’s one sentence, maybe two.
And perhaps most important of all we need to give people a reason and the language to share us with their friends.
Image by Paul G.
There’s Only One Orla Kiely
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
There’s only one Orla Kiely but a hundred ways to experience her brand. A brand that appeals across generations from teens to youthful grandmothers.
That doesn’t mean that Kiely’s multicolored designs inspired by the 1960s and 1970s appeal to everyone, quite the opposite. You will either love them or hate them. Orla says that “they are for confident women who know what they like and who are not necessarily victims of fashion.”
I’m guessing that when she moved into designing handbags rather than hats (after her father noted during her first London Fashion Week that everyone was carrying a handbag, but no one was wearing a hat!), that Orla didn’t design things for everyone. She already had a clear picture in her mind of the women she was making things for.
And because they weren’t for everyone her bags were something to covet and once you had one, to share. I was introduced to a friend’s purse once with the words; “this is my Orla Kiely”.
Whatever your idea is, whatever you hope to sell or spread, you need to consider how and why your customer will share it with her friend. There may not be a scarcity of handbags or designers out there but there is a shortage of stories we care enough about to share.
Create those kind of stories and who knows maybe one day your design will be featured on a bus, car, or maybe even a postage stamp.
Image by Tilde Shop.