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: Strategy
Why A Better Business Story Matters
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Santoso and Dian live within a kilometer of each other in the once sleepy town of Ubud, in Bali. Both men are master wood carvers and work for hours every day hunched on the floor of their tiny workshops. Happily for them Ubud is now the thriving arts center of the island and thousands of tourists arrive in buses, cars and taxis every day of the year, to shop for souvenirs to take home from their trip.
So every day they sweep the pavement in front of their workshops and set out row upon row of their amazing hand carved, statues, masks, trinket boxes and trays ready to showcase to their potential customers. The only fly in the ointment is that there are ten equally gifted craftsmen, with similar workshops and shopfronts all lining up along the same strip, trying to attract the same customers. Faced with all that competition Santoso and Dian can only see one way to differentiate themselves, and that’s by rushing to the bottom and being the cheapest wood carving artisan in the town.
The wood carvers in Ubud are not much different to artisan bakers on 9th Avenue, pizza chefs of via San Giovanni or crafters on Etsy. It’s all too easy to get stuck in the commodity and needs business. When you should really be in the emotional wants business. What would happen if Dian identified a niche for himself and told his story from a different angle? He might decide to offer wood carving lessons, with free souvenirs to take home. What if he became not just another wood carver in Ubud, but the wood carver to go to in Ubud?
If we want to be believed and not just noticed it’s time to think about telling a better story.
So many huge brands have built their businesses on servicing our needs, but appealing to our wants, Innocent, Apple, Zappos and even TED.
How are you selling emotional wants, and not just simple needs to your clients?
Image by Shenghung Lin.
The Best Ideas Don’t Start With Solutions
filed in Strategy
Have you ever wondered why your ‘big ideas’ get stuck in mind map central, never to see the light of day, or don’t end up being as groundbreaking as you hoped? Part of the answer lies in the way you’ve been working on implementing those ideas.
Those moments of genius and excited clarity that you have in the shower, tend to start with a beautiful solution. Your ideas often focus on your brilliance and the unique contribution you can make to the world. This is as it should be, but it’s not where your planning should start.
Innovation doesn’t begin with solutions, it starts at the root of problems
Don’t begin with your answers. Start with their problems. Be secure in the knowledge that you have the skills and the talent to provide those solutions. Then go out and ask questions and find the problem to solve.
Image by INPIVIC.
10 Rules For Writing A Compelling ‘About Me’ Page
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Your about page is one of the most visited pages on your website. It’s the place where prospective customers decide if you’re right for them, and your best chance to convert more website visits to enquiries and more enquiries to customers. That’s why your about page copy is the most important sales copy you’ll ever write.
How To Write A Compelling About Page
1. Know who you’re talking to.
Customer insight is your superpower. You are at your most persuasive when you understand your customer’s unmet needs. Your about page copy should reflect that.
2. Don’t just lead with the facts.
Facts alone don’t persuade. People want to hear your story. Make your website a window, not a wall.
3. Share your values.
Tell people who you are and what you believe.
4. Show yourself.
Build trust by adding a professional photo to your bio and about page. People buy from people. Your potential clients want to see the person behind the business.
5. Tell the story of your professional journey.
Share how you got to where you are today. Help your website visitors to understand how you know what you know.
6. Tell people how you can help them.
Be specific, add links to products and services.
7. Demonstrate how you’ve provided solutions for others.
Link to your portfolio, projects or client case studies.
8. Help people to understand the benefits of working with or buying from you.
Add client testimonials and stories about how you work.
9. Add calls to action and a contact link.
Your about page should not only provide information and build trust, but it must also call potential clients to take action.
10. Don’t make it all about you.
Think about why you’re writing your about page in the first place and how you want the reader to feel when she’s done reading it.
*Bonus* Write like you speak.
Sometimes in our attempt to sound professional, we use words that distance us from prospective customers. The goal is to build trust and to stand out by being and sounding like who you are. Avoid the jargon that everyone else uses at all costs!
Get the guide that’s helped hundreds of business owners to write an about page that works.
Go-To Skincare
It’s clear that the company’s founder Zoe has spent time getting to know her audience. Every word on this about page says, ‘I see you’ to the reader.
James Clear
James tells readers exactly what they are going to get, and his home page is one of the best examples of an email sign up embedded in an about page that I’ve seen. He not only tells people what to expect, but he also shows them what to do using great calls to action.
Warby Parker
They know that the about page is the start of a conversation and a huge part of their marketing strategy—it shows.
Michael Hyatt
Michael informs the reader about what they can expect to learn from him and the value he creates for his audience.
He builds trust in several great ways, using photos, information about his professional and personal life, achievements and subscriber numbers.
Shopify
A great example of an about page that communicates purpose builds trust and helps a prospective customer to know what to do next with calls to action.
GoPro
If you’re a camera company what better way to tell your story than to use video.
Your about page is a key part of your marketing strategy. Don’t waste this opportunity to connect with your prospective customers.
Ready to get your about page working for you?
PRICE $37 USD
Image by Looking 4 Poetry
u2 Don’t Sing To Everyone
Back in the 80’s when U2 were starting out they knew they were singing for me, and the 520 other girls at my school. It didn’t matter that they wrote songs that didn’t resonate with my mother. They knew that we drew their album graphics with a Bic Biro on our canvas school bags and scribbled their name on our exercise books during boring history lessons.
Who are you creating for?
Who will kill for your designs? Who is going to buy your book or schedule a consultation. Who will understand your message? Hand on heart, do you really know?
It’s so easy to overlook this when you’re building your business and crafting your brand.
The creation part, building the thing, scoping out the spec and writing the sales page is hard enough. So with blind faith we sometimes believe that because we perceive a need and work of filling it, that if we build it they will come. Maybe they will, but the thing is if you create something with a specific audience in mind then even laying the foundations of your idea becomes so much easier.
Start by knowing your audience, then build the idea just for them
Call it what you will, target audience, niche market or client avatar. The label is irrelevant, the purpose is to understand the human being(s) behind that label. That understanding of your audience turns needs into wants and means that you no longer have to use the megaphone to reach them. They will begin to hear you from whispering distance.
One of the best target audience descriptions I’ve ever read was written by John Locke. He’s the guy who sold over a million ebooks in five months, so I guess knowing who he’s talking to hasn’t worked so badly for him. Here’s some of what he wrote:
“The people who love my books love everyday heroes. They are compassionate people who root for the underdog, but are drawn to the outrageous and have a dry sense of humour. They are all ages but a surprising number are professional men and women above the age of 50. More than 70% are women. My readers are much more intelligent than you might think, many are doctors nurses and business leaders.
Those who like my books tend to be busy people who are frazzled and stressed out beyond the point of no return. They’ve read their share of high brow books, but these days they mostly read to relax with a fast paced easy read that makes them laugh out loud. My readers are smarter than my heroes and they know it. They like the small bit of research I do. They don’t want to be educated but they love to learn one or two unusual facts along the way they can pass on in conversations at dinner.
My readers are renegades they like things editors hate, light character descriptions and almost no detail about settings. They know I’m not trying to save the world or write meaningful literature that kids might have to study in school someday. They know the sole purpose of my writing is to make them smile or laugh for a few hours on a day when they need it most, and they like that about me.”
How would your products be different if you sat down and created a client avatar like this? Often the hardest thing isn’t finding the problem to solve, but finding the people to solve that problem for.
Image by Danny Hammontree.
Don’t Follow The Money, Follow Your Heart
I know how to guarantee a spike in ‘traffic’ to my blog. All I have to do is write a post about how to build a six figure online business, or how to drive traffic to your blog! Of course you know this already, you see from your website analytics which posts are magnetic. The money and the promise usually get us in the end.
Last Thursday, a week ago today, I read a question my friend Mat Fitzgerald posted in a forum. He simply asked, “What do you want?”
That same day, I’d been told that what we thought was a lymph node in my 16 year old son’s neck, was actually a tumour. So the answer to the question was very simple. All I wanted was for that lump to go away and never come back. On Monday we got the best news, it turns out it’s not a tumour after all and we can breathe again.
So here’s the thing, if I’d been asked the same question the day before, my answer would have been very different. It might have included a professional or travel goal. It turns out that what matters one day, might seem insignificant the next. Perspective is everything and we allow it to be buried in our quest to do the ‘big things’.
Most of us are lucky enough to have what we really, truly want already.
Care about the choices you’ll have, not the money you’ll make. Care about your impact as much as your bottom line. Then care more about your legacy, than all of this put together.
Image by Miss Oppenheimer.
How to Create An Unconventional Business
The beauty of running your own business is that there is almost nothing you can’t do, if you really want to. The fact that there are no rules may have been one of the reasons why you started your business in the first place! Being unconventional makes you stand out and amplifies your message to the people who want to hear it.
Chris Guillebeau is an entrepreneur, writer and the author of The Art of Non-Conformity. His unconventional business is enabling him to live his dream of visiting every country in the world, (he’s at 150 and counting). When he began writing his blog Chris didn’t have a business goal in mind. His business evolved when the community who loved his writing and ideas, began to ask the same questions again and again. In this interview Chris shares some of his principles for building a successful unconventional business.
Image by Farouq Taj.
20 Ways To Tell A Better Brand Story
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Customers don’t buy your results, they buy the story about the difference those results will make. So have amazing ideas, make great things but remember to tell unforgettable true stories.
1. Name and claim a new category.
2. Clearly articulate what you do, without being boring.
3. Give people a great back story that explains why you exist on your about page, bio, profiles and in marketing materials.
4. Back up the story by doing great work.
5. Concentrate on speaking to customers with a particular worldview.
6. Paint a picture of the world as it is.
7. Then show your audience the world as it could be.
8. Uncover the essence of a problem and tell the story about how you solve that.
9. Appeal to all the senses. Stories aren’t just written, spoken or directed.
10. Use a variety of media to convey your message, show and tell.
11. Have a singular purpose and make yourself known for that. This doesn’t mean getting stuck in a box. Missions can work across products and industries.
12. Consider what one person says to another to recommend your ‘thing’. Make it easy to share.
13. Speak to your customer’s heart not just their head.
14. Optimise your website for visitors who you care to return, not just traffic that’s passing through.
15. Tell people how and why you are different.
16. Avoid using jargon. Simple language works, write as you would speak.
17. Don’t smooth away all the rough edges, be human and authentic. Honesty travels further than perfection.
18. Be consistent. Everyone in your company must understand your mission and the story you want to tell.
19. Give your customers the opportunity to tell the story and feel a part of it too.
20. Don’t try to be the ‘next blank’. A flawed original is better than a perfect imitation.
Brand storytelling in action
The Virgin Brand Story ~ We hate being ripped off by big expensive airlines and [insert industry here]. More people must feel like us, there must be a better way. Let’s be the better way.
Apple’s Brand Story ~ Technology can be beautiful as well as functional. Everything single interaction with our product must make people fall in love with it.
Chris Guillebeau’s Brand Story ~ Ever thought there must be more to life than this? Don’t want to work for the man? Me neither! This is how I do it, come join me to see how you can too.
The Epipheo Brand Story ~ We don’t create animated videos. We create epiphanies using great animation.
If you want to see a great brand story in action, check out Epipheo’s story in this video.
Image by rytc.
Working On Forever
Do you remember Fran who booked regular sessions and always opened your newsletter updates? Or Jean who stopped by on her way to work every day for a skinny latte? How about Jo who religiously shared your blog posts and Mark who sent design clients your way? Have you seen or heard much from them lately?
They were probably the kind of customers, followers and evangelists who didn’t spend a fortune or sign up to your top level coaching program. But they and others like them became your bread and butter over time. Maybe you took them for granted when they were there, but you miss them now they’re gone.
While you are busy building your business it’s easy to forget that no customer is forever. And yet forever is what you should be working on.
Forever takes patience, insight and leaving your ego at the door. Forever is being human, walking in your client’s shoes and understanding what they want before they know it themselves. Forever means failing, apologising and getting it right next time. Forever comes from creating connection and moments of joy in every interaction. Sometimes forever means treating different customers differently.
Forever is remembering that there are five other cafes in the same street and 34 million search results for ‘life coach’ in Google. Forever means working out what you could be doing better.
How are you working on forever?
Image by Jade Nazareth.
7 Steps to Building A Successful Online Business
filed in Entrepreneurship, Strategy
Think about an online shopping experience you’ve had lately. If you covered the website header could you spot the difference between Joe Bloggs web design and Blow Joggs website design? Are you so busy trying to be good enough, that you’ve forgotten what makes you unique along the way? Potential customers are looking for a reason to do business with you. So why not give them a great one?
Let’s assume that you are not competing with your competitors on price because your customers value what you do or sell above it’s utility. That means you’re not the cheapest logo designer or life coach in webville. So what will attract customers to you? What’s unique about what you do or how you deliver it? Does your mission, service, website, packaging, business name, bio and logo spell the ‘whatever it is’ out to people?
Customers want to feel your difference and they need you to help them get there
Tara Gentile is more than just a savvy an entrepreneur, who built a six figure online business from scratch, she is setting out to build the new economy with her own unique brand of enthusiasm. Tara and I had a conversation about what it takes to build a successful online brand and business.
Enjoy the interview!
And our seven take aways:
1. Understand Your Mission
Build your business backwards. It’s important to understand and be able to articulate why your business exists.
2. Make Your Map
Set business goals to keep you on track.
3. Sing In Your Own Voice
Every brand should have a unique voice. Something that sets it apart. You need to find a way of communicating to customers that your values are aligned with theirs.
It’s one way to stand out from all the marketing din and a great way to build profitable long term relationships based on mutual respect and trust.
4. Get Clear
Potential customers are looking for a reason to do business with you. So why not give them a great one?
5. Be Enthusiastic
If you’re not excited about what you’re bringing to market, how can you expect your customers to be.
6. Stand Out
Be less vanilla! Say and do things that others aren’t doing.
7. Change what isn’t working
Don’t be afraid to make strategic changes along the way.
Image by Eddie Lin.
You Are The Map Maker
filed in Entrepreneurship, Strategy
If you invest in that expensive viral marketing campaign will it definitely work? What’s the formula for blog posts that will get the greatest number of retweets? Which new product or service will make you the most money? Do you know?
The truth is that nobody knows for sure what’s going to work. If they did the J.K. Rowlings of this world wouldn’t get rejected by twelve publishers. There is no cast iron guarantee, no secret formula. There is no map to your success.
This means that you are the map maker. You are responsible for shaping your journey and creating your own success. I know many inspirational entrepreneurs and creative business owners who have done just that and I wanted you to hear some of their stories.
So today I’m sharing a beautiful book with you that’s been six months in the making.
YOU ARE THE MAP MAKER features contributions from entrepreneurs like Chris Guillebeau and Derek Sivers; stories from designers like David Airey and Jessica Hische. There are twelve inspiring creative business stories in all. It’s free to download and yours to share. I hope you enjoy it and are inspired to keep drawing your own map.
My thanks to the amazing creative team, Blair, Darren and Jamie at Believe in, for the inspired design and art direction, along with their dedication to this project.
<br/
Image by Dave Makes.