Stick to the Story
Once upon a time, in a town called Realityville, there was a company that sold widgets and wonkets. This company spent a lot of money on marketing, but nobody wanted to buy the widgets and wonkets. It wasn’t that the widgets and wonkets were of poor quality – they were some of the nicest available. It wasn’t that they were too expensive – they were very reasonably priced. It was that nobody in Realityville knew what widgets and wonkets were! The company’s brochure said they were made of the finest materials. Their website boasted that they’d been in business for 20 years. They even won a few awards from the National Widget and Wonket Association. But still, nobody knew what to do with a widget, much less a wonket, and the company’s sales suffered.
Then, one day, a magical sheep was passing through town. This sheep, we’ll call her Baabara Ann, had thick black fur and carried a bullhorn at all times. She strutted into the widget and wonket factory and met the sad, frustrated owners. They told her of their troubles, and Baabara Ann’s eyes grew wider. She then whispered a secret into their ears and gave them three orange beans. From that day on, widget and wonket sales in Realityville skyrocketed. And the owners lived happily ever after.
THE END.
What was Baabara Ann’s secret? And what about those magic beans? Her secret was STORYTELLING. And the beans… those were just a nice gift.
Sometimes, it’s hard for a company to explain the benefits of their product or service. It’s easy to get caught up in technical jargon and buzzwords when creating marketing pieces. Stories help illustrate the purpose and value in a product, and they make a business more relatable. But a story doesn’t have to be a fairy tale. There are many different ways to incorporate storytelling into your marketing strategy depending on the message you want to send and the audience you’re trying to reach.
- Testimonials. Sometimes testimonials say nothing more than “We love these guys!” but they don’t have to. Encourage testimonials that describe a specific situation or event that pleased them instead of a general “two thumbs up.”
2. White papers. White papers aren’t a traditional story, but if done properly, they show the effectiveness of your company on a real-life project. When writing them, be sure to use a narrative to describe your process and set the stage.
3. Anecdotes. You probably spend a lot of time telling people who you are and what your business is all about. Instead of listing out your menu of services or describing your product, tell a story about a client or customer you’ve helped and how you did it. That story will take your 60-second elevator speech to a whole new level.
4. Make-believe. No, we’re not suggesting you lie about something you’ve done. Never. But when you’re a new business, anecdotes are often hard to come by. It can be helpful to create a character or obviously fictionalized story that still relays the same facts so that your audience can understand the end result. We’ve done this with everything from flooring companies to Vietnamese food, and it’s always a fun way to spread your message effectively.
The moral of the story: Tell a story. You loved it when you were a kid, right? You like movies and TV and music and books, right? Appeal to your audience’s appetite for a good tale, and if you see a black sheep in your neighborhood, ask her if she has any orange beans.