Creating and Sharing Your STORY is Essential to Marketing

When you’re explaining or promoting your business, you’re telling a story. It’s up to you whether it’s a thriller, a horror or a feel-good, curl-up-on-the-couch-and-take-it-all-in story.

Everything you do to market your business is another paragraph, page, or chapter in the story people hear from you. And the story people hear is the one they act (or don’t act) on, and repeat (or don’t repeat) to others.

Purposeful marketing stories are a sure sign of a great content marketer.

How can you make sure your story is great and worth sharing? Here’s how.

1. Know your audience

The battle is won or lost right here. The better you know the audience, the better able you will be to connect, engage and convert them – giving you a leg up on your competition. 

What do you need to know? You need to know who your audience admires, and what they aspire to, despise, fear, and cherish.

Instead of sitting around dreaming up content you guess people might react favorably to, you tell an educated story based on one or more individuals who represent the whole.

Understanding your audience at such an intimate level makes creating buyer personas important. It also helps you be a part of the market you’re speaking to, which results in a more authentic story.

Research doesn’t sound sexy, but it’s the foundation of any smart marketing plan. The more time you spend understanding the people you’re talking to, the better story you’ll tell them.

2. Select your frame

When you understand the worldview your prospects share — the things they believe — you can frame your story in a way that resonates so strongly with them that you enjoy an “unfair” advantage over your competition.

You can cater to audience beliefs and worldviews without resorting to name-calling. For example, the simple word “green” can provoke visceral reactions at the far sides of the environmental worldview spectrum, while also prompting less-intense emotions in the vast middle.

Framing your story against a polar opposite, by definition, will make some love you and others ignore or even despise you. That’s not only okay, it’s necessary.

You’ll likely never convert those at the other end of the spectrum, but your core base will share your content and help you penetrate the vast group in the middle — and that’s where growth comes from.

3. Choose your premise

The premise is the way you choose to tell the story so that you get the conclusion you desire. It’s the delivery of the framed message with dramatic tension and one or more relatable heroes so that your goals are achieved.

• It’s the hook, the angle, the purple cow.
• It’s the difference between a good story and an ignored story.
• It’s the clear path between attention and action.

It’s important to understand the difference between the beliefs or worldview of your audience (the frame) and the expression of that belief or worldview back to them.

Think about your favorite novel or film … the same information could have been transmitted another way, but just not as well. In fact, stories have been retold over and over throughout the ages — some are just better told than others.

The premise is essentially the difference between success and failure (or good and great) when it comes to copywriting and storytelling.

Content marketing as storytelling

“Marketing succeeds when enough people with similar worldviews come together in a way that allows marketers to reach them cost-effectively.” – Seth Godin

That’s exactly what content marketing allows you to do. In fact, it’s the most cost-effective (and just plain ol’ effective) online marketing method ever devised when done properly.

Even better, people aren’t just coming together. They’re coming together around you.

What’s YOUR story?  Whatever it is, remember to make it remarkable! If you need help finding, developing and sharing your story, contact SK Consulting today!  

Small businesses have small budgets.  We get it.  But, don’t limit your creativity or your marketing strategies because of it.  

There are a lot of things you can do to promote your business without spending a lot of money. You don’t necessarily need to go big – go small and intimate! 

1. Get personal.

Customers love the opportunity to make something their own. Studies have shown that the majority of consumers said receiving a personalized incentive would improve consideration of the brand.  If there’s a way for you to allow customer customization, give it a try and see how your audience responds. Not sure how to add a personal touch to your business? Anything that gets your customer’s name on your product works -- using frosting to write the order name on your donuts, or offering free monograming on your inventory of purses or apparel.

2. Promote customer engagement.

In today’s social world, whatever you can do to make your small business more shareable is good for marketing. What is something you could implement that your customers would find Insta-worthy? Create an opportunity for photo ops and increase your social reach without spending a cent. Try a selfie campaign, Facebook Live, a contest for the most creative slogan.  Add a prize component to entice people to use your custom hashtag or tag your business in their posts.

3. Say thanks.

How often do you let your customers know that you appreciate them? You’d be surprised the power a simple “thank you” can have on creating customer loyalty. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. While a card can often be effort enough, let’s try to remember that we’re thinking outside the proverbial box and go for something bigger. How about hosting a special event where guests can sample new menu items, or you highlight one of your customer’s businesses?. Try utilizing Meetup.com or another event website that can gain the attention of new customers as well as current ones.

4. Develop a loyalty program.

If you’re losing customers, you need to establish a way to cultivate repeat business. If your target audience is Generation Z – you’re LUCKY!  They are more willing than any other generation to sign up for loyalty cards in exchange for deals or discounts. Your loyalty program can be as basic as a punch card or as elaborate as a membership that rewards customers based on how often they visit or even how much they spend.  

5. Utilize LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a frequently skipped social media networks for small businesses. But why? While not the most exciting platform, it does provide unique opportunities for marketing your business. Without even spending any money, you can connect with people in your community by creating a group, joining existing groups and reaching out to other small business owners and potential customers in your area.  This platform is geared toward the more professional audience.  EVERYONE has a Facebook page.  But, show other business professionals that you and your business mean business by using LinkedIn.

6. Survey your current customers.

If you’re not sure what types of marketing or promotions your customers will respond to best, ask them. A simple survey can provide endless insight into what you’re doing right and wrong, and what you’re not doing that you should be. Include a raffle-like component, where one participant will win a prize (such as a $100 credit to your business) to encourage your audience to take part.  Your customers are your best PR tool.  If they respond that they love this or that, ask them for a testimonial on this or that.

Small business owners fight an uphill battle every day.  There are corporations that offer some of the services you do and have spent the big money promoting it.  The small mom and pop store down the street from a WalMart struggles.  But, don’t brush aside everyone’s inherent need to feel special.  Nobody wants to be an account number, a credit card number, a client number.  Customers will come back (and probably be willing to spend a little more) for authentic, genuine, person-to-person customer service. 

That’s something us true small business owners can hang our hat on.  If you need help finding your strengths and being the David against the Goliath, contact SK Consulting today!

Putting the Personal Back into Personal Branding

There’s no denying the importance of personal branding. After all, branding is largely responsible for the message your name (and face) transmits to the world. Because of this, it’s vital that your brand is built on authenticity and engagement, rather than half-heartedness and complacency.

For many up-and-coming entrepreneurs, consciously making an effort to build a personal brand takes a backseat to other items on their never-ending to-do lists. In their minds, personal branding will take care of itself.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  You need to know that everything you do, both intentionally and not, contributes to the way others are perceiving your personal brand.

Whether through social media, influencer marketing or some sort of media outreach strategy, personal branding is an active endeavor. Still need some convincing? Below you’ll find four hard-hitting reasons to give your personal brand some time and attention.

1. Sales is a human-to-human endeavor.

There’s no greater tool in a salesperson’s arsenal than trust, especially if your business makes its money on the internet. How does an entrepreneur go about building that trust? Personal branding.

It’s imperative to understand that sales is a human-to-human affair. Though there are tools out there that help automate important sales processes, you must present your most genuine self to connect with people on an emotional level.

Whether you're connecting eye-to-eye, voice-to-voice or merely message-to-message, peel back the curtain ever so slightly. It might not provide an immediate marketing return, but it will get other people to help you build your brand.

2. You are the media.

Thanks to blogs, podcasts and social networks, you don’t have the option to sit idly by and wait for others to mention your brand in the media. Yes, PR still matters, but many companies today are media companies first and money-making entities second.

Branding certainly works on a macro level, but it works on a micro level, too. Your personal brand matters. To strengthen it, recognize that you -- not just that team of interns you recently hired -- must provide value as an active media member to make people remember your name.

3. There’s too much noise to be conservative.

Thanks to the internet's sheer volume of content, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. That's why you have to make a good first impression, whether trying to get an Instagram user to stop scrolling past your content or convince a search algorithm that you’re a uniquely valuable resource. 

With social media, people and businesses are constantly talking over one another.  Your potential customers have to resonate with something you post and want to learn more.  If you don’t have the right messaging, the right tactic and the right timing, your attempt to ‘jump into’ the conversation will fall on deaf ears.

4. You're always branding yourself.

In today’s day and age, you no longer have a choice about personal branding.  The world is far too connected for you not to be transmitting some kind of personal message with your actions.

If you decide not to actively participate, people will take notice, and their professional opinions of you aren’t likely to be favorable. Without control of your personal brand, your image stands on shaky ground.

Invest in your brand. That way, you not only invest in yourself, but also in the people you lead and the organization you represent.  Don’t expect business to just come to you or that people will stumble upon your website and decide to do business with you.

You are the best PR, marketing and sales person for your business.  While the digital age definitely consumes us, there is something to be said about the old-school, hand-shake, meet and greet.  Get to know your potential customers.  Let them get to know you.  If you are authentic and true to the brand that you want to promote, you will leave them wanting more.

If you or your business need help developing your personal and professional brand, contact SK Consulting today!