People love stories, exciting, empowering, "edge of the seat" tales that strike an emotional chord, whether that is a feeling of safety or alarm, readiness or chaos, or discomfort or ease. And that goes for your company story too.
What Should Your Story Include?
Here is a short list of some of the items your message should include:
- Teaching moments: Explain how your service or product can ease their stress, or save them money or time.
- Passion: Tell them why you started your business. What is it about what you do that pushes you to persevere?
- WIIFM: What is in it for me? That’s the question everyone wants to be answered. How are you going to solve their problems?
- What If: Discuss what might happen if they don’t solve their problem.
A Plethora of Marketing Options
One of the mistakes business professionals often make in their messaging, is believing that a story must be told in long article-style format. Although this is often the case as it allows for more information to be included, it is not the only avenue to share your experiences with your clients. Here are some other formats you can use to tell your story in a compelling manner.
- Blogs—Do want to interact with your audience? Write a blog. Choose a topic and then convey an experience you’ve had that ties to it. This helps engage your audience. Encourage people to contact you by placing links within the text that bring your clients back to the company website.
- Social media—Post information on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other sites. Then have a link to your website where additional information is available.
- Postcards—Postcards are still a less expensive way to get your marketing materials into the hands of existing and potential clients. You have to send them out more than once; at least 12 times until your audience connects your logo or your company name to a specific service or product. You may not be able to put your entire company story on the card, but what you do say should be carefully crafted to make an impact. It should include wording and phrases that highlight your philosophy, your core beliefs and how your product or service will solve your customers' challenges.
- Brochures—Brochures come in all shapes and sizes, allowing you to expand or decrease how much of your story to include. Most brochures will stress the benefits, not features of the products or services, provide a company history, and contact information. Direct your audience to your website for more detailed information. Brochures have the most impact when they are focused on a specific topic.
- Case histories—Highlighting a specific client situation: what occurred, how you went about fixing it and what happened afterward is a great way to share your experiences.
- Webinars—If you’ve been marketing your business for a while, you have a large number of materials that can be re-purposed for a webinar. This format allows individuals to access it any time from anywhere.
- Vlogs—Similar to blogs, vlogs are video logs discussing a specific topic. Otherwise, the same blog rules apply.
- Videos—Shooting a series of short videos (1-3 minutes in length) for your website allows you to provide your clients with an inside look at your business and makes it a more personalized and interactive experience.
- Website (and not just the About page)—Your company story doesn’t have to be stuck on the About page. You can use information throughout the site that conveys your mission statement, core values, and passion.
With so many marketing options available choose a few that best fit your time constraints, your budget, and your business. If you have any questions, contact Robin Kellogg, Robin Kellogg Associates, “Your Writing Resource,” (818) 993-5468, robin@yourwritingresource.com or visit www.yourwritingresource.com.
