Everyone loves a good story. This is true whether you’re sitting around a campfire, reading a blog post, or scrolling the internet for the day’s news.
Good stories are everywhere. It’s often just a matter of taking the time to sit down and write them. Below are a few ideas on how to build great stories into your marketing strategy:
- Know Your Audience
Know your audience and what you want to achieve with your stories. Be sure to include information that your readers will be most interested in. In our case, we try to tell stories about different marketing campaigns we’re working on, mistakes in corporate branding, or even web hosting (we get a lot of questions on that!). Since this is the type of work clients are most interested in, they usually like to see how we’ve helped others with similar requests.
- Solve a Problem
There’s a reason customer testimonials are so popular on blogs and corporate websites: problem solving is the cornerstone of many a marketing campaign. Tell people of customers who came to you with a problem and how you worked with them to solve it. These stories work to highlight your core capabilities and show how your team is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty – often doing things your competitors won’t – to make your customers happy. Building trust through client relationships is key to the success of any business. After all: happy customers are return customers.
- Current Events and Timely Issues
In most industries, there are current events that affect the entire supply chain, including consumers. These events can serve as the foundation of a good story. By weighing in on current events relevant to your business, you can showcase how your company works to solve problems, is aware of potential risks that your customers might be facing, and has unique solutions to individual customer needs.
- Be Vulnerable
Sharing a personal story about how you built your business and the challenges you faced helps people identify with you. Showing how you overcame adversity serves to inspire others who may be in a similar position. Everyone has struggles in business; by sharing how you worked to push past your failures, you can motivate others to reach for the next level of success.
- Share How You Vetted Different Solutions and Why You Made the Choice You Did
With so many software, social media, and digital solutions available, it can be difficult to know which to choose. Consider sharing a success story of different apps you’ve used or platforms you’ve tried along with what worked and what didn’t. Readers are always interested in knowing what works well for others and why they made the choices they did.
- Answer Questions
Answering questions is something we try to do whenever we can. We tend to get a lot of questions about video, mobile sites vs. mobile apps, and social media. Putting these answers in easily-digestible blog posts has been a good way to share this information with clients and prospects who have similar questions.
Keep writing, and be sure to give us a call for your next project!