Story telling versus storyselling - SIMONE DOUGLAS

Simone Douglas - "#SeriouslySocial"

​Introduction

Today’s consumer atmosphere of brand loyalty demands an authentic and unique presence to stand out in a saturated market. Yet companies continue to shout about their products from the rooftops at least the digital ones and set themselves up for failure with false promises delivered in the form of an out of touch and gimmicky marketing strategy that invariably leaves a sour taste somewhere along the customer journey.

Creating coherent and responsive messaging that articulates a brand’s value is significantly easier when the message is honest, authentic and connects who you are as a business to the values and needs of your customers. 

The most critical aspect of a marketing strategy is to create messaging that supports the identity of the business or organisation and positions it honestly within its marketplace.

This is the main difference between Storytelling and “Story Selling.” There are infinite narrative strategies that can be thought up to build up or sell a brand, business or person. That said a simple approach of being genuine is not only the easiest to portray, but the most scalable, adaptable, and stable. In order for this “genuine” approach to work, a business must deliver on the expectation it sets.

It is easy to get distracted by all the noise in the business world at large but jump day is your chance to settle in and work on your business in ways that allow you to make the most of your opportunities today, tomorrow and forever. Today’s show is the very beginning of reviewing and reframing your approach to your customers experience through your sales and marketing.

IBGR is a global community of commerce committed to your success and our programming is designed to give you the tools and resources as well as the one percenters you might be missing. So settle in because all the best stories are told with the audiences full attention and today is no exception. If you put the learnings into place you will have started your preparation to belt 2021 out of the stratosphere. After all We didn’t wake up this morning and decide to own an averagely successful business now did we?


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​Show Objectives - The Why
The purpose of today’s show is to give you an understanding of narrative marketing from a humanistic perspective.

Storytelling is a form of interactive expression that engages an audience’s imagination. More simply, it’s the writing and telling of stories.  When it comes to content marketing, storytelling doesn’t change much. The end goal is to engage your audience's interest, imagination and feelings. Storytellers thoughtfully consider who their audience is and what stories they are interested in.

For businesses, becoming established and seeing conversations through storytelling can be a slow but meaningful climb (one most businesses don’t have the patience or make the  time for). Stories offer honesty, humility, transparency, vulnerability, and integrity something ads (the product of marketing efforts) just can’t do.

When it comes to our customers the most successful businesses have a carefully crafted balance of storytelling and story selling that engages both the heart & the mind then ultimately the wallet of their ideal customers.

Key Issues - Owner Perspective:

1. What are the pain points for our customers or what problems are they trying to solve?
2. What is the discovery journey and path to purchase or in other words where do they investigate solutions to their problems and what are they looking for.
3. How do our customers use the information we give them and what our competitors are putting out there to make a purchase decision?
4. What are we selling? What are the benefits of our product or service? What impact must it have? (b2B - competitive advantage or B2C Lifestyle)
5. How do our customers use the product or service we are providing? Is it user friendly?

What You Need to Know - What we will be covering

Like it or not every business stands for something, if you get it right it's a good thing and when you get it wrong it costs you both opportunities and sales as customers fall out of the nest along the way through misalignment of messaging to customers expectations.

1. Understand the customer expectations
   1. Businesses that get to know their customers and study their perception of the company gain valuable insight into how they can create better products, services, and user experiences. 
2. Study your customer segments and journeys
   1. Our customers are more in control of their purchasing decisions than ever before—with the advancement of digital technology, customers can easily research offerings, compare multiple businesses, and seek out the best prices. Smart businesses have employed big data and analytics to react to their customers, anticipate their next moves, and study the journey that led them to their offerings. 
3. Analyze how the perception of your business has changed over time.
   1. Many businesses have a reasonable, if imperfect, sense of how customers perceive them. It is possible to pursue simple, low-cost alternatives to full-fledged brand research studies by studying social media and online product reviews. 
4. Survey lost customers and competitors customers.
   1. Customers who have abandoned the company have demonstrated a need for the service and familiarity with the company and provide us a way to better meet their needs by studying their previous purchase history. 
   2. To take advantage of this information, successful business owners survey lost customers, asking how they used the product before canceling and why they canceled, and observing how they respond to win-back offers. 
5. Benchmark yourself against your competitors
   1. Understanding why customers choose competitor brands and how competitors differentiate themselves in the market can clarify what is working well for you, the improvements you need to make, and how you can stand out in the crowd.
6. Keep your eyes open for potential market disruptors.
   1. By identifying early on how new advancements may disrupt your businesses’ performance, you can adjust your strategies, offerings, and communication styles to stay relevant and competitive in an ever-changing market.

What you need to do​ today

1. Review your messaging have you connected at the head and at the heart, are you selling the benefits or just the product
2. Map the journey, where are your customers at, what do you know about them and are you building relationships or just yelling at them about how good you are?
3. Does our collateral measure up, if you were an outsider looking in how you would really interpret what you are being presented with from your business. Get an outside point of view and be prepared to let go of what you thought you knew and embrace what you learn
4. Collect some data, call some ideal clients and ask them who they use and what makes them a great choice.
5. Plan to spend time putting lessons learnt and aha moments into practice.  Let me know how it goes.
6. ACT! Nothing changes if you don’t set aside time to make it happen so once you have worked out what you need to do start putting timelines and deliverables on your action plan. Get clear on what you want your customers to feel, what actions you want them to take and what pain points you are here to solve for them.

 


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Does your 6 word story measure up or are you faking it until you break it - looking at it through a marketing, sales and service experience perspective are we delivering on the expectations we are creating. Do we live our values every step of the way or are they just a poster on the wall?

Written by Simone Douglas 
The Publican & Licensee of the Duke of Brunswick Hotel, Executive Director for BNI Adelaide North one of the biggest networking organisations in the world, the driving force behind South Australia’s leading social media agency, Social Media AOK and best-selling author with her first book “Seriously Social – turning your online game into real-world gain”. Her next book “The Confident Networker” is set for release on November 6th.

Simone also serves as Deputy President of the State Chapter Committee South Australia for the Franchise Council of Australia and sits on the Franchise Advisory Council for BNI Australia

You can connect with Simone on any of her seriously social platforms
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