Storytelling

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The reality of “wow” moments

The reality of “wow” moments

I recently heard a colleague talking about a customer’s “wow” moment’, referring to the moment when a customer says (or hopefully shouts!) the word “wow” about your product or service. In the case of a retailer who shows stock in a different way, or a new product innovator it’s easy to see why the client may make this utterance. But for many businesses, the reality of understanding your “wow” moment and, importantly, what it does for you can be quite a challenge.

Consider an intellectual property protection advisory service, or a manufacturer of rolled metal, or even a wifi software provider. Getting to grips with and defining how your service makes your customers jump out of their seats and shout for joy in these cases can seem a daunting task.

To help then, it’s worth considering some of these hints and tips:

  • Start with “why?”: Why do your customers buy what you offer?
  • Then look at why what you offer is better than someone else.
  • Consider, what’s truly different about your business from the others in your market.
    • Is it the quality of your service? (and if it is – be specific about what aspect of your service is so great.)
    • Is it that you add value to the product you sell by tailoring it in some particular way?
    • Is it the status of your brand and what being seen purchasing from you says to others?
    • Is it as simple as price – being the cheapest?
  • Talk to your customers. Check that your “wow” really is a “wow” for your customers. Ask them. If they actually love what you do, or how you do it, they’ll tell you. It’s important to make sure you don’t second guess your “wow”.

Once you understand your “wow” moment you need to make sure it’s replicated consistently. After all, why wow only a few of your customers? And remember it’s not about you shouting wow, or saying publicly this is our “wow”, but it’s about consistently meeting that expectation every time.

If you’ve thought about it, talked to your customers and still don’t think you have a “wow” moment, then maybe it’s time to go back to basics and think about why that’s the case. Dig deep – the chances are that there’s a nugget in there somewhere and if not, then maybe things aren’t going so well for your business, so it might be time to start re-thinking how you truly can be different from everyone else.

If you have a “wow” you want to share let us know below!

nutella, gerbils and emotional connections

nutella, gerbils and emotional connections

There are two stories in the media today that catch the eye. One about nutella and the other about gerbils. If you haven’t read them, the gist is: a nutella jar full of loom bands started a fire that burnt down a family home along with their dog; and some boffins have discovered gerbils may have been responsible for the spread of the Black Death, not rats as we’ve been taught for many years.

So what do these tales of woe and mistaken identity tell us about the media and what comms practitioners need to think of when influencing the agenda?

And I don’t mean the how do you write a good story. Of course, a strong headline, a good opening sentence, a clear flow, often with short clear sentences – these are all important.

Fundamentally, though, a news story must have a strong heart. Journalists will often call this an angle. It’s the heart of the matter that connects with something personal for the reader and makes them want to stay with the story to the end. An emotional connection or series of connections.

Let’s consider first of all the unfortunate dog and the nutella jar. Nutella is a staple in thousands of homes across the country – if we don’t have family members who eat it now, we may well have eaten it in our childhood. The man who invented it, died only last week making the story even more current and engaging. And even if we don’t have a particular connection to nutella, half (or so)  of the UK population are dog lovers, who hate the idea of a dog going up in smoke. So, as we read, the story pulls at our heartstrings and we have the recognition that it could be us and and our pooch. Perfect ingredients for a cracking story.

Now the gerbil story. Here we have the creature with a poor reputation, the rat, who has been lambasted for years because they live in squalor, spread disease and there are so many of them, they simply must have spread the plague. And we have the much cuter and cuddlier (in many a small child’s eyes), gerbil who now becomes the real villain. We’re also reminded in the piece that the plague hasn’t been totally eradicated. So, although the Black Death seems like ancient history to us, we’re reminded it could affect us and it’s those once loved and now wretched gerbils that might be the harbingers of doom. As borne out by the number of tweets by concerned gerbil owners.

In both cases:  strong connection, evoking emotional reaction.

So, why does this matter to the B2B technology or engineering marketer? It provides an insight into the heart of what matters to journalists and how to approach a story for your audience. Clearly stories of the Black Death and fires caused by nutella jars might not be appropriate for you, but no matter what your product or service offering, there’s always a story in there that’ll make that emotional connection with your audience. It’s a case of looking hard and being open-minded. First and foremost it’s not about you and your product, it’s about the reader and what matters to them.

A secret of content marketing – getting back on the bike

A secret of content marketing – getting back on the bike

2014 was the year that the phrase “Content Marketing” took off (well, in marketing circles at least!). Of course, if you believe much of the hype it’s a new way of marketing, it’s never been done before, it’s the only way to get leads, etc. In fact, the reality is rather different: content marketing has been around for a long time.

Good marketing, ergo good content marketing, focuses on the audience and engaging them in a topic that is relevant, timely, has an impact on them and through their medium of choice. The reason that content marketing has been coined as a phrase is that the opportunity for content creation has been massively amplified over the last few years as the nature of the way people consume content has changed and the ability to easily publish content has changed.  Yet, even in the days before there was such a simple and direct way to engage your audience, the approach remained the same: provide a timely, compelling story built around the need of your audience and find the best way to get it in front of them. “Gobbing off”, as a colleague of mine once put it, didn’t work any better then than it does now.

One of the biggest challenges with content marketing today, is cutting through all the noise. With ease of publication, has come increase in volume – exponential increase in volume. So, how do you increase your cut through? Well, actually it all goes back to where good marketing started – step into your audience’s shoes, find out where they hang out, create content that is relevant to them, make it emotionally engaging, make it focused on their need. Then and only then, only once you have established connection and need, link it back to your offering.

And, while you’re at it, recognise that all of this takes time. There are no shortcuts. You need to take time and be consistent in getting your content out there, which is a hard thing to do. So, we often see people fall off the bike – they don’t get responses quickly enough, it’s not a core part of the business, they just can’t find the energy, they don’t have the commitment to the programme, so they stop producing content. And that’s ok – there’s no need to beat yourself up over it if you take a break from producing content. What’s important is to recognise when this has happened (no matter how long the time has been) and then get back on the bike and start producing again. No-one will judge you for starting again and who knows, the effort may pay off sooner than you think.

The web or the Internet – does your audience care?

Last week you may have seen a raft of articles celebrating the fact that it’s 25 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web.  If you’re a reader of some of the more technical media, you may also have noticed a number of commentators bemoaning the fact that that several media outlets committed the heinous crime of calling the web the Internet.

The bottom line is that many people use the words web and Internet interchangeably.  They simply don’t care that one’s the pipes and the other’s the way you navigate.   To your average Joe it’s all the same thing.

And the media outlets that didn’t get it right know this.  They know their audience well enough to know that, despite the fact that Sir Tim was part of the marvelous opening ceremony for London 2012, most of those watching don’t make a distinction between the web and the Internet.  They know that it’s too technical.  In the same way that they know that people don’t care how their latest mobile phone works, or the technical reasons behind the different HD formats of their televisions.  What they do know is that a Briton invented a part of one of the most significant technological shifts of the last century and that’s what matters to their readers.

Which is of course the same reason that the media outlets who bemoaned the crime also wrote about the fact they got it wrong – they know their readership do care.

It’s all about writing for your audience.  Something it’s easy to forget about when we get caught up in the excitement of our products or services.  So remember, whether you care about calling it the web or the Internet, it’s what your readers care about that matters more.

Google’s acquisition of nest – a lesson in the power of the big numbers and other storytelling tactics

It’s fascinating to watch the rise of the Internet of Things.  The concept has been around for years – hook up all the electrical, and even some non-electrical goods you have at home to the Internet and control them from wherever you are.  It’s been a while coming but the products and applications are starting to hit the consumer market, as are the debates: privacy issues – who has access to the data about what time you get up or how often you shower?; obsolescence issues – will all our products that we’d have been happy using for 15 or 20 years need replacing much sooner (every two or three years) because the technology in them goes out of date?

So, what’s caused the issue to go mainstream, when the products still have a relatively small consumer base?  Well, Google’s acquisition of nest for $3.2bn has done more for the profile of this kind of technology than any other news event.  So, I think it’s worth considering why this story has garnered so much coverage and raised the profile of this kind of tech to a much wider audience than before.

The interest in this story comes about because a number of factors come together elegantly and make this an attractive issue to write about, offering some easy headlines that will grab the attention of readers worldwide.  What are those factors?

  • First, there’s a massive number – $3.2bn – the price Google have paid, but on it’s own that’s not the whole story
  • Next, it’s what they’ve bought with the money, a small number to juxtapose against the big number – a company with just 300 employees
  • Further, this is a company working in an area of technology that many people haven’t heard of and that experts are predicting will be a huge area of growth in the sector over the coming years – so the timing of this story is just right
  • And finally it’s an area that’s ripe for debate – privacy, obsolescence, rampant consumerism, etc.

Of course, we’re not all Google and we don’t all have $3.2bn to spend on a business, but we can consider how we apply the principles of how they’ve structured their story and make our own stories as engaging.  That way, we can make the world we want to talk to, sit up and take notice.

Stories at a time of sadness

This is a personal post, but I hope you’ll indulge me…

Over the last few months in our house we’ve been dealing with the loss of some loved ones. It’s been a challenging time for all, but one which we all face at times.  Stories have a strong role to play at times like these.

Stories help us make sense of what’s happening in the moment.  Do you remember when….  She always used to love this…  They’re the memories we’ll have and the stronger the story the more vivid the memory.  Happy ones, sad ones, uplifting ones.  Stories told through sound, vision, smell, and touch.  All our senses create stories for us all the time.  The stories often become the filters we view the world through.  In this circumstance they are part of the glue that binds a community or family.

At times like these we remember stories and we also create new ones.  Many of the stories created now, will not be spoken out loud for some time to come, They will be held close, our own personal stories but one day they will play their part in the healing.

To read a story of one of the people we have lost, one of our daughters’ teachers, see here and if you feel the urge, please donate.

Get found

I bought something online today.  It cost me 6 pence, it cost 99 pence to have it delivered and  it gave me value of about £20.  I was chuffed, because something else I’d previously purchased now worked properly.

The remarkable thing about this activity, for me, was the simplicity of it. Not only that, but it’s the way such transactions have become a part of everyday life and our expectations of service have risen so fast.

The part I was looking for didn’t, to my knowledge, have a name.  It was a small metal ring that would allow a lampshade I’d bought to fit onto the light mounting in our living room.

So, what to search for in Google?  I have to admit I wasn’t sure but I knew that I could refine my search if I wasn’t hitting the exact spot.  So I typed in my problem rather than trying to come up with a name for this strange object. “Lampshade hole too big”. Surely this can’t work I thought, but no, lo and behold at position 2 there was the answer to my problem and it was clear even from the short excerpt of text that appeared alongside the response – this was what I was searching for!

It was, of course, only a short hop, skip and a jump to review it more fully, decide to buy and within a few clicks it was being packaged and posted to me.

Now, I know there are many who feel that some of the online behemoth stores are not for them – they kill the high street, they work their employees too hard, etc. – and I know they’re not perfect, but the simplicity of what I had just done struck me as something many businesses can learn from.

What’s to learn then?

If you want to get found think about what people might search for. That includes the phrases people may use, because they don’t all use the corporate language you do, even consider descriptions of the problem the customer may want to solve.  Describe your product or service offering clearly and make sure you optimise how your page will appear in search.  Make the purchase and delivery process simple.

It’s not easy, and I know you might not sell widgets like this, but if there are others out there doing it, then it becomes the standard which we will all need to meet.

“We’re unique” – storytelling to help others understand your complex business

There are many niche industries and businesses selling a range of specialist products.  Often when we work in such industries we hear people talk of how this is a unique industry or business and that our problems are like no-one else’s and no-one else is capable of solving the issues we have. Often we use three (or more) letter acronyms to make our world seem even more impenetrable.  That’s ok if we believe that we will only sell to people in our industry, who are just like us.  But that’s rarely a recipe for survival and even less a recipe for growth.

One such industry is the domain name industry.  Talk to those in the industry, and they’re deeply passionate about what’s happening in the market, they have a wonderful set of statistics at their fingertips, they are frustrated by the policy machinations and the impacts of government and law enforcement.  The reality when you talk to the average person on the street how they feel about domains is very different – they’re generally not very interested – marketers would term the domain industry a ”low interest category”.  The Japanese domain registry recognised this and played on it with an excellent video that many could do well to watch.

Some do not react so well and find it hard to take that there are people (lots of people!) out there who think that what they’ve been doing for the last fifteen years is essentially boring.  The industry, be it domains, seatbelt manufacture, car park design or whatever, feels put down by such comments, because they know how important their role is.  Some recognise this, like the Japanese registry.  Others carry on regardless, unperturbed and hopeful that their existing customers will continue to be customers forever.

The challenge that we all face is that markets, industries, businesses change.  The domain industry is going through a massive change right now.  Even if you work in an industry where change seems very slow (think fifteen year lead times on aircraft engines) change still happens and as a business you have a responsibility to react.  So businesses will tend to differentiate themselves via a number of routes: innovation, quality, price, service.

When differentiating in such a way, the story you tell must be clear, coherent and consistent. Not only that, but it must be engaging.  In ways that engage at an emotional level, with a clear target audience in mind. In such industries the challenge is to make people sit up and take notice of something that they rarely think of, or if they do, to help them see it in a new light in a way that makes then stop, think and take action.

Television programme producers tend to be good at this.  Analyse the structure of any programme and it’ll be the same.  First there’s a set of characters we can relate to.  Then there’s a situation we can empathise with and finally there’s a strong storyline, often multiple storylines interweaved, to keep us hooked and wanting more.  This approach has been the cornerstone of soaps for decades and has become the norm for documentaries too – even the news does it.  Why do they do it?  Because it hooks people in and helps them understand.  We tend to remember a powerful story more easily than a collection of facts.

So, let this not be a competition about who has the least interesting industry.  After all, often the most dull of products will have improved the lives of many though we may not instantly recognise or appreciate their impact.  Someone has to make the seat belts and we use every day.  These are the people and businesses to be cherished.  Let’s tell their stories in imaginative ways, that inspire others to get involved and be part of something that, although largely unnoticed, keeps the world we know turning.

Your business may be unique, so why not help the world understand why?

Seeing the wood for the trees – stepping into our customers’ shoes

Over the last few months as Resonant Stories has developed, one of the biggest challenges we have faced has been doing for ourselves what we do for other people, i.e. identifying and telling the stories that define our business and help others to understand clearly what we do.   The challenge, of course, is that we’re too close to see clearly.

It’s the challenge many businesses have – taking a step back from the detail, from the everyday challenges that consume us, to take a more objective look, to see more clearly what value we really bring to our customers.  Making a fair assessment of what you do for your customers requires you to step into your customer’s shoes.  So often, the trap we fall into is to focus on ourselves and what we do, not to look at what our customers see us do and the impacts we have on their businesses.

To step into their shoes we have to put aside our own view of the world; actively listen to the language our customers use when talking about us (online and offline); review all the ways they interact with our brand; and measure the impact we have on them.  Only once we’ve done this can we truly reflect on how we impact their businesses and project to others what we can do to help them.

We’ll be stepping into our customers’ shoes as often as we can over the coming months – how about you?

Digital marketing, it’s part of the mix

“What’s our digital marketing strategy?” – one of the most popular refrains from Boards around the country for the last couple of years.  Leaving the marketing team grappling with the task of coaxing the Board into understanding that a strategy isolated from the rest of the marketing strategy, or worse, from the whole business strategy is probably not the way to save the company!

No, not only does digital run across the whole company (think: marketing, customer service, internal and external communications) but within marketing its simply one part of the toolkit for executing the overall marketing strategy.  It should be thought through at the same time as all the other components of a campaign, it should be evaluated on its efficacy and returns, the same as any other marketing activity.

Don’t get me wrong – we’ll still see digital only campaigns.  But they’ll come from an informed view of what is the best approach and be chosen because they get the right results, not just because we have to “do digital”.