Remember a good story?
When you think of storytelling, what comes to mind? Take a moment and visualize it: laying in your bed all snug and tight, listening intently as an adult spins a tale of adventure, love and happy endings. Often, the heroine was in trouble, she encountered trials, she had people helping her, but one prince charming ended up saving her from certain ruin. Along the way, you learned about the heroine – her family, her friends, her personality, her history. As the tale progressed, you became more loyal to the heroine and concerned about her outcome. Would she be ok?! Would she ever get out of that tower?! Would her friends and family be in peril?! Through storytelling, you became a stakeholder in the heroine’s outcome.
Why stories matter.
Your customers are looking for a good story, too. I’m not talking about a fabricated one; I’m talking about a real one that follows the structure of any good story and helps them become invested in your business. Just like you were invested in the princess’s life.
In a day of information and technology overload, prospects and customers are desperate for a way to connect with you, your employees and your business. Telling a good story – the right story – is paramount to helping them create a real relationship with your business – not just conduct business.
We’ve been talking about this for a long time, but apparently now it’s a trend. Entrepreneur just wrote about it. Small business labs just followed up on it. They included a nice starter outline on how to get started telling your story that was written by the good folks at Social Earth.
Telling your story.
Your story is about why you do business and your motivation. Here at Professional Mojo we were challenged by watching businesses and nonprofits struggle with the digital environment. We wanted to take what we knew and help others succeed in the wild west of the online marketplace. We wanted to build something meaningful and helpful – dedicating a full division to nonprofit outreach – and we wanted to do it our way – with color and passion and whimsy.
Rachael and I wanted to build a company whose foundation was family first, providing colleagues with work/life balance by utilizing all of the technology available so they can be with their kid when she’s sick or their dad when he’s ill. We wanted to be a different kind of agency. During the course of starting Mojo, we overcame the disastrous drop in the economy and death of parents. Things happen – sometimes life-altering things. We wanted to be a place where gifted and talented people could thrive and also live.
And, we wanted to extend that philosophy to put our clients and the customers they serve first. We wanted to build a marketing company that had heart, not just talent.
People have hearts.
Your business’s story matters because your customers have heart. They want to connect with you and understand why you do what you do. Don’t be fooled by all of the online stuff. We live that all day every day for our clients – and it’s powerful. But, Professional Mojo can tell you from experience that it doesn’t matter if you are talking in person, in print or online, people want to connect with you and your story – whatever the platform. Your business story should be told effectively, colorfully and consistently across all of the channels.
Tell the story often and make sure it’s authentic.
No matter where a prospect looks, when he sees YOUR content, it should be authentic and human. It should also be consistently told and consistently branded. This is the struggle for many businesses: 1) what IS my story and 2) how do I manage it across all the channels?
Well, that’s where we come in. Let us know if you’d like to talk. In the meantime, happy storytelling! Rachael and I are wishing for you a very happy ever after.
