Whatever your business, corporate storytelling is an important part of your marketing mix.
Your business story is what inspires people to buy products or services from you. It is an expression of the quality, service and value you offer and is the foundation of your reputation.
Telling your story correctly attracts new customers and encourages loyalty among all who buy from you. But If the story falls short in the telling, it won’t produce the results you are hoping for.
Let’s consider why you need to think about your business story and what you can do to improve its chances of success.
You may already be advertising your wares across several channels, but that can be an expensive route to market and it takes a load of creativity to differentiate you significantly from competitors.
For greater depth, you need to supplement your advertising with carefully crafted copy that not only grabs a potential customer’s attention, but also goes into detail about the product or service on offer – and you, the supplier.
Such copy is found in the realms of public relations and marketing communication, and increasingly goes under the banner of content creation. It’s the stuff that goes into brochures, websites, blogs and GDPR-compliant email newsletters.
Unless you have the time and the skills to create content yourself, you should enlist the help of a professional content creator – a widely experienced copywriter.
Your writer will bring not only experience but also objectivity that helps to translate your story into something with wider reader appeal. The professional writer will also be able to suggest alternatives in style, presentation and multi-channel publication.
Here are some ideas to get your story across more effectively in today’s information-rich environment:
- Publish often: Quite simply, the more articles you can produce, the greater your chances of reaching readers.
- Publish news: Whatever you are writing about, give it reader appeal by making it sound like news.
- Content ideas: New products, new suppliers, new staff, new premises, case studies, customer feedback, features, white papers, market comments and so on. Demonstrate your range of skills, experience and thought leadership.
- Repurpose past articles: Material you invested in last year can easily be updated and reworked economically for a new audience – even on the same channel.
- Choose your channels: All fresh content must go on your website. Suitable material may also be placed elsewhere – here, for example. If you are placing on more than one site, it’s best to make some copy tweaks to reduce any risk of search engine penalties.
- Tell people about it: Use your other social media channels to spread the word about your latest article. Use @mentions and #hashtags to encourage engagement and broaden the field. Always remember to add a link to the version on your website. Publish extracts of recent articles in a newsletter – have a print version to hand out or post, and an email version to distribute to people who have properly opted-in to your mailing list.
Do not expect overnight miracles. Publishing a new piece probably won’t bring immediate riches, but the more you strive to improve the way you tell your story, the better your chances. Remember that a dripping tap will eventually fill the bucket!
For more useful ideas and information on content creation for PR and marketing, please visit my website.