GET SMARTER MARKETING

 

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PART 1

 

YOUR MARKETING PLAN

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FIND YOUR 'BIG PICTURE'

CHAPTER 1

Customers today have more choices than ever before, so simply talking about the features and benefits of your solution isn’t enough to make you stand out. Instead, most customers want to be part of something bigger than themselves. This is why people donate to charity. It’s why they take on feats of human endurance like running a 100km ultra marathon in the middle of summer and raising money for homelessness at the same time. They want to motivate themselves to achieve something they didn’t think they could and to do it in a way that prompts others to support them and the cause they are championing.

Most people want to have a positive impact on the world around them, and one of the ways they can make that contribution or that impact is through the money they spend on products and services. For example, if a family is going to spend money on hot water, why not buy a solar hot water system that uses less energy and is better for the environment than an electric system?

Being clear on why you do what you do, where you want to go and how you want to get there gives your customers the opportunity to have that positive impact and to be a part of something bigger. If customers believe in what you believe and what you want to achieve, they feel good about supporting you. This builds trust that not only makes them more likely to buy from you but will also make them want to share your products with others.

Meanwhile, understanding why you do what you do, what you want to achieve and how you will do it as a business owner will make you think differently about your business. You’ll be motivated to think more strategically about your business, to lift your eyes beyond the day-to-day and seek out tools, strategies and expertise that reinforce your reason for being in business and help you achieve your goals.

So how do you achieve this clarity, draw in more customers and set your business apart? You need to define your beliefs, your vision and your values.

START WITH WHY

As Simon Sinek argues in his book Start with Why, ‘people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.’ Customers are drawn to businesses that have a great- er purpose than simply making money because it means the money they spend makes them feel good about their choices and themselves.

From your perspective, a funny thing happens when you discover your ‘why’. If it is truly what drives you then it be- comes an inspiring call to action with a motivating force of its own and drives everything that you and your team do.

As a small business owner I doubt your reason for being in business is to simply make money. After all, you could be making money in a job that doesn’t come with all of the complications and stresses of a small business. So what’s your ‘why’? What’s the passion behind your business?

When trying to work out what motivates you, it may be necessary to brainstorm some key phrases and see how they sit in the context of your life. Your ‘why’ is very likely to be hiding in plain sight, as your life probably already reflects what you value; you just haven’t thought of it in that way. The things you surround yourself with, the activities you choose to do, what you’re most proud of, how you spend your time and your money and the issues that get you fired up all make up what drives you.

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your top three priorities for each of the following to point you in the right direction.

What drives you?

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

What makes you feel energised?

What do you believe in?

What do you value most?

What do you surround yourself with?

What hobbies do you most enjoy?

What are you most proud of?

How do you spend your time?

How do you spend your money?

What issues get you fired up?

If these questions aren’t enough to give you clarity, then you may need to delve into this exercise more deeply. If so, John Demartini’s book The Values Factor is an excellent place to start and features many practical exercises that will help you more fully explore this area.

It can also help to see what this looks like for other companies. Sometimes it can be hard to spot as companies don’t always have a direct answer to the question ‘why do you do what you do?’ Instead it is usually the part of a sentence that follows ‘believe’ or ‘passion’ on the ‘about us’ or ‘company’ page of a website or brochure.

Let’s take Lululemon, for example. Lululemon is an active wear brand. What drives this business? They believe in sweating every day.

Collective Magazine is about challenging the status quo, which is demonstrated by their tag line—‘game changers | thought leaders | rule breakers | style makers’.

Meanwhile, Totokaelo is a fashion retailer that is trying to stand out through the careful curation of products it sells. ‘We believe the art and objects a person chooses for their life are a reflection of values and perspective. We hope to provide a unique point of view that attracts those of similar mind.’

All of the examples above provide a reason for operating that underpins the type of business they are in and provides a platform from which all product and business decisions are made.

HOW TO EXPLAIN YOUR ‘WHY’

The key to creating a compelling ‘why’ isn’t just about working out what it is, but wording it in a way that others can embrace too. This doesn’t need to be a long, rambling fireside chat about the meaning of life. While it may start out that way, you will then need to distil your ‘why’ to a sentence or two.

Some examples:

Backroads is a company that runs walking, hiking and biking tours. On their website the owner and founder, Tom Hales, states that he believes ‘the world is best experienced up close and under one’s own power’.

Elon Musk, a former owner of PayPal and the entrepreneur behind Tesla Motors, the creator of mass market electric cars, wants to radically change the world for the better.

Google’s ‘why’ is the democratisation of information, to make as much information as possible accessible to everyone.

My ‘why’ is to empower others to innovate beyond what they thought was possible and create a far better tomorrow than they imagined today.

Once you’ve figured out what the motivating force is that drives you, the next step is to work out what you want to do with that information. How will you use it to shape the future direction of your business? This is done by crafting your vision.

THE VISION TO ACHIEVE YOUR ‘WHY’

Your vision is the over-arching long-term goal for your business. If your ‘why’ is the reason behind your business, your vision is what you are going to achieve, or the impact you want to have on the world.

A clear vision gives your customers a common goal that they can support with their time, energy and money, which contributes to making them feel like they are a part of something significant.

For employees, having a common goal acts as a unifying force. Employees can better articulate what your business is about to both your customers and anyone who asks them what they do and where they work. Working for a small business doesn’t always have the allure that comes with a big corporate, but they can be the envy of their friends if they are working for a company that is trying to achieve a larger goal.

For you, a clear vision is one of the keys to being seen as a leader—in your business and in the wider market place. Successful leaders inspire others to follow them. They make others want to join them on their journey, because that journey enhances their own life. In order to inspire others to enlist on your journey, you need to know where you are going.

Aligning your ‘why’ with a vision for the future is a great combination, as your vision is your ‘why’ in action. It’s how you achieve your reason for being.

Take a moment to ask yourself, where do you want to take your ‘why’? What sort of impact do you want to have? How can you bring your passion to life? What will that look like?

If you look at the visions for some of the companies I mentioned earlier, you can clearly see this connection. Backroads’ vision is to be ‘The World’s No1 Active Travel Company’. Google’s vision is ‘to organise the world’s infor mation and make it universally accessible and useful.’ Tesla Motors’ vision is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport’.

My vision is to help small businesses develop the systems and processes of big business while maintaining the dynamism and flexibility that comes from being small and nimble so they can solve tomorrow’s problems.

To work out your vision, ask yourself:

If you could achieve anything, what would it be?

What would make you sit back and go ‘wow, it would be amazing if I could do that’?

What would have an impact beyond your current business?

THE VALUES GUIDING YOUR VISION

The next step in realising your ‘why’ and your vision is to determine your values. Your values are your guiding principles. If your vision is the destination on your journey, your values define how you get there. For example, is it about winning at any cost or do you want to create a family atmosphere among your employees so they enjoy coming to work each day?

Values that Backroads have woven into their business model are quality, trust and being active. Google has a list of ten guiding principles on their website that outline the type of service they offer, including democracy, ‘fast is better than slow’ and ‘you can make money without doing evil’. According to Tesla’s website, their principle value is, ‘We do not compromise on innovation, performance, or design.’ They also value agility, efficiency and excellence.

My values for achieving my vision for small businesses are integrity, innovation and practicality.

To work out your vision, consider the following questions:

What principles currently guide your business?

What qualities do you want to be known for by your customers, suppliers and employees?

What words do you want people to use when they describe your business?

Keep in mind that, for your values to have a real impact, they need to be evident in the way you operate. While customers are understandably sceptical of companies throwing around over-used words like ‘quality’ and ‘honesty’, if these attributes are woven into the way you do business then they can experience them and don’t need to just rely on what you say. Values in action are far more powerful than words on a page.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

All these three elements together—Beliefs, Vision, Values— form the core-operating platform for your business and define how decisions are made and opportunities assessed. This makes them a powerful combination that will largely remain the same over the long-term.

Consider the example of Eric Orton to see how beliefs, vision and values work together to help define your marketing strategy. Eric Orton is a running coach and was featured in the bestselling book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. His ‘why’ is to help people to become better runners so they can move beyond fear and limitations. He sees running as a conduit to emotional and physical empowerment.

In order to realise this and have a bigger impact, he set a vision of one runner per household throughout the world.

This has led to him writing a book The Cool Impossible which explains how to improve as a runner from the perspective of running technique as well as mental attitude and diet.

His values include respect for nature and experiencing life to the fullest. In order to comply with those values and not just make money through book sales, he produced a range of training tools to help with running skill development and shoes that reflect his minimalist training style.

To ensure that learning didn’t just stop once people got a copy of the book, he also set up a forum where those interested in his methods could interact with each other and he runs several running camps each year in the mountains of Wyoming.

If his vision wasn’t to have a runner in each household then he wouldn’t have been as motivated or focused on spreading his message beyond his local area. He could have continued to work one-on-one with the athletes and small groups of athletes who were interested in working with him. He wouldn’t need to create tools and products that are easy to access no matter where you live.

In other words, his beliefs, vision and values aren’t just words on a page—they have influenced the direction of his business as a whole.

SUMMARY

Many small businesses, especially those that have been operating for a while, don’t review why they do what they do, how they do it or their big-picture goals. However, there is power in articulating your beliefs, your vision and how you want to get there that has flow-on benefits for your marketing, your customers and your business.

KEY ACTIONS

 To figure out what drives you, get a piece of pa- per and write down your top three priorities for each of the ‘why’ questions. See if there are any recurring themes in your answers.

 Create a ‘why’ statement that sums up your answers and sit with it for a couple of days.

 Once you’ve worked out your ‘why’, answer the vision questions. What do you want to achieve?

 Finally think about which guiding principles will take you there.

 Put all three elements into one document so that you can easily view each one and share them with others.

 Sit with it for a week and see if it needs any tweaking. Once you’re happy with the outcome, begin sharing it with others—friends, family, employees and, finally, customers.

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DEVELOP YOUR BUSINESS IDENTITY

CHAPTER 2

The mistake most small businesses make when they start marketing is to jump right in. They create a website, get some brochures designed, dabble in different forms of advertising and then wonder why they don’t get results. The issue is usually that they didn’t do enough work up front.

Instead of diving straight in to designing marketing collateral, in this chapter we’re going to take a look at your brand, your business story and your product story.

DEFINE YOUR BRAND

What exactly is a brand? According to how-to-branding. com, a brand is described as ‘the sum of everything your organisation is, says, and does’. This includes your logo, your website, your brochures, how you (or your team) answer the phone, the tone and type of language you use, and more.

Essentially, it is the experience people have of your company—for customers, this ranges from their initial enquiry to after-sale support. For suppliers, this includes how you brief them and whether or not you pay on time. For partners, this encompasses the approach you take when working together.

When done well, branding creates the reputation you want in the marketplace and helps to attract the type of customers that are a good fit for your products. When done poorly, it either leads to a negative reputation in the marketplace, or no reputation at all because people can’t re- member who you are and what you stand for.

Creating a brand is not simply about creating a logo, although that is the central visual representation of what your company stands for. Having followed the steps in Chapter 1 you have a good understanding of what your business stands for (your why), what you want to achieve (your vision) and how you will operate (your values). The missing link, in terms of branding, is investigating how your business will fit into the marketplace. What makes your business different from all the others that operate in your space? How will you communicate this difference?

All these elements—your why, vision, values and point of difference—then need to be encapsulated into your name, logo and tagline and carried across the different material that your company produces, from product descriptions to help information, your website, brochures, signage and any other visual information. Having clarity about each of these elements is a great place to start when it comes to briefing a graphic designer for a new or updated logo.

Your branding also needs to be congruent with how you operate, in particular, what systems you put in place to support the promises you make with your brand. If, for example, your point of difference is 24/7 after-sales support that you offer your customers then you will need to implement systems to ensure you can deliver on that key promise. If you don’t do this, in other words, if you say one thing in your promotional material but can’t deliver then this results in mistrust and reluctance from potential customers to do business with you.

THE POWER OF CONSISTENCY

Once you have a clear brand identity, the key is to ensure your branding is consistent so that each time a customer or potential customer interacts with you they receive the same message.

One thing I’ve seen some companies do is having minimal flair on their main website and saving all the ‘personality’ for social media. There is a disconnect with taking this approach and, as a small business, you’ve worked hard to get a visitor to your website or social media page and you don’t want to confuse or push them away by crossing from friendly to corporate and un-engaging or vice versa.

Instead, consistency is key to creating a strong, memorable brand. Brand consistency will help differentiate your business from your competitors, increase customer recognition and reinforce what solutions you’re offering. This then makes it easier for people to remember you; the more consistent you are across different mediums, the stronger that impression will be.

This is even more crucial for small businesses that don’t have the luxury of correcting any confusion through large- scale advertising campaigns or a media blitz.

If you already have branding in place, try this test to determine whether your branding is consistent and understood—simply ask your employees what they think your brand and company represents. Do their answers tally up, or do they vary considerably? If they vary, you may have a consistency problem.

So how do you create consistency in your branding? Ensuring that your brand is consistently represented doesn’t just happen by chance. The best way to ensure this consistency is by putting the key elements of your brand together in one easy-to-access reference document. Let’s call it your brand guide.

Your brand guide doesn’t have to be a long and overly prescriptive document, but having things in one place does make it easier for everyone in your business to maintain a consistent approach.

You can include:

Preferred fonts

RBG colour codes used in your logo

Where to locate your latest logo on the company shared drive

Your why, your vision and your values, in other words, what you’re trying to achieve for your customers

Your brand voice—how would you describe it? Is it helpful, casual, clever, relaxed?

Preferred email signature so it’s consistent across all employees

Business card sample layout

Graphic designer contact details

Printer contact details

Login details for any websites used by marketing

You can download a sample copy of a brand guide from harbren.com to see how this can look.

This document can be given to new employees and a modified version (without login information) to any marketing suppliers to give them an introduction to your branding or placed on an internal shared drive or intranet.

Does it always need to be the same?

Of course, being consistent doesn’t mean it has to be exactly the same. For example, you can vary the wording to describe your brand or your logo on different pieces of col- lateral to suit the occasion.

Google is one example of an easily recognised brand that continually alters the way their logo appears, depending on what is happening around the world. This makes Google seem in touch with and responsive to current events, a handy and desirable attribute for a search engine.

For example, they adjust their logo to include a birthday cake if you are logged into a Gmail account and use Google search on your birthday. Other changes to the look of the word ‘Google’ correspond with international events like Christmas, Easter or Valentine’s Day. After Philip Hughes died and the practice of leaving a cricket bat outside the front door became a common practice, Google had an image of a cricket bat resting against the ‘G’ of Google.

However, there are a couple of points to note about the changes that Google makes. Even when they change the look of the logo itself, there are many elements that remain the same. The location of the wording on the page above the search box and the search box location remains consistent regardless of the colour and imagery.

Brand consistency comes from keeping everything in a similar or complimentary tone. For example, having a crowded brochure or website that has many areas competing for attention would be jarring for a brand that espouses simplicity and a minimalist approach.

Similarly a product that is designed to make life easier needs to have supporting information that is in keeping with that aim and isn’t overly long or difficult to interpret. Ikea is an example of a brand that consistently struggles with this. They promote their products as being easy to assemble but their customers don’t always agree and they have become fodder for comedy with the many failed results.

YOUR BRAND VOICE

Another aspect to consider is finding a ‘voice’ or personality that sits well with you and your brand. I recently read a book about motivation by Dr Jason Fox called The Game Changer, which discusses how to use game design to ‘shift behaviour, shape culture and make clever happen’.

Throughout the book are cartoon drawings that help to illustrate the points being made in the text. Some are whimsical, some fun and they complement the unique voice Dr Fox brings to his writing. This style is carried over onto his website and his ‘museletters’, his word for his infrequent email newsletters.

While having a distinctive voice can make you stand out, you don’t want it to be so unique that you’re the only one who can carry it off. It needs to be one that can be replicated and communicated to others.

The main benefit of having a clear and consistent brand voice is that it creates a connection and becomes, over time, instantly recognisable to your customers. This is important because people connect with people, they don’t relate directly to a company but rather the people behind the brand and company.

Murder Burger is a New Zealand burger bar with a distinctive brand voice that they use on all their communication, even job ads. They recently posted an ad with the headline “Murder Burger Needs More Meat”. The advertisement is a very honest account of the responsibilities and benefits of working for the company in line with their promise on the about us page of their website of a ‘real’ burger without any “artificial flavours, colours, and god knows what else”.

Go-To Skincare created by Zoe Foster Blake, a well-known beauty editor and author, has created a brand voice that reflects her quirky and irreverent personality while still maintaining her credibility as someone customers can trust. On her website she describes the company as “skin care minus the confusion. There are no irritants or nasties, no faux-science (“Now with added Wrinkleflickatox™ and Moisturemagic® particles!”) and no outrageous claims.”

Done well a brand voice becomes a shortcut to connecting each time customers interact with you. This provides a degree of comfort that they are in familiar hands and you can solve their problem because you understand them.

The key to developing a brand voice is knowing your customers so that you can speak to them using a particular tone and language that will resonate with them and being authentic so that the personality portrayed is a true reflection of your offering and isn’t just faked to get the sale.

Some questions to ask to get your brand voice right for your company:

Do we sound the same on the phone as we do in our written communication?

What annoys our customers?

What do they respond well to?

How do customers respond to different personalities within the business?

In reviewing the answers to these questions, you’ll get a feel for what the best match will be. Often your brand voice is something that develops over time as you become more confident and get ongoing feedback from customers.

GET YOUR STORY STRAIGHT

Storytelling probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering your marketing approach, but when you think about it stories are how we communicate and connect with others. From the yarns you hear over drinks, the recounting of sporting exploits and the mishaps of camping holidays, to the stories we tell each other and ourselves about our day, stories play a key role in our everyday lives.

Stories make us laugh, they make us feel—nostalgic, sad, happy, excited, frustrated, relieved—help us make sense of the world and help us share our experiences with others.

This is why creating and refining your brand and company story is an important step in breaking out of your turnover rut and getting some attention from your target market. Telling stories:

Builds trust

Sells the benefits of your solution

Establishes credibility, and

Makes it easier to encourage word of mouth Most importantly, stories connect with people. People generally don’t feel warm about or attached to a company. Instead, they connect to the people and the stories behind the company. Telling stories shares who is behind the scenes making things happen and driving the business forward. This then makes stories shareable.

Let’s compare two businesses based on their stories, as an example. ProjectShoe.com and ShoesofPrey.com both offer custom designed shoes for women. They both have a great range of options, ordering is done online and they have easy to navigate, well laid out websites. At first glance there is little that sets them apart.

However, one key difference is that the About page called ‘Get to Know Us” on ProjectShoe.com is impersonal focusing on the product and the ordering process not the people behind the brand and why the business was set up.

“Welcome to Project Shoe, the online destination that puts shoe designing in your hands. Founded as the premier source for personal shoe design and customization, Project Shoe provides you with the tools to turn your creative visions into reality. Here at Project Shoe, you can imagine your very own, custom footwear using our elite design tools and an endless selection of high quality materials so that your ultimate dream of designing the perfect shoe can finally be realized.”

By contrast, ShoesofPrey.com is more forthcoming. Jodie Fox, co-founded the company with two ex-Google employees, because of her interest in trying to find shoes that were just right:

‘I was solving a problem of my own. I’d always liked shoes, but I never loved them because I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. Either it wasn’t quite the right colour, there was an embellishment I didn’t like, not quite the right heel height. When I was travelling, in the same way that you find someone who will make a custom suit for you, I found someone with whom I could commission shoe designs. My shoe collection became really exciting, and my girlfriends asked me where I was getting my footwear. When I explained, they asked me to create shoes for them too.’

Which company would you be more likely to order from and tell your friends about?

Finally, storytelling doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, making it especially useful for small businesses wanting to get cut through in the sea of big-budget branding.

But before we talk about how to put your brand storytelling together and the different elements involved, let’s start with how to find your story.

FINDING YOUR STORY

In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a commencement speech at Stanford University, where he described his life experiences as a series of dots. It was only looking back over his life that he was able to see how the dots connected to form a cohesive narrative, and how everything he had experienced contributed to who he had become, and what Apple had become. One example was dropping in on calligraphy classes in college, which had a direct impact on the aesthetics of all his products and on the development of fonts.

Like Steve Jobs, everyone has a story of how they got to where they are and a unique take on life as a result of those experiences. This could encompass what you’ve done, how you did it, what you learned or why you did it. It’s only by reviewing these experiences that you can start to connect the dots and form your own story.

Some general questions you can ask yourself to begin uncovering your story include:

What experiences have you had that are unusual?

How do your experiences impact your product development?

What problem do you solve?

Why are you the best person to solve this problem?

What is your unique combination of skills?

To put this into perspective, lets go through an example. Helen Wust Lock has created a skincare company, XMA Therapy. Here are her answers to each of the questions:

What experiences have you had that are unusual?

My sister Wendy was forced to stop working as a nurse because of her eczema. I wanted to develop my own moisturiser, one with a blend of ingredients that I could pronounce, that were edible and would offer my sister some relief.

How do your experiences impact your product development?

I was working in the coffee shop at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and I started offering the eczema cream to staff at the hospital and they reported back that it cleared up their skin unlike anything else they’d tried.

What problem do you solve?

Rob, a Pilot started using his son’s XMAcream on long haul flights and the flight attendants were all using it too, saying that it was great for keeping skin hydrated. I did a bit more research and adjusted the blend slightly and another product, Aviation Hydration was created.

Why are you the best person to solve this problem? What is your unique combination of skills?

I’m naturally inquisitive and I’m very focussed on natural remedies where possible. It was really my sister’s experience which prompted me to find a skincare solution.

I was diagnosed with arthritis when I was 25 and was put on the same drugs as my father who was 50. I needed a walking stick because my knee kept giving out on me. My parents sent me off to Queensland because they thought the warm weather would help.

I wanted to go the natural route because I didn’t want to have years and years of drugs. I had to read a lot of health and nutrition books and do my own research to find alternatives. I became known as “Dr Lock” within the family because of all the reading I did.

Let’s put that together in a story:

Helen Wust Lock began experimenting with natural skincare solutions when her sister Wendy was forced to stop working as a nurse because of her chronic eczema. Helen, known in her family as ‘Dr Lock’, because although she doesn’t have any formal medical training has long been an avid reader of health and nutrition books. This quest for alternatives began when she was diagnosed with arthritis at 25, handed a walking stick to stop her wayward knee and put on drugs, the same drugs her 50 year-old father was also taking. Not wanting to face a life of medication, she began exploring natural options.

Through her research she was able to devise a diet, nutrition and supplement regime that dramatically relieved her symptoms and meant she was able to ditch the walking stick. She applied the same determination and inventiveness towards her quest to help her sister. The result was a moisturiser with a blend of 14 natural ingredients that were easy to pronounce, edible and offered her sister some relief.

Helen was working in the coffee shop at the Royal Brisbane Hospital at the time and started offering her unique eczema cream to staff at the hospital. They reported back that it cleared up their skin unlike anything else they’d tried. XMA cream and a fledgling business were born.

Rob, a pilot, started using his son’s XMA cream on long haul flights. He found it was great for keeping his skin hydrated. He then started buying more XMA cream for the rest of the crew. This led Helen to undertake more research and make some adjustments to the blend before another product, Aviation Hydration, was created.

TIP:

If you’re not sure what is memorable or noteworthy about your story, start noticing what other people, particularly those who fit your target market, share when talking about great products they find. Do they start with the product or the owners behind the brand? This should help you to see where to put more of your effort and provide ideas on how you can frame up your story.

STRUCTURING YOUR STOR Y

In fiction, there is a maxim that there is no story without conflict. While your life may not have had the high drama of a Shakespearean tragedy, thinking about it as a narrative from a structural point of view can help to uncover it.

This involves covering four key areas—your problems, challenges, triumph and evolution.

Business ideas often arise as a result of personal or professional frustration. It is this frustration with the way things currently operate that generates both the idea for a business and the motivation to make it happen.

To find the ‘problem’ part of your narrative, think about:

What was your big frustration and why was that important?

What was the catalyst behind the development of your first product or service?

What prompted you to start your business?

Next comes the challenges you faced on the journey to solving those problems. The story of Edison inventing the light bulb and trying thousands of different prototypes before getting it right is a more memorable and engaging tale because of his attempts that didn’t work. If Edison had simply invented a light bulb that could be used on a mass scale without any struggle, the story wouldn’t be nearly as compelling as the story of his dogged persistence to get it right.

Another good example is James Dyson’s story about how he worked for five years and produced 5,127 prototypes before finally creating the world’s first bag-less vacuum cleaner. This is now a part of Dyson folklore and is an integral selling point for their products. The underlying message is that if Dyson has created something new then you know that it will be good as it has undergone rigorous testing to get it right.

This is why it’s important not to gloss over the effort involved in finding your solution, particularly those problems that were a threat to you getting started and have now been resolved.

To find your challenges, ask yourself:

What did you try?

What worked, what didn’t?

Why didn’t it work?

What problems did you encounter in bringing it to market?

How long did it take?

Did you think about giving up? Why didn’t you?

The triumph is when you overcame those challenges. This could be the breakthrough moment when you discovered the solution to the problems you discovered earlier, or could be when you successfully brought that solution to the market.

This is a crucial part of your story because this is the payoff, both to you and the person reading or listening to your story. The reader is looking for that reward, the upside to all the challenges and frustrations of launching a new prod- uct. They want to feel the excitement of finally getting your product in the hands of a customer.

It’s also a way, through quoting or summarising the customer feedback you received, to reinforce why your product is the solution the reader is looking for, as well as a way to ease them into reading other customer testimonials.

To craft your triumph, think about:

When did you discover the solution? How did it feel?

When did you make your first sale? How did you feel?

What was the feedback from customers like?

What success have you experienced since then?

The final stage of the story is your evolution. This aspect of your story is about keeping the reader engaged and excited about what you will come out with next. It may trigger them to bookmark your website or request a brochure for later use. Think about:

How has your product changed?

What other products are you working on?

What else is planned?

How do you ensure you keep innovating? Do you read particular magazines, follow certain companies, attend trade shows or conferences, workshop with your team or something else?

While you may not end up including all of these points, this serves as a useful guide for working out the structure of your story. Editing down a story to a document that flows well is easier to do if each aspect is fully covered upfront.

HOW TO GET YOUR STORY OUT

There are many ways you can pick to get your story out of your head and onto the page. The way you choose will depend on your particular style and whether you’re a visual person, a talker or need interaction with someone else.

Using the questions listed in the previous section, try the following methods to get your story out:

Recording audio—using a recording app on your phone or computer, you can record yourself talking and then get it transcribed and edited later. If this is your preferred method then imagine you’re sitting down with a good friend with amnesia and you need to summarise what you’ve done with your life.

Mind maps—this approach can work well if you’re a visual thinker as it allows you to dump all the related elements onto the page or screen and then put them in order later. The mind map becomes the scaffolding for your content that you can then go through to flesh out each point.

Working with a writer—this is good if you work better with others and think as you talk. The writer can ask you the questions listed in this book or come up with their own. Once they have your answers, they can then turn them into a usable document.

TIP:

If you do decide to work with a writer or editor, it’s important to make sure that your story doesn’t become so glossy that it loses its soul. Share your mistakes, the times you thought you’d found success and it eluded you, the near misses and how you responded to those setbacks. People want to get to know you and your brand; they don’t want to be stonewalled by corporate speak and clichés.

SHARING YOUR STORY

Once your story is polished and you’re happy with it, then share it with your employees and suppliers. Employees need to know it so they can properly represent who you are and what your business stands for to your customers. Sharing it with suppliers can help to build a relationship with them. Both can be good sources of feedback on what may need tweaking to get it customer ready.

CREATE YOUR PRODUCT STORY

The storytelling doesn’t have to end with the owner and why the business was created. You can create memorable details around your products as well. This is important as it shows that each product is purposefully created to solve a particular problem that customers are experiencing and isn’t a random product produced to increase sales.

Lululemon does this well. On each product page, under the heading ‘Why we made this’, they provide information about why each product was created, who it was designed for and the intended use. Together with specific information on the fabrics, features and benefits, this helps place each item in the minds of their customers as well as demonstrating that they aren’t just mass-producing the latest fashion piece like every other retailer in that space. Instead, they are providing products that fill a particular need.

Because they have given a detailed ‘story’, if I was talking to a friend who said they were looking for a pair of shorts that didn’t chafe during running then I could recommend Lululemon as they have several products that fit that requirement.

The other key benefit is that product stories help build trust and connection. Because Lululemon are talking about how they are over-coming a particular problem that their customers are experiencing, they demonstrate a high level of understanding of their target market. If a customer purchases that product and it does solve the problem then they will be more inclined to believe claims about other products that the company makes.

There are two elements required to create a compelling narrative about your products. The first is the benefits of each product, and the second is what makes them unique in the marketplace.

WHY SHOULD THEY BUY YOUR PRODUCT? FEATURES VS. BENEFITS

Do you explain features or benefits when you discuss your product with customers? Do you know the difference between the two? If not, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

A feature is a quality of your product—this may be a physical quality, or some functionality. A benefit, on the other hand, is the reason why this should matter to your customer—how the feature will solve a problem or improve their lives.

Let’s take a drinking bottle, for example. A feature of the bottle is its pop-up lid. The benefits of this lid include:

Customers can hold liquid in the bottle without it going everywhere if it’s knocked over or moved.

It prevents the liquid in the bottle from being contaminated by smells in the fridge.

It prevents bugs or debris from dropping into the liquid.

Customers can easily hydrate while they work out (this isn’t so easy with screw-top bottles).

Another feature might be that the bottle is dishwasher-safe. The benefits of this include:

The bottle is easy to clean.

Using the dishwasher saves your customers time.

It protects their health, as easy cleaning helps keep harmful bacteria at bay.

A third feature could be that the bottle is made from BPA- free plastic. The benefits?

Using the bottle is better for their health, as they avoid the dangerous toxins that leech into water when using other bottles.

The taste stays pure. See the difference?

If you don’t currently explain what the benefits are for each of your product features, it’s time to start thinking. List the features of each of your products and, for each feature, list why each one is beneficial for your customers.

Some questions you can ask are:

What is the end result for the customer?

How does it help them?

What problem does this feature solve?

You may not use all of these details in your marketing material, but being clear about what they are is a good first step.

WHAT MAKES YOUR PRODUCT UNIQUE? YOUR USP

Once you have a clear list of benefits, the next step is thinking about what makes your solution unique.

While there are many BPA-free dishwasher-safe water bottles with pop-up lids, the unique selling proposition, or USP, will be the thing that makes your bottle different to everyone else’s. In the example above, there is little that makes this bottle different from other similar bottles. A difference could be the look of the bottle, perhaps it comes with different football logos, or has a unique pattern that makes it more appealing.

However, while this may make it stand out, it is not an enduring USP as it would be relatively easy for a competitor to copy and then a customers’ decision on which bottle to choose comes down to price. Assuming all other features are the same, which bottle is cheapest?

A more compelling USP for the bottle would be one that set this particular bottle apart. One that had a microbial coating that was safe to drink but ensured the bottle didn’t harbour any smells or micro-organisms could be a good USP. Or perhaps one that gave a reading of how much water had been consumed for the day, accounting for refills so that a user could accurately monitor their water intake.

The benefit of having a strong USP is that it clearly answers the question of why a customer should buy your product rather than a competitor’s and moves the focus away from price.

It is the rationale behind why your solution exists and should guide you in both shaping your key benefits and determining which particular benefits to highlight.

Your USP should be your most compelling benefit or a summary of your benefits. When it comes to your marketing, this will lead any discussion of your product, whether that discussion is on your website, in a brochure, or is used in a pitch.

SUMMARY

Once you are clear on who you are and what you stand for in your business, the next step is to consider how you express this through your branding, business story and product story.

Having a consistent brand means that any time a potential customer sees you in the market place, they will know exactly who you are and what you stand for. If they are your target market and have a need for your product, they are likely to be drawn in by the look and feel of your offering.

By contrast, if you don’t have a consistent brand you will struggle to stand out and be memorable in the fight for customers.

Clear business and product stories make you relatable. They are one of the most (if not the most) effective way of connecting with your customers, and make your business and products memorable and shareable.

KEY ACTIONS

 Review your branding

What makes your business different to your competition?

Is your branding consistent and in keeping with your why, vision, values and point of difference?

Do you have systems in place to support your brand promise?

Create a brand guide so everything is in one place

Do you have a distinctive brand voice? What would work best with your customers?

 Create a compelling story

Create your company story by explaining the problems, challenges, triumph and evolution of your business

Explain why each product was created and how each one solves your customers’ problems.

Review the features and benefits for each product.

What is the USP for your products?

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KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS

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TURN YOUR IDENTITY INTO COLLATERAL

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PICK ‘N’ MIX YOUR MARKETING PLATFORMS

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CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLATFORM FOR YOUR BUSINESS

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MEASURE YOUR MARKETING

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OPTIMISE YOUR MARKETING

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MAKE YOUR MARKETING REPEATABLE & SCALABLE

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GET THE HELP YOU NEED

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QUESTIONS TO FIND THE RIGHT HELP

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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