The Importance of Telling Stories Through Marketing
With the buzz of the holidays fading, many marketers are finally taking a breath from the frenzy of activity that occurs in November and December. At the beginning of a new year it’s important to reflect on activities from the past year and look for what to carry on into a new fiscal year. Often this analysis leads to inconclusive findings about which practices are most effective. In situations like this it is important to pull back and take a look at the story your marketing is telling about your company. What is it that you are conveying to your customers and how are you making them feel? While difficult to look at the big picture it will pay off to assess what stories your marketing content is telling, rather than looking at the physical content.
Taking stock of your company’s marketing story is a tall order. To start, take a look at your most used means of communicating with an audience. For your blogs, webinars, videos, and various other media are they telling the same story? Is there a cohesive message being spoken about who your company is, what you do, and why? The ‘why’ is most pivotal for without it you will be hard pressed to bring customers together around your brand. Look for a cohesive why and if there isn’t one find it. Knowing your story and it’s why will carry you well into 2019.
After you find the why and make sure all your content lines up with it, look at what content has been most effective for you. Test out a few different mediums of communication to see if anything sticks. If your company had a lot of success and engagement through social media, use that. If it was through email campaigns and cold calls, use those. If promotional videos create a lot of leads, by all means take advantage. The only way to find what works is to test it. Take the approach of Amazon - try a lot of things and measure what works for you, just don’t get too invested in a new project.
After testing and measuring the results, implement the activities for 2019 that will generate the most success. Build out your cohesive story and add to it, get your customers involved so that they feel part of your cause; bring your audience with you on the journey. Keep track of the messages you are putting out and monitor your content frequently to make sure you stay on track. The story you tell about your company will dictate its success in the present and future.
Image by David Kennedy