Struggling to tell your company's story in a way that connects with customers?
Freelance writer Nadia Goodman offers three tips in Entrepreneur:
Describe your company's value in human terms. The compulsion to close deals blocks storytelling. Marketers fall back on contract-talk to define the company's value, when the customers really want to hear how you differ from competitors. "Your real value is about what you believe in," Goodman says. "You're looking for the thing that your organization truly cares about."
Get everyone on the same page. You're in trouble if your CEO describes the company differently than a front-line worker. To get everyone on the same page, Goodman suggests, ask a sample of people at various ranks to provide five adjectives they'd use to describe the company and two statements of the company's value. "Look for themes or especially strong responses, and synthesize them into a clearly defined description," Goodman says.
Give your brand personality. "Once you know why you matter and how to describe your value, choose the type of person that could best deliver that message," Goodman says. Your company should have a "personality" that's clear and consistent. You need to decide, for example, whether it's masculine or feminine; conservative or quirky; opinionated or open-minded.
