How Finding The Right Stories Can Help Your Marketing Plan
Whether online, print, or other means of marketing, it all starts with a story that is unique to your business. This is especially important if you run a business that people won’t find relatable to their daily lives frequently. For some people, building a home is once in a lifetime affair. So if you could front your business with a story that has a relatable sentiment, it can help you establish a deep connection with your audience.
Storytelling is a crucial aspect of your marketing and branding efforts. In today’s market, where clients are more research-oriented than they used to be, having a powerful message creates credibility. You need to be known, liked, and trusted to gain business. If you don’t have a good and convincing story integrated into your marketing plan, people will find it hard to trust you.
Online
There are two main entities that you need to maintain online. The anchor and the supporting handles. The anchor would be your official website whereas the handles refer to social media and other platforms that help you route traffic to the anchor. While they don’t need to be perfect, your website and social media pages need to be active. To do that, you need a systematic process.
Let’s say you’re in the construction business and you want to run an online advertisement. To do this right, you must first create a message or story around the problem, cause, solution, and benefit( PCSB ) of your potential clients. This means you start by leading with the problem your clients are dealing with, educating them on the reason behind it, talking about your service, and relating it to a benefit they’ll get by working with you. This should be the front and center of your construction marketing plan.
Websites that talk about thirty years in the construction business and promise to operate with integrity no longer click with today’s skeptical consumers. In today’s environment, no business is saying, “Hey! Work with me at your own risk. I might take advantage of you”. So saying you have integrity doesn’t differentiate you.
Many businesses create a single landing page as their primary website. It’s a single scroll page where you tell your specific PCSB story. You must think of the biggest problems you can solve for your clients, and it has to be emotional. Then use that as the primary focus for your social media and website.
Create a story. People like hearing and telling stories. So tell your story online, and you’ll enjoy increased engagement and clients coming to you because they see themselves as a character in your story.
Now let’s see how it works for magazines, mailers, and door hangers. This works if you get incredibly specific with what you’re trying to accomplish in that geographic area. People will most likely skip through if you just put a long and wordy ad in a magazine.
Let’s say you are creating a door hanger for outdoor living spaces that target potential clients with patios in areas with golf courses. Also, you’re selling a retractable roof and awning system.
Here, the primary problem would be golf balls hitting outdoor spaces or people who occupy those spaces. So the headline could be, “Are you tired of getting hit with golf balls?” The reason for this could be the lack of a protective system.
Now you can introduce the solution. A solution would be your retractable roof and awning system that eliminates the risk of getting hit by golf balls. Here, you identify the lowest-hanging fruit by telling a very specific story.
People, in general, don’t make decisions to purchase something if there isn’t some sort of a root problem. The quicker you are at defining that, the better you’ll be at marketing your product or service.
Takeaway
When you’re looking at marketing in general, think about who will see it. Think about the very specific problem your audience has. Try to tell a story that gets potential customers to see a problem they’re experiencing that’s big enough to get them to call you.
Marketing is about getting people to know you. You need to give them compelling reasons to like and trust you. The better you tell the story of potential problems, the quicker you’ll be able to build trust. It’ll encourage your prospects to give you a call and use your services.
