3 Things Story-Based Marketing Does
Most people started off the new year with a resolution...or some of you who like to be cheeky, maybe you said that you weren’t going to set a resolution - Which is of course a resolution not to make any resolutions. But I digress…
Resolutions are made because there is a desire to change ourselves. Whether that is we want to look better so we go to the gym. Or we want to eat better so we put ourselves on a diet. Or maybe it might be more about time management like not working so long hours so you can spend more time with your family. Whatever it is, resolutions are meant to enact change in us and make us better versions of ourselves.
This is the same concept as story based marketing. It isn’t about selling your product, although that is an outcome, it is about allowing people to see their desired result from enacting some change in their life.
And your product brand or service will help them achieve that, but your product brand or service is not the hero of the story, your customers are. Your product, brand or service is the help that pushes them to enact the change. This is done by doing 3 simple things.
3 things Story Based Marketing Does
1. Show the Need
2. Highlights the desire
3. Offers the help to pave the way to that desire
Show Them the Need First
First off, you need to show them the need. This is done by highlighting an emotion that points them to a belief they hold that they may or may not know they have. For more on this, I recommend you go and listen or read to week 2 of CSP podcast or blog. But once that emotion is established, they will feel something, and that something is the desire they want to make a change in their life.
Help Your Customers Understand Their Desires
Secondly, once that emotion is established, you need to help them understand their desired belief and what that means for them to enact change.
For example, if it’s to spend less time on work and more time on family or a hobby they love, show them what it would look like if they did it. “Wouldn’t it be better to spend more time with family or on X, Y, Z?”
Show How Your Product Will Help Customers Achieve Goals
Lastly, once the emotion sets the need and you point out the desire they may feel, offer your product as a way to help them achieve their goal.
Apple does this well. Look at the Apple Watch. It isn’t a watch, but a watch that will help you schedule, set goals and reminders, making it possible for you to spend more time on the things you want to do most.
Putting the Steps in Place Help People Reach Their Goals
With those three steps in place, you are ready to begin your story based marketing campaign. It isn’t about defining a problem and offering a solution. It’s about highlighting a desire and making your customer the hero of the story by offering them some help along the way.
After all, those New Year's resolutions we talked about at the beginning, most of them fail. They fail because people try and do it on their own. But if they had some help and others souring them along the way, they are far more successful.
