Category: Stories that Sell

I recently wrote an article “Protecting Against Data Breaches Is Serious Business” for Enterprise Features. (The byline is me, pseudonyms are my friend.) It was relevant this last March, and it’s seriously relevant today. Here’s an excerpt and a link to the full article:

Protecting Against Data Breaches Is Serious Business

In late 2016, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and CyberScout reported that business data breaches were up 40% from the year before–and that only included reported breaches. Almost half of the breaches occurred in the business sector. This sector stores valuable customer information, yet the level of data breach protection ranges from pretty good to completely inadequate.

Regulated sectors except for healthcare did well, with the education sector, government / military, and financial sectors at a low number of reported breaches. The financial sector was lowest of all, which makes sense given the industry’s robust compliance and security. However, despite privacy regulations healthcare failed badly, reporting nearly 35% of the overall number of data breaches.

Data attack types abound. Skimming is a popular criminal activity at the consumer level, where humans or hidden scanners steal credit information from a credit or debit card. And even simple device theft can be devastating. Coca-Cola found this out when a disgruntled employee stole several laptops containing highly sensitive personal information on over 70,000 employees and contractors (Moral of the story: encrypt sensitive data on mobile devices.)

In most businesses however, cyberattacks like hacking and phishing caused the most damage. Two of the largest hacks in Internet history happened on Yahoo’s watch. There were two occurrences, the first in 2013 and the second in 2014. The 2014 breach affected over 500 million user accounts. The 2013 breach affected – get this – 1 billion user accounts. Stolen data included customer names and email, phone numbers, security Q&A, birthdates, and passwords. Although Yahoo did not publicly report the breaches until 2016, at the time they involved the FBI thanks to disturbing evidence of state-sponsored cyber activity.

And here’s the kicker: as of March 1, 2017, Yahoo reported that an additional 32 million user accounts have been hacked. The hacking is probably related to the 2014 breach.

Hacking and Phishing: What’s the Difference?

To read about the difference and learn lots more great stuff, read the entire article here.

[Are you interested in high value articles for B2B trade pubs but don’t have the time? I lost count of the articles I’ve written for clients and publications. Let’s talk! Email me today at christine@christineltaylor.com.]

I love this post on slower content marketing creation from Nicola Brown. Nicola’s intro paragraphs calmed my heart rate with her story of an out-of-the-way, slow-moving UK village called Chipping.

She takes those lessons and asks the question: “Could a Slow Content Movement Be on the Horizon?”

“When it comes to planning an effective content marketing strategy, we are inevitably faced with the fact that we live in a world of severely reduced attention spans and instant gratification.”

This means that all our fast-produced content — blogs, newsletters, tweets, MORE MORE MORE — may be shooting us in the collective foot.

Instead of quantity, how about quality? Some of you will respond that content marketers should be doing both, and ideally yes. Perhaps. Certainly, you need to do enough so that your target market recognizes you. However, Nicola writes: “Marketers are constantly trying to come up with winning ideas that will make their content marketing strategies shine. They’re expected to deliver these continuous strokes of brilliance faster than they did before in shorter time periods. But what if we’re missing something here? What if the answer isn’t faster content? What if it’s just the opposite?”

She suggests that we start by making time for bigger, slower content ideas. Planning time is hard to come by when you’re looking at your dizzy content schedule. Give yourself a break and discuss longer-term content ideas, not just the daily grind. It’s harder to get to long-form because it takes more time and thought, but long-form may ultimately garner far more attention than a wagon load of weightless “content.”

Slow down, think deeply. Think in depth. What is the content’s significance? Why does it matter? Frankly, if “getting more page views” is your one and only goal, you’re missing the long game point.

Finally, she suggests that you knock off the multi-tasking. Personally, I have no idea how multi-tasking became a badge of honor. It’s OK for shallow one-off actions, not so good for thoughtful content that gets the world’s attention.

I’m a B2B content writer. I’m also a storyteller. I thought that didn’t apply to business until I realize that my favorite pieces, the ones that I enjoyed the most and that worked best for my clients, were the ones that used a narrative structure for their content branding pieces. These are the marketing pieces that tell your company and product story: the case studies, web pages, articles, and white papers that you want customers to remember.

What Makes a Technology B2B Story?

B2B marketers don’t usually think in storytelling terms but the stories are all around you. Let’s look at some real life customer stories:

Customer Story #1. What if your customer’s story is that their backup software is jamming them up every night? The story they want to hear is about how another IT department at another company was able to install a different backup that worked right away, that integrated with their scripts, that slashed backup times from 14 hours to 14 minutes, and that let them send their older backups to the cloud. The IT department is smelling like roses. That is the story this company wants to hear. Are they going to hear it from you?

Customer Story #2. How about this story: What if an IT administrator have put in so many SharePoint systems that she can barely manage to keep them running optimally, let alone help users with advanced features? The story is that a very large investment is turning bad and people are blaming her and her team. She wants to hear a story about she can turn their problems into business gold by deploying an external storage grid, and how she can do it did it quickly with an excellent ROI. That’s a story that she and her team wants and needs to hear. Are you telling that story?

If you’re not telling stories like these then why not? IT and executives are too busy to read marketing content as an intellectual exercise. You need to persuade them, convince them that you have what they really need. Otherwise what’s the point?

You Have a Story to Tell

B2B marketing content can be dry, pompous and obscure – a deadly combination. But it doesn’t have to be, not when it’s telling a story that your customers want to hear. The result is story-led content branding that generates leads, shortens the selling cycle and increases sales.

This type of story is the one we all think about: something that happened to someone. It has a beginning, middle and end; it has elements of conflict and solution. In B2B marketing terms, the customer success story is the most obvious example. Another example are pieces like solution briefs that also tell a customer story in more technical detail. These are exceptionally popular pieces, and with reason – they work. They may be written, video, audio, a slide show – the medium is secondary to the story.

Types of Content and the Stories They Tell

Is all B2B content stories? No. Purely factual content like data sheets, how-to’s, or manuals is not. But any time a piece of content needs to be persuasive, then it needs to tell a story. Let’s look at some examples of content branding types in those terms.

B2B Content Type	Story Choices
Customer success stories	The most obvious type of B2B story. They tell stories about how your customer won their battle using your product. They’re very popular with prospects.
Industry articles	Industry articles are factual and we don’t think of them as a story. But the best ones are: they tell a story about how a technology approach is solving real industry problems, and by extension will solve the reader’s problems too.
White papers	Like industry articles, a white paper builds a persuasive argument around serious customer issues and how your product solves them. The most compelling white papers structure their persuasive argument around the story: the customer’s conflict/challenge, the way forward/solution you offer, and the happy ending/benefits.
Company Backgrounders	Backgrounders can be dry as dust but they shouldn’t be. Tell why your company was founded, what challenges it has met, what big customer challenges it solves, the exciting place it is now, and where it is going. This is the story that grows trust and invites customers to take that journey with you.
Blogs	Small chunks of blogged content tell parts of your story: what you offer, who you offer it to, how it works, why it matters. Consistent blogging expands the story by convincing customers that you are smart, trustworthy, and have the answers to their pressing problems. And blogging that displays the writer’s personality is even more compelling for your readers and goes a long way towards building trust.
Many Mediums for the Story	There are many other types of content that can and should tell your stories. Webinars, video, podcasts, brochures, websites and more: all of these content types brand your company and offering as a crucial solution to your customer’s problems – a company that they can trust to be their partner now and in the future.

Let’s talk today about how I can help you tell your story to customers. Call me at 760-954-1807 or e-mail me at christine@christinetaylorcompany.com and let’s get started.

Call me a snoop, but when I’m at a technology conference listening to a speaker, I glance around at what other people are doing on their laptops. I swear to you I am not looking for

intellectual property, which is a good thing because I wouldn’t find any anyway. While the speaker drones on, people are typing emails, checking their Twitter feed, and reading news sites. I’m pretty sure I saw one top analyst sneak onto a recipe site.

And that’s happening when people are trying to look polite and attentive. So when your white paper comes over the transom, how are your would-be readers going to react? They don’t need to be polite to their email, so will they scan your headline and make a run to the recipe site? You hope not.

White papers are not cheap to write. Even when you write them in-house, you still devote a staff person to the research and writing. Don’t forget the interviews with the subject matter experts. Then you have the designer, the media placement people, the marketing campaign people, and even the salespeople. You need your white papers to sell. So why in the world should you take all this time to write a boring white paper?

No Pulitzer’s Here

Granted, a good white paper isn’t going to be up for Pulitzer Prize. They’re factual and logical, they’re aimed at an IT audience, and they’re talking about technology and not the latest celebrity breakup. But white papers equally do not get prizes for incredibly dull.

Build your white paper from these beautiful bones to grab and keep interest:

1. Your reader must care about the topic. You can’t control individual readers, but you can promote the heck out of your paper and make sure it appears in your prospects’ favorite channels.
2. You need a good headline. You don’t have to be uber-clever, that strategy can backfire with IT audiences. But don’t put them to sleep either in the first six words.
3. You need a good opening. This is a great place to sketch the problem that your prospect probably has. If you are speaking to your prospects’ pain points, they’ll listen. They’ll read on. Create a compelling thesis statement by telling them that there is a solution to this big problem, and they’re going to find it in this paper.
4. Clarify your points. When I went to Fuller Seminary about 1 million years ago, the Presbyterian preaching professors drilled into you that each sermon needed a strong intro, an inspiring conclusion, and 3 clear points in the middle. Plus never go longer than 20 minutes. White papers aren’t sermons, but the best ones present a distinct set of supporting points. 3 to 5 is ideal, each supporting and expanding your thesis statement. You are creating a logical progression of thought leading to your conclusion and call to action.
5. Speaking of which, write a strong conclusion. Now sum up your sub points and map them to your thesis, conclude how right you are, and how very smart your customers are going to be by taking a specific action. Call a number, email someone specific, or best of all follow a link to a landing page specific to this white paper.

Adding Some Skin

In addition to this working skeleton of a persuasive essay, you’re going to want to add to some skin to the mix. By the way, I apologize for the autopsy-like imagery. Apparently, I watched one too many NCIS episodes.

• Visual interest. I’m a writer, not a designer, but so much content is flowing through marketing channels that your white paper needs to stand out. A good headline will help immensely, and so will solid design. Note that I did not say flashy. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with flashy except when the visual elements overwhelm the written message. This might be fine in fashion marketing, but is not be fine with an IT readership. Use clear and interesting design elements to draw attention to the paper in general, and to your main points and evidence in specific.
• Tell stories. Yes, stories. Even in a white paper — perhaps especially in a white paper — you want your readers to picture your technology in their environment, solving their problems and making their professional lives worth living. But if you don’t communicate that happy story to them, they might not get it at all. Don’t give them that chance. Tell stories that demonstrate how serious their challenge is, and what a risk they’re running by not solving it. (Admittedly you don’t have to go all the way to “and everybody dies,” which is the story summary for every tragic opera ever written.) Tell the truth about the very real risk they are running by not adopting a solution like yours. Then tell the story of how your solution works and how it greatly benefits your customers.

Your white papers must be clear and be logical. They also need to be interesting. And that means excellent flow, visual interest, and good stories that stick to their ribs. Or rather stick in their memory… once again, sorry for watching all that NCIS.

 

Christine Taylor may be too smart-alecky for her own good, but she writes a mean white paper. Talk to her today at 760-954-1807 or email her at christine@christineltaylor.com.

I’ve been a technology marketing copywriter for years. About a year ago I came across the concept of B2B marketing using stories. I was excited because outside of work, I’m a storyteller. I thought this will be right up my alley. I could offer storytelling techniques to my copywriting clients, which will make my work more valuable to them. Everyone will be happy.

But when I started to study B2B storytelling, I got more and more confused. It wasn’t the confusion that occurs at the start of a learning curve, because I knew storytelling. My problem was that the people who were teaching storytelling for B2B didn’t seem to be teaching storytelling. The method didn’t fit the storytelling archetypes, they didn’t have any story structure, they lacked any emotional touch points, and “hero journey” that they were talking about wasn’t the classical hero journey at all. As I got more confused, I got irritated.

Beyond the Video

It wasn’t all as black-and-white as that. Stories clearly fit well in in video. The more successful storytelling video tended to be high production collateral. Scripting and filming quality video is not a cheap ticket item, and you would usually see companies like Apple, GE, and Intel spending big resources to make them.

I concluded that most of my clients—midsize companies and divisions of larger companies–won’t be able to produce an award-winning video, so forget telling stories in content marketing. (The only exception I could see was the case study, which is already a story.) I did not look back for quite a while.

Recently I took another look and I’m glad I did. The idea of storytelling in B2B marketing has started to mature from thinking video-only and link bait articles about the “hero journey.”

I began to think about what kind of story works in B2B content marketing. The case study sure, but what about white papers, blogs, e-books, and articles? Because so much of content marketing is feeding the beast. You need to produce a lot of content to get the kind of attention that you want. It needs to be quality content and you want to be able to leverage it. And you don’t want to write the same generic content that your competitors keep churning out. How can story help in this context?

Story helps you stand out because it’s a fundamental part of being human. Human beings tell stories to themselves and to each other. And because story already holds such a fundamental place in the human conscience, in marketing communications a little goes a long way.

Let’s take the most obvious type of story-related content, customer success stories. Their challenge is:

1. So many vendors are doing them that customers are getting weary of reading them. Don’t get me wrong — customers generally respond positively to case studies — but you need to rise above the average to get the attention you need.
2. Many case studies are poorly written. The traditional format of challenge / search / solution / benefit is all right; you don’t need to stray far from it. Nor do you want to come across as whimsical or emotional. But you do need to make your case study a rich reading experience by adding elements of good stories. Make the customer quotes accurate and interesting, choose rich wording, use active verbs. Et voilà, you have a compelling and accurate customer story built on subtle story elements.

Example: Enlivening the Basic Case Study

Let’s look at an example of a case study from a major storage vendor. The idea is good — a major enterprise shares their success with the vendor’s products. But the case study is full of jargon and stilted quotes, which diminishes its impact… in plain English, it’s boring. I took a section of the case study and compared the actual writing with my suggested revision paragraph-by-paragraph.

Original: “[Company] recognized that running its own data center—with all of its cooling systems, redundant power supplies, generators and other continuity measures—was inefficient in an age when service providers can offer higher service levels and lower costs thanks to their greater economies of scale.

Revised: “[Company] discovered that running its own data center cost them a lot more than they were willing to pay. Cooling systems, redundant power supplies, generators, business continuity: costs spiraled higher year after year with no sign of slowing down. They decided to seriously look at service providers, whose greater economies of scale let them offer higher service levels at lower cost.

Original: After successfully moving to a co-located facility, the IT department was able to increase its focus on delivering greater value to the business through improved integration and performance.

Revised: The IT department’s successful search replaced their resource-consuming data center with a state-of-the-art hosted environment. The change freed them to focus on their highest priority: increasing business value by improving compute integration and performance throughout the company.

Original: Any new solution needed to fit seamlessly into the company’s vision of a hybrid cloud infrastructure. As [customer] explains: “For all new application requests, we always ask: ‘Can it be run in the public cloud?’ That’s always our preferred option, because we don’t want to spend time managing things that can be run equally well by somebody else—giving us back vital resource time to spend innovating in our own business.”

Revised: The heart of the project was a hybrid cloud infrastructure, and any new application had to seamlessly integrate into the cloud. [Customer] put it this way: “When we get a new application request we always ask the same question: ‘Can we run it in the public cloud?’ We don’t want to spend our time managing things that someone else can manage equally well. We protect our time so we can spend it innovating our own business.”  

I did not change any of the facts or the narrative flow. I did replace wording and sentence structure for action, richer word choice, and a more human touch. See what a difference it makes: better readability improves reader retention, which adds value and legs to your case study.