Category: Stories that Sell

I like infographics. I write content for them. They help people visualize processes and make connections.

UNLESS that infographic is absolute crap, consisting of golly-gee graphics that grab initial attention but communicate nothing. Not even factoids will save this foolish design since there is no context and no narrative thread.

The Content Marketing Institute wrote an excellent post about this problem and how to avoid it: “How to Keep Infographics from Ruining Your Visual Content: 8 Rules.”

1. Don’t throw in everything plus the kitchen sink. You’ll just overwhelm your would-be viewers.
2. The “info” part of “infographics” informs, and that means actual context and cohesive content.
3. Only narrative flow can tell a story. Factoids don’t and neither do orphaned graphic elements.
4. An infographic is part of a marketing campaign portfolio, not its flagship. Infographics are appetizers; clear explanations are the main course.
5. Use a central image to tie the graphical elements together. Even then the central image should carry the primary informational message.
6. Not every message is suited to an infographic. They’re hot right now because they draw attention but infographics are not always the best medium — or even a good one.
7. Watch your facts and sources. Make sure the former are accurate and the latter are cited.
8. Make the design highly visual, streamlined, clean, and in service to the message.

Think your copy shouldn’t tell stories? Think again.

• 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 smells like roses. That is the story this company wants to hear. Will they hear it from you?

• 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 convince them that you have what they really need.

  Stories and challenge-solution/story structure work across a wide variety of content. Let’s look at some examples of content branding using stories:

• Customer success stories. This is the most obvious type of B2B story. They tell stories about how your customer won their battle using your product and remain one of the most popular content marketing pieces with customers.
• White papers and industry articles. Customer scenarios are very valuable in a persuasive white paper, and stories make industry articles more attractive and memorable. Yet even without concrete stories, a well-constructed article or white paper tells your company’s macro story of challenge (conflict), solution (journey) and benefit (positive ending).
• Company Backgrounders. Backgrounders are an excellent way to tell your company story without boring your readers. Tell why your company was founded, what growth challenges it has met, what customer challenges it solves, and share your compelling roadmap. This is the story that grows trust and invites customers to take that journey with you.
• Blogs. Each blog tell a part of your story. Stories are very helpful in gathering attention for a blog, and consistent blogging over time expands your macro story to customers.

Along with white papers, customer success stories are the most popular tool in the technology marketer’s toolkit.

Why are they so popular? Because they are compelling to prospective customers. References and testimonials are great things to have but customer success stories flesh out those testimonials and give them teeth. And if you match the case study customer’s industry to the prospects, it’s clear to prospects that your company knows how to successfully operate in a given market.

The ubiquitous case study can range from a 3-paragraph online snippet to a full-blown report. The most popular case study in the marketing/PR arsenal is the 600-1200 word customer success story following this pattern: company overview and challenge, project details, and positive results. Elements include:

• Customer Overview and Challenge. Start with a 2-3 paragraph overview of the customer’s company. This should be very positive – since you’re going to detail a problem the customer was having, the last thing you want to do is make them sound like a jerk. So compliment them. Feel free to adapt the overview from their own Website text, where they’re already placing themselves in the best possible light. Then move on to the business challenge. Don’t make the customer sound stupid or incompetent. The challenge should always be centered on something good that is happening to them –fast growth, industry prominence, strategic IT changes – whatever. Their challenge should be applicable to your readers’ own business issues.
• Project Details. Everyone knows that no project goes perfectly, but save the debriefing for the longer-form trade journal article. These short customer success stories should report on the successful project by briefly discussing specific products and benefits. Don’t go all over the map. If the project is fairly narrow or specific, you won’t have any trouble sticking with the main point or product. In the case of very large and complex installation, concentrate on the main product or application. For example, Microsoft Great Plains has more modules than you can shake a stick at. Concentrate on the ones that had the most positive impact on your customer.

• Business Benefits. Always quantify improvement if you can. Numbers can be dollar savings, percentages, or other measures of saved staff time, more efficient workflows, better customer service, etc. Be sure that the benefits you list are the benefits the customer perceives – hard costs are most easily quantified, but soft costs may have the higher perceived benefit to a customer. Ideally you will have both.

How many customer success stories should you have on hand? The more the better. A large company may have dozens of them on hand and smaller companies should strive for at least three to start. Why? Because they work. Start capturing those customer success stories today, and watch those sales rise.