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.