If you asked me the number one challenge for anyone just starting out in marketing—whether that’s someone fresh out of school and joining the industry or someone starting a new business with zero marketing knowledge—it’s that they don’t start ready to tell their story.
And sure-sure-sure, the concept of storytelling in Marketing isn’t new. In fact, I think it’s been a buzzy idea for almost long enough that people have started to doubt it’s anything at all.
But it’s real, and it’s not going anywhere. If it hasn’t worked for you, you should consider giving it a deeper look.
So, let’s define it and what it’s not and give you some tips on exploring how your organization’s story can work for you.
Your story started as an idea long before the first brick was laid or the first dollar was earned. It’s the reason your business exists, the people it exists to serve, and the values it follows.
Here’s an example inspired by one of our clients:
“When I was a kid, my grandparents drove me into town every Friday to the bookstore where I bought my comics, and it was the best day of the week. Eventually, that bookstore closed, and the people in my town had to drive further and further away to get that same experience. Then the pandemic hit, comic book stores closed, and I realized how much I missed browsing for new comics and buying them from someone I liked.
So, I started an online comic store that would have the same titles and create the same excitement I felt as a kid, but it would always be open and available, no matter where people lived."
Once your business grows and you have (maybe) a whole building worth of bricks and a few more dollars, that idea should grow. And it should continue to evolve as long as your business exists.
Note: Your story doesn’t change. It evolves.
The story of why a business started becomes the origin story PLUS:
Hey, I get it. This would all be easier if there was a simple equation to success, and there’s plenty of advice out there that would make you think there is.
The truth is, there’s not one magic element you can add to your story that will make it better, more interesting, more compelling, or really more of anything. In fact, if you’re “adding” things to make your story sound better, you’re probably moving away from the truth of the thing.
Okay, there may be one magic element: Authenticity.
It’s not a shortcut, though, more like a long and winding path that you have to blaze through and then constantly maintain with a weed whacker.
It’s not enough to have a good story. Your challenge is to show up every single darn day and demonstrate that your story is true and meaningful. And make sure you create a culture in your organization where everyone on your team is doing the same thing.
Here’s one I wrote for a credit union we work with:
“Our origin story really starts with families in the Saint John’s congregation that weren’t looking for charity, just the chance to borrow a little money, at a fair rate, and the opportunity to pay back what they owed. In other words, they wanted something a lot of us take for granted. With friends and neighbors that were willing to do the work in 1949, our original membership blazed the path we follow today.
Do the work, even when it’s tough, because it’s worth it.”
I think (but I’m biased) that sets their team up to understand where they came from and what they can do every day to make it matter.
Too often, people see storytelling as a tactic to make a sale, and when we do that, it doesn’t live up to its full potential.
It’s not “just” a really good piece of ad copy read over some inspirational-sounding orchestral music with long, slow shots of someone in a kayak. Don’t get me wrong that sounds like a beautiful ad, but don’t show me that ad and then have me come to a cinderblock building in the heart of downtown where everyone is cool and aloof, right?
Your story should tell me who you are, and if I get a different message when I interact with you, I feel duped. And nobody wants to feel like that.
So, if you think you’re a “long slow shots of someone in a kayak” kind of business, then I should get that same feeling on your website, on your social media, in person, on the phone, on billboards, or wherever else I see you.
Make sure that wherever people see you, they feel the feelings you are trying to put out into the world. In this example, that might be a feeling of freedom, vitality, or tranquility that they would associate with being on the water. (Unless you happen to sell kayaks specially made to be paddled really slowly and exclusively at sunrise, in which case, feel free to take this ad idea and run with it.)
Your story isn’t just for advertising or building soft skills. It can help you and the people you work with make real and consequential business decisions.
How about I steal a page from our own playbook to illustrate?
Here’s a little bit of text from our website:
“We were born from the Credit Union Movement.
That means we believe in things like cooperation, collaboration, community, and we have an unparalleled drive to make things better for everyone we meet.”
Those are nicely aspirational words, but let me give you an example of how they help us do business.
Again, I’m totally biased, but I think we have really smart, talented people on our team, and when you’re smart and talented, there are a lot of volunteer boards that would love to get you involved. To balance work and volunteering and leverage the PR benefits that come with community engagement (we’re good people, but we’ve also gotta watch that bottom line), we created a Community Development program that gives our whole team enough paid working hours each year to volunteer with beneficial community partners.
Now, this didn’t just magically happen, but all it really took was a good conversation about why we’re here and what we say we do to get us on the path to solving something for our team and helping our community. If we say that we believe in cooperation, collaboration, and community, we have to show up and make that true every day.
And that's the point, right? Knowing what is true and showing it.
But hey, I could write another few thousand words about telling, embracing, and living your story, but knowing where to start and what to do from there is already a lot. Besides, you should get back to your day and keep writing your own story now.
About the Author: Suzanne Campbell is the Lead Creative & Brand Champion on the Exclamation Marketing team and the self-proclaimed evangelist for Brand Voice. She’s picked up a lot of smart ideas from a lot of amazing people in her nearly 25 years of experience, and you can frequently hear them on the Awsomology podcast.
We were born from the Credit Union Movement.
That means we believe in things like cooperation, collaboration, community, and we have an unparalleled drive to make things better for everyone we meet.
Whether you’re a Credit Union believer or not (yet) we want you to know that your success, and the success of the people you serve, matters to us.
