💪 Build Strong Relationship
💬 Spark Engagement
🥂 Point of Sharing
💪 Build Strong Relationships
Many companies are doing “marketing” right. They’ve got killer content. They’re active on social media. They blog for SEO, podcast, and sponsor events. They execute their marketing tactics well.
It’s not hard to see. Companies of all sizes are posting quality content for their customers. They have talented marketers that are working hard to create and share relevant content in a constantly changing digital marketing landscape.
But is it the right marketing? That is the ultimate question.
When all marketers are doing the same things, the results are predictable:
- Progressively declining engagement rates
- Lower ROI on marketing and ad spend
- Less sales!
According to Moz, 50% of articles being published have no likes, shares, comments, and probably no views. Organic reach on Facebook is near zero, and Instagram and LinkedIn reach are rapidly deteriorating.
When all of our media channels are oversaturated, is pumping out one more article or posting one more video going to make a difference? The stats would say no.
Doing the same things over and over again (no matter how well you’re doing them) is not going to improve sales performance!
One tried and true tactic to help cut through the noise: build strong relationships.
For a variety of reasons, marketing for relationships has lost favor. It’s time consuming and expensive, but that’s also the point. Likes and views are cheap, relationships are not.
The thing that will separate your brand from all the others shouting at their customers is your ability to build and nurture strong customer relationships.
An effective way to grow a relationship is to spark a conversation.
One Stat to Watch
44%
The engagement rate on LinkedIn has increased by 44% year over year, according to Socialinsider. Brands have an opportunity to engage their markets more on LinkedIn.
💬 Spark Engagement
The five best words you can hear a customer say are, “That’s interesting. Tell me more.”
When you get a customer to say, “That’s interesting. Tell me more,” you’ve caught their attention. They’re listening. They’re responding. They’re having a conversation. And this is powerful.
Conversations make your brand sticky.
Brand Storylines are a communication device to engage your customers in a conversation.
Brand Storylines are unique because they are not just conversations about the weather or sports, and they are not one sided pitches promoting your brand. They are conversations crafted to engage your marketplace and keep your brand top of mind.
Brand Storylines are effective marketing tools, because they are crafted to connect conversations to your brand.
A Brand Storyline has three fundamental elements:
- Expertise: It’s a topic you and your team know well, and draws from your company’s core expertise.
- Strong Opinions: It’s a topic your company is passionate about. You can take a stance and boldly share your opinions.
- Point of Sharing: The topic resonates with your target market, and encourages others to participate in the conversation.
The three elements function as a three-legged stool.
A Brand Storyline is unsustainable if any one of the elements are missing. For example, Strong Opinions without Expertise is a rant. Expertise without Strong Opinions is boring. And without a Point of Sharing you’re talking to yourself.
🥂 Point of Sharing
The Point of Sharing is the connective glue of your Brand Storyline. It’s what makes the storyline sticky.
There are three potential Points of Sharing.
1. Shared Interest
A shared interest is a topic or idea you have in common with your target market. For instance, how often do you talk about the weather?
Shared interests are the most common storylines in a business-to-business market. These conversations tend to be business oriented and appeal to a large audience.
2. Shared Value
Shared values are storylines that are personal and universal. They are broad topics and usually revolve around the environment, religion, equality, human rights, or preventing poverty. They are ideals people believe in and are passionate about.
People not only love to talk about their values, they like to work with others to act on them too. Companies with value-driven brands lean toward storylines based on shared values.
3. Shared Experiences
Shared experiences come in many forms. They can be life-changing events like an accident or a divorce, or they can come from growing up as a minority in a certain culture. The experience brings together like-minded people, who form a bond around their shared experience.
The best way to describe a shared experience is the phrase, “it takes two to know one.”
Find Your Connection
Brand Storylines capitalize on a Point of Sharing to make the topic sticky. The goal is to find a topic your audience can proactively participate in. It gives them a reason to engage with you and share their opinions.
A Brand Storyline without a Point of Sharing is just marketing. You are preaching at your market and hoping they will respond. The Point of Sharing acknowledges you are choosing a topic that will resonate with your market and encouraging others to give back.
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