Four ways to tell your story, be remembered and build a brand your customers love

There’s marketing. And there’s marketing you remember. Like those Superbowl ads that everyone talks about the next day.

How can you make your marketing more memorable, like that?

It comes down to finding the stories your audience will find funny, smart and relatable, and telling them well on your online platforms.

So, how do create that kind of story? Here are four opportunities to re-think the marketing you’re already doing and create something more memorable.

1 – Tell Stories for Humans, Not Robots

Answering your customers’ typical questions about your product on your company blog will help you get found by search engines. But to be memorable, your content must do more than just get found.

Lean into your customers’ most pressing questions and you become useful — a trusted resource that people return to for more and more learning.

Use technology to become more useful for your customers. Approach a question from several different angles, film a video or do a live chat to solve a problem. Include a resource that users can print and post on their wall. Include your best insights, real-world stories, and even bring in examples or other experts to discuss important questions.

Do it all with personality, and you become unforgettable. Show us the moments in your day that we’ll relate to — whether it’s riding in taxis to business meetings (like Gary Vaynerchuk) or telling a story while you’re shaving (Jonathan Christian), we want to know about your real life.

2 – Use Automated Marketing Tools in Unexpected Ways

There’s an overwhelming amount of advertising reaching us these days. Reach (one metric for selling advertising) is more possible than ever before.

But get us to remember you when it’s time to buy? To remember you, we have to care about you.

If we care about you, we’ll pay attention to what you’re doing. We’ll open your emails, comment on your social media posts, support your live videos, occasionally check your website for new stuff… and yes, occasionally buy from you.

There are so many templated marketing systems these days helping businesses convert a small percentage of their “audience” into sales. They get great reach and predictable results. But they’re annoying — so there’s a huge opportunity to do something better with these platforms.

Buck the trend towards hucking your wares tirelessly through these bots and email funnels. Instead, pop in for a moment of inspiration. Get some old-fashioned creativity and deliver value in ways that people don’t expect. Go ahead and use automated tools — just don’t do it as a substitute for creativity.

Make sure I’m happy to see you when you pop up in my Facebook messenger. Write me emails that I want to open, because I KNOW you’re sending good stuff. Make the selling secondary, and I’ll love you for it.

Resource: Hootsuite has collected some great examples of Facebook Messenger ads, here.

Use automation to help you pop into your customer’s life for a quick moment — to deliver a tiny experience they’ll remember.

3 – Business Leaders: Share Your Wisdom

When business leaders speak, people listen. If you’re the owner or a leader in your business, make it a priority to be present in telling your company’s story.

Business leaders who understand the power of their story are writing books, speaking on stages, and regularly showing up on their business blogs and social media platforms. They have teams to support them, but they are undeniably present and sharing their leadership with the world.

The (rare) business leaders who spend the time to share their experiences become industry rockstars. We see this with business leaders who have built big names by telling their stories online. Think Elon Musk (Tesla), Richard Branson (Virgin) and top digital marketers like Gary Vaynerchuck — all leaders telling of their passion for business, sharing their personal stories, and taking on issues that matter to them.

The best people to tell your company’s stories are the ones who hold the vision, who lead the company’s direction, and who know their customers best. The CEO, sales director and customer service director are often most equipped to talk about what really counts in a business.

(This doesn’t mean the business leaders need to spend their time crafting posts and editing images. There is room for a team to support you. But the important stories need to come from the top — no one can match your level of vision, passion and understanding.)

Missed Opportunity: Most company leaders are not using the direct access to their customers available on Social Media. According to a 2015 report from CEO.com, 61 percent of Fortune 500 CEO’s have no social presence whatsoever (an improvement from 68% in 2014) — and 70% who have social media accounts only use LinkedIn.

4 – Give Away Your Most Valuable Asset

What can you “give” when everyone is churning out more content, more free gifts already?

How about access? Be real, be reachable, right from the top.

This doesn’t mean the CEO has to personally answer every question that’s ever asked on every social platform — but consider ways to become more available to your followers. Look at Jeff Weiner Executive Chair of LinkedIn, winning over admirers when he revitalized the platform. When the platform was struggling in the mid-2010’s, Weiner consistently showed up by commenting on LinkedIn posts, liking posts, and putting up his own posts. He engaged personally on the platform instead of being “out of reach” as the head of the company. It was charming and endearing. His personal voice and philosophy were apparent through how he used his own platform and he gave the impression that he really cares about his customers.

Creating moments when you — the business leader — are more accessible to your customers is offering something of unparalleled value. And there are lots of ways to orchestrate this by using social media.

In a Nutshell… 

When you think of the Internet as a place to advertise and get found, that’s only using half the Internet’s power. Take the time to be more creative with your marketing tools, make time in your busy schedule to show up in person, and make your content more helpful to your customers… trust me, we’ll love you for it.