The digital age of websites, ebooks and social media have increased the need for a well told story. People want and need context and perspective when it comes to all the data available to them. They desperately want information to be whittled down into digestible content. They can learn about your the features of your products and services in a fact sheet, but what they really want to know is who you are; they want a peek into your company, its people and what it stands for.
Stories remove the inner conflict they may have that keeps them from buying from you or patronizing you. Stories tap into the emotions of the reader and the more they connect with you, the more relevant and relatable they are, the less distance there is between you and your audience and less resistance in making a purchasing decision.
My job is to take the who, what, where, why and whens and create that connection. I bring your company to life in words and images so that you connect with your audience. It is not a task to be undertaken by amateurs in corporate storytelling. It must be carefully crafted, it must be honest, it must me told consistently and compellingly across mediums and channels, and it must be told in such a way that the message sticks.
SERVICES
Consulting
I work with your team to forge the message, create the storyline, weave in the important facts and figures and create an overarching story that resonates with your audience. Every business, every executive, every product or service has a story to tell. Unfortunately, most internal teams don’t know how to take the nuts and bolts of a brand and turn it into something that resonates with an audience and compels them to become loyal to a product, service or company. It is part art and science, and it’s not for rank amateurs.
Got your own marketing and communications team in place? Let me train them in telling your story. I can help them master the art of storytelling so that they can take your business to the next level when it comes to customer and client opinion and brand loyalty. There is a science to storytelling. I can teach the formulas that work.
Assessing
If you spent a lot of money already on your story, I can review it and make it better. Let’s face it, when you’re intimately familiar with a brand, product or service, you may inadvertently fill the holes of a story with your own knowledge and experience. You may be overlooking some of the simplest errors that are keeping your story from really hitting home for you. I can look at your story with a fresh set of eyes; ones that know the elements of a good story and the elements that are required to make it memorable and persuasive. I can take a story that’s missing its mark somehow and make it hit the bullseye.
Telling
This is the art part. A good story has to connect to your audience. It needs to offer a cohesive storyline that has an arc to it. It needs a bit of drama, perhaps some humor to help with the pacing. It needs a beginning, middle and end and identifiable characters or situations. A great story needs to have a theme, a sense of purpose and it needs to flow cleanly from start to finish. I work with you to tell your unique story in a way that is memorable, informative, persuasive and most important, sounds like you. My storytelling is chameleon in nature; I can match your tone exactly, whether it’s very close to the vest and conservative or very relaxed, conversational and even funny.
Channeling
A picture may be worth a thousand words and a video a couple million of them, but without a good story, any communication with your audience will fall on deaf ears without matching the story to the medium. While the core of a story is media-agnostic (a great story is a great story no matter how it is told), you can’t create a story written for the web and just drop it into a PowerPoint or YouTube video as a voice-over. Each medium has its own needs and a good storyteller can repackage and re-purpose a story into the many channels that exist. That’s my job. I can take the finished story and tailor it for every channel, whether it’s destined for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, a blog, PowerPoint presentation or an interview with CNN.
Yes, story is embedded deep in our DNA. It connects us and inspires us, persuades us to think a certain way or buy or purchase a certain product or service. It is indeed a very powerful tool. But just like nuclear weapons, you need a skilled professional to handle your story or if could just blow up in your face. You need The Story Laureate.