I will tell you a story, a story so great and powerful that you would like to hear it again and again. You will not ask how much it costs, nor will you care about its price as long as you could listen to that story as much as you like. You will share that story with your friends, even if I did not ask or pay you to do that. You will do that because this story is so amazing that you would not want your friends to stay behind. After that, your friends will share the story with their friends, and so on...
With this previous paragraph I described the best type of marketing in the world. Because, until today, the human kind invented almost everything you could think of and it is really hard to invent something really new. Maybe you could recycle an old idea and present it in a new form, but that would still be an "already seen" idea, nothing really, really new. The essence of this article isn't new as well. It has been told so many times before and I would probably write some "deep thought" along the way, which I've read who knows where and when, without citing the source (because I would be convinced that it is really my own idea). And all of you would nod your heads and completely agree with me on this matter, even if you are not completely sure if you've read something similar before or you read it for the first time here, nevertheless that's an idea that you would share with your friends for sure. To sum up all of this, it doesn't matter who tells the story, if it is a good story, everyone will share it, and the main difference between great and ordinary brands is that great brands have a great story behind them!
You could have great products in your portfolio, but if there is no one to spread a word about how good they are, it is the same as you do not exist at all. On the other hand, some brands became popular based on a great story that followed them, the quality came along the way. They didn't have the necessary quality to become great in their fields, but they had great story that made the difference!
Back in the day, it would take a lot longer for a good story to spread. Today, the Internet has made the world infinitely smaller. Some of us would like to remember how to use the Internet to get off the Internet. But meanwhile, you should use the Internet to tell your story. So, how you should begin with?
You should ask yourself who you are, what you are trying to be and the most important thing, how you would like to present yourself. Then, you should conduct a little survey and find out what your product means to your customers. It's clear why they would eventually buy your product, but it's more important for you to find out why? Because, it's not all about the key benefits of your product, pretty much it's about the experience. Your customers and leads do not care about the product, its benefits, they are more interested into your personality as a brand and the story behind it. Our job as marketers is to talk to those consumers who believe in this the most and who would, hopefully, spread the story further. As Vaynerchuck said, " Marketers are on social media to sell stuff, consumers, however, are not, and if you want to talk to people while they consume their entertainment, you have to be their entertainment!"
Don't forget that your audience wants interesting and inspiring stories. They will talk about them, carry them on the bus, talk about them with their hairdressers, tweet about them, blog about them, share it on Facebook or even make Fan pages! This is why brands need to become content creators and engage with their customers, by passion and hearth.
As Chris Brogan wrote, " Your customers are always the story ", it's not your product the reason why you are making the story, it's about your customers - if you make a story about people, those people will make a story about you. If you are making a story about your product instead of your fans and customers "that would be like making a movie about the Batmobile instead of Batman. The car is cool. No doubt. But we need a story."
But let's face it, some companies might think that they control the game of storytelling, but it's far from the truth, because brands are built on the stories that people tell about them, not the other way around.
But nowadays everyone thinks that they could make a viral story. It's really simple, we have the Internet right? Wrong, even the technology can't save a boring idea! It's all about great idea and the passion behind it. As Seth Godin said "You don't need everyone, just the weird people who care." You should address to those who are interested into similar stories like yours, they will spread the story further.
At the end remember that we are talking about your story, you don't want others to talk about your brand as a boring one, right? It's your story, make it outstanding!