We know why we need to produce content. It’s the what and the how that often evades marketers. Today’s Listen rounds up several key insights about psychology, storytelling, and why and how you should map your buyer’s journey to achieve true progress and success.
It starts around 3:14 with a reference to the Heider-Himmel experiment from 1940. Here’s a link to the film Franz Heider and Marianne Himmer showed their audience. Without going into too much detail, the experiment became the initial basis of attribution theory, which “describes how people explain the behavior of others, themselves…and also, apparently, geometric shapes on the go.” It revealed just how dramatically people explain things in terms of stories.
Whether you’re consciously telling a story or not, prospective customers are telling themselves a story about you, your brand, your product, or your service. Beat ‘em to the punchline and tell your story in a way that resonates with these prospects. So, what kind of story should you tell? Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….
- (6:12) How Star Wars can improve your content marketing strategy. (Think of your prospect as Luke and your brand as Obi-Wan Kenobi.)
- (7:55) Why you need to take your customer along a content marketing version of the mythic hero’s journey. Remember — you are not the hero, though. you are the guide.
- (9:47) The 8 core steps in the buyer’s journey.
- (15:03) How to map your journey, also known as the experience map, a visual representation of the path a consumer takes — from beginning to end — with your content, and then with your product or service.
- (16:32) The 5 components of the experience map.
- (18:23) Identifying the 7 key influence principles — the order of emphasis for things like reciprocity, social proof, authority, liking, commitment and consistency, unity, and scarcity.
- (19:55) 4 different types of content to map the buyer’s journey — attraction (top of the funnel information), authority (demonstrate it rather than claiming it), affinity (positions you as likable expert), and, finally, the action.
This podcast is only 27 minutes, but it’s packed with the good stuff. And, because we can’t lie to you, you can also read it the whole shebang here. Dang.
