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How to Find Your Brand’s Story
Marketing “thought leaders” love to sit in their thrones and throw out enlightened statements like this:
To be successful in marketing, you must tell your brand’s story.
That statement is true, but muuuch easier said than done. Nike, Warby Parker, TOMS, and similar brands have easy stories to tell. But If you work at a boring company…like say you manufacture bed springs, how do you tell your story?
That’s not as easy, but still definitely possible. Contently, the kings of marketing storytelling, have a few tips for us…
Talk to your C-suite
Over the years, your company’s leaders have faced uncertainty, highs, and lows. Gather all of these stories from your leaders. Ask about the first big decisions they made. Dig in on what they thought the company would be in the early days.
You’ll find tons of stories this way…tell those!
Back to the basics
Okay, so let’s say your company’s leaders have no stories. Let’s say they started the company to make money and didn’t care about anything else. That’s okay. If that happens, try focusing on customer stories instead. Ask your leaders:
- Give me a few examples of great customer relationships.
- When have we gone above and beyond for our customers?
- Has there ever been a time where our product saved the day for a customer?
Take SoulCycle, for example, they’re an exercise company. But, they’ve built a strong connection with their customers by telling their customers’ stories.
Learn from others
What do SoulCycle, Sweetgreen, and WeWork have in common? (Aside from the fact that their names are just two words slammed together.)
They’re all actually boring companies. Seriously. One is a gym, one is a restaurant that makes salads, and the last one is a company that rents office space.
How many companies out there also do those things? Tons. But the companies we just mentioned are crazy popular because they’ve managed to tell stories that connect with their audiences.
Follow them on social media, subscribe to their blog, and take notes.
This is a really complex topic, you’re gonna want to read the full post 👇
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7 Winning Instagram Contest Ideas (And How to Run Your Own)
If we had to take an educated guess. We bet contests, giveaways, sweepstakes (whatever you want to call it) become a more common strategy during the holidays.
We have no data to back that up. But it’s a good assumption, isn’t it? After all, it is the season of giving. Anyway, Hootsuite knows what’s up, so they shared 7 contest ideas for us to try on Instagram.
But first, rapid-fire do’s and don’ts:
- Do: Follow the law (this is for all you rule breakers out there)
- Don’t: Encourage inaccurate tagging
- Do: Create a clear set of rules
- Don’t: Request Instagram support (they don’t want to help with contests)
- Do: Make it known that Instagram is not involved (straight up state this)
1. Like/Comment to win! This one is pretty common and may also be the easiest to moderate. But keep in mind if your goal is lead-gen, you want quality over quantity. Asking for just likes is going to get you quantity. A way to get quality leads is asking for people to comment.
2. Photo Caption Contest. This one is just plain ol’ fun. Who wouldn’t want to show off some wit and humor? All you gotta do is find an unusual photo and tell your followers to caption it. It’s a breeze.
3. Tag a friend. Wanna reach people who may not know you, this contest is the way to go. Why? Because it’s not a brand to customer interaction, it’s customer to customer interaction. It’s simple. Ask your followers to tag their friends for a chance to win. Then those friends get notified, and if they like the post they will explore your brand more.
5. UGC Contest. (Yeah, we skipped four. We liked this one better.) Nothing is better than user-generated content. It’s so hot right now. Get your fans to show themselves using your product, or share their story of how your product/service bettered their life.
We’re leaving two ideas for y’all to find out for yourself. Plus, Hootsuite goes into the deets on how to run a contest yourself.
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Clooney’s Quest
George Clooney.
I wanted to leave it at that but Mark says I should write more. So here it goes (fair warning: I’m gonna fill this summary with Clooney gifs…’cause…why not?)
If you’re a George Clooney fan, and have a secret shrine in your closet like Helga crushin’ on Arnold (we won’t judge), you’ll want to watch this ad.
George saves a kingdom, wears knightly armor, and goes on a quest for the ultimate reward. And that reward is Nespresso coffee. Pretty much everyone agrees that coffee is the ultimate reward after a hard days’ work.
Looking for a marketing job? There’s a great thread in our Facebook group featuring tons of companies that are hiring. Dive in, take a look, and apply for your next job.
If you happen to be hiring, add your job post to the thread!
Ads from the Past
Ads from the Past
Were we the only ones who ate Flintstone Vitamins like candy when we were kids? We def remember purple being the best.
This ad is from 1971 and offers a 2-foot-tall Fred Flintstone too!
That’s one yabba dabba deal in our book…
