We Are Storytellers. (Manifesto)

It is a kingdom of conscience, or nothing – Kingdom of Heaven

 

Who are storytellers?

The short answer is that we’re all storytellers. But in the context of this conversation, a storyteller is someone who has chosen to lead with value for the purpose of engaging with a unique group of people, and is doing so in a format where the audience feels as the hero of that journey. 

 

IF YOUR MARKETING AND
SALES CAMPAIGNS ARE DEAD IN THE WATER,
IS NOT BECAUSE YOU CHOSE THE WRONG SOCIAL NETWORK
TO RUN ADS ON…

Or because you went with InfusionSoft over Get Response, or Drip… or because you decided to build your site on Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress 

Heck sometimes they don’t even fail because of bad ideas and poor execution, that’s how forgiving the market can be!

In order to sell your products and services these days you have to get people to notice you, and this, at least at the beginning will take every dollar, minute, and ounce of creativity you can spare.

Investments in growth and scale in this context will be constant.

The technology will continue to change faster than you can catch up, and markets will shift with little to no warning, –and if this wasn’t enough your target audience may be fickle, impatient, and super unique to sell to!

But the one thing that will never change is human nature. And what the market will never forgive is “indifference” and lack of “relevance” to their needs and wants.

The one thing that we are all susceptible to is a good story that fits our worldview.

 

All the more reason to make sure what I’m about to share with you becomes your number #1 priority when hiring or implementing marketing that sells!

Here’s the deal.

Most businesses’ marketing efforts fail because of their inability to do 3 things:

 

1. Nurture an obsessive attitude in discovering a minimum viable audience (MVA) to serve. 

2. Develop a laser-focused positioning for these group of people. 

3. And create compelling content and copy that resonates ONLY with them. 

 

Failure to deliver in any one of these three areas will sabotage any hope of generating good leads, and therefore ruin any real chance you have at having a successful business. 

So let’s break these down.

The problem with nurturing a minimum viable audience is that most people believe they must be all things to all people. 

What they fail to realize is that when you’re for everyone, you’re for no one!

The realtor who wants to focus on an entire city. 

The financial planner who wants to manage everyone’s assets.

The marketer who professes to focus on every industry.

The photographer who does weddings one weekend and nature shots the next.

The fashion designer who designs for everyone, and every style.

The graphic artist who takes on every job for anybody.

The writer who wants to be a rockstar in every genre.

I’m not asking you to have a narrow view of the world. In fact generalists tend to do better in today’s highly specialized society. I’m living proof of that!

Check out the book ‘Range’Why generalists triumph in a specialized world

What I’m saying is to narrow your focus when it comes to a group of people you’re looking to serve.

Positioning matches the specificity of your solution to the uniqueness of the problem a cohort of people are having. But if you don’t believe in a minimal viable audience, you’re not going to give positioning a lot of street cred either.

And finally the problem with most copy and content strategy on websites, social media channels, emails, and print materials, is that the target audience can’t relate to it, and the reason they can’t is because to begin with it’s BORING… Plus most of it just doesn’t sound REAL, PERSONAL, or HUMAN enough. 

There is nothing in it for them!

It’s the same ol’ crap they’ve already read somewhere else, feature-laden and full of self-serving narratives that offer nothing of value and are totally devoid of any empathy whatsoever.

When you say things like,

“Our award-winning services are truly unique, they are provided by a superb and exquisitely well trained staff at an amazing value, making us not only the best but the only logical choice out there” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This makes people want to punch you in the face.

That’s not how you would talk to family or friends, if you did, your family would NEVER talk to you, and you wouldn’t have ANY friends!

I hope your sales material and web content doesn’t sound like that!  

BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY…

When you figure out who exactly your service or product fills a pressing need, or facilitates a capricious want for, then creating relevant and effective sales messages becomes easier, faster, more fulfilling to produce, and far less expensive in the end.

With the right copy and content strategy you will get the right people to raise their hand because they’re curious and interested in what your products and services can do for them.

It’s not just about the right words, but the CONTEXT  & NARRATIVE of your story, and how much EMPATHY you show for your audience.

Get this right, and you’ll be so busy you’ll have to start turning people away in droves!

Yet most companies are underserved in this regard. Either because they haven’t prioritized it enough, or because their agencies have done a piss-poor job of it.

Still… the result is the same:    

Poor “RETURN ON ATTENTION, LOYALTY, AND RETENTION” for their marketing campaigns overall.

On the other hand, when you figure out what to say at the right time to the right people something beautiful starts to happen!

Your email series becomes more responsive.

Ads start getting clicked on.

Landing pages start capturing more leads.

Sales pages start to generate more revenue.

Your brochures will get read, and blog posts will engage people that will keep re-reading and re-sharing them. 

ALL OF THESE are automated marketing assets.

You build them once and only tweak them based on results or changes in market needs and wants, otherwise they work for you 24-7.

These assets don’t need sleep, don’t go to lunch, and never call in sick or jump ship for a better offer. They are always hard at work producing for you.

 

“…EVERY WORD IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT”

When relevant copy is in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME, and targeted to the RIGHT PEOPLE  –you will create a mad-rush for your products and services never seen before.

…every “like, comment or share” is a life-altering opportunity, a book deal in the making, a partnership waiting to be forged.

Every blog post, article, or sales letter can change your life and that of your prospects forever.

Every subscriber is a potential customer who can massively impact your business!

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Quick side note. If you Click on the LinkedIn badge below you can read what 37 people are saying about working with me in this context!

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Keep these in mind, and execute on them!

1. Have a relentless no BS attitude for constant learning and testing!

2. And a zero-tolerance approach toward designing a way to get measurable and repeatable results.

No gray areas here!

Your marketing is either making people happy they found you or not.

It’s either profitable or is not.

They either love you, or they hate you.

Being super clear on what you’re here to do, and who you serve.

For me this is doing work for people who care about the impact they want to make. And with small businesses that want to experience growth in brand recognition, sales, and profits. But not at the expense of their souls.

Help them position their product or solution in front of their prospects by writing clear, concise and compelling copy. But doing so with a clean conscience and empathy for their worldview. 

If this makes sense to you, there’s a way you can get more of it…

 

Enter THE STORYTELLING & COPY DRAFT – a newsletter for small but profitable businesses looking to create change and inspire the world.

If you’d like to get specific advice, tips, and hacks for how to KILL IT in these three areas

1. Discover a minimum viable audience (MVA) to serve. 

2. Develop a laser-focus positioning for these group of people. 

3. And create compelling content and copy that resonates ONLY with this audience, #1.

…just drop your email below.

 

I’ll throw in a couple of surprise bonus reports just for making you do a little work ahead of time 🙂

Every other Friday you’ll get an email from me. This way you can have the whole weekend to dive into it without the rush and distraction of a busy week.

You’ll also get my weekly blog articles, or any other insight in the form of a rant that could suddenly overtake me.

All content in this newsletter is exclusive. Meaning you get it first before it gets published or syndicated on the web weeks later.

How’s that for special treatment! 🙂

And finally, because you’re on this list, you’ll be the first to know when I get an opening for any freelance work you may want me to take on.

My engagements are usually 60 to 90 days long so at least 4 times a year you’ll get a chance to have me all to yourself.

When that time comes I’ll send you an email telling you the areas of work I’m available for.  

*Remember to whitelist my email so it doesn’t get swallowed by your spam folder!

Thank you for reading.  Your attention is precious to me!

 

 

 

 

 

Claudio Alegre