349 – Integrating Our Love of Stories into Your Brand with Chloë Thomas

These days, "storytelling" is a buzzword online. But you may wonder what it's really all about. If so, stick around, because today we're diving into what is storytelling for business.

We’re always searching for ways to stand out and be recognized. Particularly when there are probably thousands of others who make a product similar to yours.

Here’s a secret … most people approach the visibility issue the wrong way. They try to make their product “better" or price it lower. But that's not the way to go.

After all, what does "better" even mean? What people consider better will be different for each person. So how do you pin down better? It’s a stab in the dark and will resonate with some and not others.

And dropping your price? That’s diminishing your product quality and skill and ultimately leads to a very sad financial situation. Nope – "better" and lower-priced aren’t the answers.

But storytelling? It's a different strategy entirely and can be a real differentiator for you.
So, what is storytelling in business, actually? 
It’s a no-cost way to endear people to you. To deepen the connection between you and your customers and to give people stories they can pass on to “could-be” customers they know.

Think of the season we’re in right now. Holiday stories get told and retold. I bet you have a favorite or two that you read or a movie you watch year after year. It brings back wonderful memories, it’s emotional and meaningful.

Now I’m not suggesting you make a holiday story of your business. But you can incorporate the feelings that stories bring, into your brand. When you do this, you become share-worthy and more people discover you.

And the more people know about you, the more people buy.

So, let's dive into how you can become a storytelling business.

That's where my guest, Chloë, comes in. She's a storytelling expert and has been in eCommerce since 2003, meaning there’s barely a part of the eCommerce landscape she’s not involved with.

From the start, Chloë’s been solving eCommerce marketing problems. Tiny problems such as where to spend your advertising dollars. And more sophisticated issues such as identifying how to adapt to big opportunities like emotional commerce and storytelling.

Chloë is a bestselling Author, International Speaker, and host of the Award-winning eCommerce MasterPlan and Keep Optimising Podcasts. Both of these shows are regularly included in lists of the top eCommerce & marketing podcasts in the world.

She’s also one of Scurri’s Top 30 eCommerce Influencers for 2021.
What is Storytelling in Business?

As consumer trends and consumer needs have changed, we all now need to take account of storytelling in our businesses. Because it's what consumers want to hear from us.
Why? Because consumers want more than just the features of your product.
Storytelling is about getting the humanity of your business, the story of your products, and the goodness of things you're already doing out in front of people.
It's how you answer your customers' questions about whether they want to buy from you.
Trust is essential for a successful business and storytelling is an important way to develop trust.
Using storytelling is a less 'salesy' way to communicate about your offerings.
Storytelling has its biggest impact early in the customer journey. The impact happens before the customer even interacts with your business.
Customers should be able to see what's going on in your brand, especially...

These days, "storytelling" is a buzzword online. But you may wonder what it's really all about. If so, stick around, because today we're diving into what is storytelling for business.

We’re always searching for ways to stand out and be recognized. Particularly when there are probably thousands of others who make a product similar to yours.

Here’s a secret … most people approach the visibility issue the wrong way. They try to make their product “better" or price it lower. But that's not the way to go.

After all, what does "better" even mean? What people consider better will be different for each person. So how do you pin down better? It’s a stab in the dark and will resonate with some and not others.

And dropping your price? That’s diminishing your product quality and skill and ultimately leads to a very sad financial situation. Nope – "better" and lower-priced aren’t the answers.

But storytelling? It's a different strategy entirely and can be a real differentiator for you.
So, what is storytelling in business, actually? 
It’s a no-cost way to endear people to you. To deepen the connection between you and your customers and to give people stories they can pass on to “could-be” customers they know.

Think of the season we’re in right now. Holiday stories get told and retold. I bet you have a favorite or two that you read or a movie you watch year after year. It brings back wonderful memories, it’s emotional and meaningful.

Now I’m not suggesting you make a holiday story of your business. But you can incorporate the feelings that stories bring, into your brand. When you do this, you become share-worthy and more people discover you.

And the more people know about you, the more people buy.

So, let's dive into how you can become a storytelling business.

That's where my guest, Chloë, comes in. She's a storytelling expert and has been in eCommerce since 2003, meaning there’s barely a part of the eCommerce landscape she’s not involved with.

From the start, Chloë’s been solving eCommerce marketing problems. Tiny problems such as where to spend your advertising dollars. And more sophisticated issues such as identifying how to adapt to big opportunities like emotional commerce and storytelling.

Chloë is a bestselling Author, International Speaker, and host of the Award-winning eCommerce MasterPlan and Keep Optimising Podcasts. Both of these shows are regularly included in lists of the top eCommerce & marketing podcasts in the world.

She’s also one of Scurri’s Top 30 eCommerce Influencers for 2021.
What is Storytelling in Business?

As consumer trends and consumer needs have changed, we all now need to take account of storytelling in our businesses. Because it's what consumers want to hear from us.
Why? Because consumers want more than just the features of your product.
Storytelling is about getting the humanity of your business, the story of your products, and the goodness of things you're already doing out in front of people.
It's how you answer your customers' questions about whether they want to buy from you.
Trust is essential for a successful business and storytelling is an important way to develop trust.
Using storytelling is a less 'salesy' way to communicate about your offerings.
Storytelling has its biggest impact early in the customer journey. The impact happens before the customer even interacts with your business.
Customers should be able to see what's going on in your brand, especially behind the scenes. That’s where storytelling comes into play.  It helps people relate better to what you do and your product.


How to Use Storytelling In Your Business

Your customers want to know who they're buying from. They want to understand where the products come from. They want to feel an emotional connection to the product and to the business they're buying it from.
Storytelling isn't just in one place. It lives across your social media, on your About page, in your welcome email sequence. It exists in all those places, even on your Home page.
It's also a way to filter out people who don't care about the same things as you. <-- Tune in for the full explanation of this!
There are 2 parts to storytelling in business:

The "brand founder" key information you want to get across to someone who comes in for the first time.
And the dynamic storytelling part. Which is what's going on behind the scenes, the evolution stuff.   <-- Listen for examples of this!

It's good to show challenges as well as successes. Share the humanity and reality behind things so people can relate to you.
Find the engagement level you're comfortable with in terms of what you're willing to share. Everyone will be different.
Test out what works for you, but when you test - commit to doing it right (find the hashtags, etc.)
With regards to your email communication, always have a link to find out more about your brand.
Reusing and recycling your content can be a great way of giving that storytelling piece more exposure (social post becomes blog post or vice versa, etc.)
Clever ideas will come up when you're busy with something else. Write down ideas whenever you have them so you always have something to pull from.
Don't use storytelling in everything. A good mix of sales and softer content is what leads to the greatest sales volume. <-- Pro tip!
3 steps to get started:

Create your foundational "Founder Story" (About page content). Who you are as the maker of your product and the founder of your business, how you got started, what your product is. Make it personable, not like a resume. Note: this will never be finished or perfect. Don't agonize over it. Publish it and tweak it every few months to reflect what you've learned or what has changed.
Use portions of the Founder Story to create social posts. Don't be afraid to repost every 6 months or so for new followers to see.
Share dynamic stories using all the examples in this podcast. Develop a storytelling mindset.

Listen to the full conversation to hear so many more examples of how to use storytelling in your business, what *not* to share, and specific steps to get started!
Resources Mentioned

ep 290 -  An Email Marketing Plan – The Often Forgotten Powerhouse to Increase Sales
Inspired! Daily Planner - save 40% with coupon code SALE for a limited time!


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Thank you so much! Sue

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