Three Effective Steps For Utilizing Creative Storytelling by Adina Brunetti

Founder of AB 27 Group, hospitality & lifestyle entrepreneur, No. 1 bestselling author in the hospitality industry, and keynote speaker Adina Brunetti providing her expertise.

Regardless of the type of business, most entrepreneurs and executives constantly search for new ways to drive excellent outcomes from their marketing budgets and efforts. There is no denying that we live in a highly competitive world where it is challenging to make our products, services, and messages noticeable. The attention span of an average consumer is falling day by day, whereas the number of advertisements and messages presented to them is rising. For that reason, we need to find better and new ways to look distinctive compared to other competitors and link with our ideal clients and customers.

Following are a few steps that Adina Brunetti has successfully executed in her business to use creative storytelling and get fantastic marketing results.

1. Attain clarity on the ethos and unique story of your brand.

The first step is to attain clarity on your brand’s unique character. We refer to it as your brand’s unique story and ethos. You can do that by means of a process called identifying your brand DNA, which is about getting clear on the principles and values you tend to stand for as a company and a brand, the perception you have for the brand as well as for the customers that you are willing to provide your service to in the marketplace, and your foundation story and distinctive value proposition to your customers.

What makes you unique and distinctive? Why would they consider you rather than other options available to them? What will they obtain by partnering with you instead of others? These are only a few questions that you need to consider and answer clearly.

It is essential to have a clear mind on this; else, it will be tough for you to establish aligned and congruent marketing narratives and collateral. It is vital to have consistency in everything you do as a company; otherwise, customers will experience the disconnect, which will ultimately result in uncertainty and indecisiveness, which is considered to be deathblow resulting in the loss of sales.

2. Establish a clear marketing narrative and collateral talking about the current and desired situation of your customers.  

Your second step is to bring in creativity and emphasize establishing concise and clear marketing narratives and associated visuals as well as the interactive collateral that gives you an idea regarding the current situation of your customers and creates a picture of where they desire to be in the future. This can be considered as having a meeting with them and then assisting them in articulating and reaffirming all their worries and pain surrounding the current issue they are experiencing. Moreover, you can also clarify how all those negative emotions and effects may deteriorate if they don’t do anything to find a strong solution to their issue. This further allows the people to move along on the sales journey by assisting them in realizing that they do not need to stay with the frustration and pain for all of their lives; it establishes certainty and helps them find a good solution.

In order to establish such narratives, you need to use real stories of your previous satisfied customers, provided that it is not in a testimonial or boring manner. Undoubtedly, if a story and situation are created out of a real-life case study, it can be very effective and powerful for potential customers.

Next, you need to show your customers’ goals and dreams by using the psychological appeal of the marketing narrative and collateral you have. This is precisely where you will show them their destination, which they will eventually reach by applying your solution, particularly your offer. Utilize media to deliver and language to describe the destination. In fact, you need to show them the benefits and payoffs of solving the issue and how it will impact them and their business. You can also discuss the satisfaction they will get by eventually fixing the problem. When you do this, you can then smoothly move to your solution and offer a way to the outcome they are desiring, which then ultimately takes us to the final step.

3. Make a bridge that will put your offer squarely between your customers and where they eventually want to be. 

Bring the narrative and the story of your customer to the payoffs and benefits in opting to take your offer as the only way for them to fix their issue. Describe the distinctive features, particularly the gains and benefits of your solution and how it is different and better in contrast to other options in the marketplace offered by your competitors.

This is where you will also return to the first step by drawing in your distinctive brand ethos as a means to be of interest to their principles and values that may probably be consistent with your brand’s. Also, you need to ensure that you are positioning yourself and your brand as a significant authority in the field by promoting and getting social proof and press mentions and having ample testimonials to give your potential customers confidence in buying.

Suppose you follow these three steps efficiently for the purpose of making and executing innovative storytelling in your efforts related to marketing. In that case, you will then begin to establish good connections with the customers you want, guide them through the journey which is persuasive and cohesive, and then eventually make them take action. This ultimately results in better sales as it reduces uncertainty, builds trust in your brand, and provides the best solution to solve your customer’s issue.