Behind every great story is a great strategy

By MATT CLARK
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13 Dec, 2017
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The simple process that will ensure your story is always delivering your strategy

You know how tempting it is. You pick up a book, read a couple of chapters, think you know where it's going and the skip to the end, reading the last few pages. We're all so hungry for the pay-off, that often we're not willing to invest the time and effort in the journey that gets us there. To an author, this can be devastating! For a business, it can be disastrous.

This desire to 'skip to the end', to jump straight to communicating your story without going through the journey to make sure it is built on the right foundations can lead to wasted time and effort, probably some wasted money and, worst of all, confusion in the minds of your customers and staff. That's where the Narrative Edge 'Story-Engine' comes in. It's a methodical approach to ensure that everything is connected, relevant, consistent and has a purpose.

1. Start at the very beginning

From the outset, when you're developing any kind of communications or storytelling strategy, you've got to be really clear on why you're doing it. Who is our customer? What do they want from us? Who are our competitors? What do they offer? How are we different? These are the key questions to answer right at the start. Answer these, and stick to your answers, and you've created a clear context and set of rules for how you will develop everything that follows.

2. Be clear on your destination

As much as your story needs a clear and unique purpose, it also needs specific and achievable goals. What is your vision? What do you want to achieve by creating and telling you unique business story? Set yourself, and your plan, clear goals from the outset and you will be able to justify everything you then build into your plan, and properly measure it to see if it is delivering your goals.

Try and mix up your objectives into qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative tend to be more emotive - to raise awareness, build reputation, be known as an expert in my field. Quantitative are the more rational, numbers based goals - achieve 5% market share, increase profits to 40%, have 10,000 Twitter followers. By combining the two you achieve a balance of rational and emotional, which is key to all great brands stories.

3. Know your audience

Now, think about who you want to talk to. Those objectives you set; who is going to help you achieve them? What's important here is to think beyond just the generic 'customers'. Do you have different customer segments, with different needs? Who are your other stakeholders? Do you have business partners or investors? Media channels who can help you? Are you governed by any regulatory boards or groups? What about your staff?

All of these groups will have some influence on helping you achieve your goals, so it's vital to map them all out. You can then build a picture of who takes the most interest in what you do, and who has the most power or influence over your success. This will help you work out who are your priority groups, what effect you want to have on them, and how you're going to achieve it.

4. Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em

By this point you're clear on your position, vision and goals, and who your various audiences are. With this to build on, you can create clear communications objectives. Your Audience Mapping will show you where your audiences are now. Where do you want them to be? If one of your groups is powerful but apathetic, then you need to grab their attention and raise awareness. Some groups will need information and detail, others will need two way communication and engagement. Set clear communications goals and outcomes for each of your audiences.

5. Tell 'em

So you've worked out who your audiences are, and what effect you need to have on them in order to achieve your business objectives and vision. So, how are you going to move them, engage them, grab their attention, and hold it? What you say, and how you say it, will be slightly different for each audience, depending on what you need them to do. But consistency is also key, so it helps to establish a few key messages that capture your vision and objectives and then modulate them slightly for each of your audiences. You'll become clear and consistent but most importantly you'll be more relevant and effective.

6. Map it out

This is where you can now start to build your comms plan. You know who you want to speak to. You know why you need them to listen, and are clear what effect you want to have on them. You even know what you're going to say. The Comms plan combines all of that with channel mix, timings, budgets, ownership and responsibilities. It will enable you to see at a glance everything that your organisation is putting out there, but now with the added benefit of knowing the exact purpose of every component of that plan.

7. Measure it, prove it, improve it

You need to be clear what success looks like, and be able to measure and report on it. It's wonderful that everything in your plan has a purpose, and is influencing your audiences to help you deliver your goals and vision. But even with these solid foundations, not everything will work first time. To be able to prove success or failure, and continually improve your effectiveness, you need to set clear measurements and track and report on them.

Some will be financial (ROI, investment) others will be softer (social engagement, brand understanding and loyalty). By measuring them and making them visible you can do more of what works, adapt or remove the things that are less effective, and use the data to continually inform and refine your goals and strategy. This process then becomes a continuum, an ongoing journey on the road towards customer relevance and business success.

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A great cover doesn't mean you'll love the book

By MATT CLARK • November 23, 2017

I was asked an interesting question the other day by an entrepreneur in the early days of developing their business. They’d been offered the opportunity to test their product and get paid for it – a pretty rare combination! Anyway, the entrepreneur needed to invoice their client so they could get paid for the test, so they started developing an invoice template. They really wanted it to go on headed paper, but as they were still at the beginning of their journey they had no visual identity yet – no logo, typeface, colour palette and other recognisable business ‘symbols’.

So they thought they needed a logo, and quick! The question they asked was whether there were any particular rules or guidance on designing a logo?

Now, I’m not a designer, so I can’t answer that from a pure design perspective. But I have been working with designers for over 20 years and I know for a fact that what any designer needs to do any job properly is a great brief. They need to be absolutely clear on what is required, and what the design needs to represent.

What can storytelling do for you?

By MATT CLARK • November 20, 2017

Business storytelling isn't a 'nice to have', it's an absolutely essential asset to you and your strategy. It captures your purpose, your points of difference and relevance, and gives your customers reasons to believe and love what you do.

I believe there are five core reasons why finding your Narrative Edge can transform your business.

Introducing... Narrative Edge

By MATT CLARK • November 18, 2017

So, what is Narrative Edge?

Basically, I believe that every successful brand or organisation is built on a great story. It's what makes you relevant to your customers, and different to your competitors. It makes you interesting. It creates love and loyalty.

It becomes your point of competitive advantage.

It gets to the real point of the matter, which is WHY you do what you do, and WHY your customers should care.

Most organisations know WHAT they do, HOW they do it and WHO they do it for. But very few really know the answer to WHY.

Mainly, it's just the successful ones.

So, that's what I aim to do. Help businesses, organisations or individuals understand WHY they do what they do, discover their unique story, and then tell that story beautifully and effectively.