What’s Your Story?

What story does your website tell your customers? Is it a hard luck story of a business that hasn’t undergone a revision in ten years? Is it a story about a cutting edge company that’s up on the latest trends? Your website’s appearance certainly DOES tell a story, but today I want to talk about a different kind of storytelling.

Today’s customer will go out of their way to avoid “advertising”. On the television, we fast forward through commercials. On the computer, we employ pop up blockers. So, how do you get your message out there to a population that is putting their hands over their ears and singing “la, la, la”?

There’s good news because everybody likes a good story. Blendtec has really tapped into people’s desire for a good story with their “Will it Blend?” series of videos. Originally, they just blended things like marbles, but now they’ve started blending brand name items, so that they advertise Blendtec, as well as the company that makes the item their blending (that’s smart marketing!).

So, how can you use storytelling on your website?

First, you can write about your company’s story. Make good use of that “About Me” or “About Us” space. Don’t just give the bare minimum details. Tell us a tale.

Is this a third generation family business started in Grandaddy’s basement? Did your parents go without to send you to college so that you could fulfill your dream? Did you leave a high paying corporate job to strike out on your own, braving the entrepreneurial waters? Don’t have a tale? DON’T make one up!!! Find another place on your website to practice storytelling.

Tell us an anecdote about your customers. First person, we call these testimonials. But you can tell stories about your clients third person, as well (you’ll probably want to make sure these are positive and don’t use names or identifying details without permission).

Let’s say you have a car repair business, and you helped someone get home to their family for Thanksgiving by staying late the night before the holiday. That’s a good story! It tells something about the lengths you’re willing to go to, your commitment to your customers and, if told right, it should make for an interesting read.

Educate your visitors. Tell them an interesting tidbit of history about your area of expertise. Coffee companies do this a lot. They tell you about why different roasts are different. They give you the history of coffee. They manage to increase your enjoyment of their product (and convince you of their expert status) by telling you more about something you may have been drinking for years.

One caveat– do make sure your educational information is interesting. If you can’t figure out how to make your writing interesting, hire someone who’s an expert. It will be money well-spent. Just because it’s educational does NOT mean that it’s automatically storytelling.

Finally, you can experiment with using something other than the written word to tell your story. Whether it’s videos or pictures, today’s audience is very visually oriented.

Show them pictures of that before and after renovation. Give a video tour of your manufacturing facility. If you’re really creative (or are willing to hire someone really creative), you can create a cliffhanger serial about an employee or pretend client that changes on a regular basis and keeps visitors coming back for more.

This is just a small taste of the possibilities for storytelling on your website. Take a look at your site and see where it could benefit from a bit of a story.