Quit “Marketing,” Try “Storytelling” Instead

Marketing. For most creative individuals, the word makes our stomach churn. Either we hate the idea of marketing (Phoney! Manipulative! Hucksterish!), dislike the people who engage in it (Phonies! Manipulators! Hucksters!), or don’t know how to successfully market our products and services without feeling like we’re selling our souls.

The solution? Don’t do marketing. As you’ll discover at the end of this 5-part blog series, you no longer have to engage in something that’s difficult or distasteful. There’s something else you can do to attract new clients and customers that is far more fun, fulfilling, and natural.

But first, let’s bolt down a definition, so we know exactly what we’re talking about. Including how marketing differs from its cousins, PR and advertising.

If my friend tells you about my services to writers who are looking to write their first book, that’s public relations. If I tell you about my long-standing publishing success and that you need me to help you write your next book, that’s advertising. If I tell you I think your book idea is phenomenal and that I could help you birth it into the world, that’s marketing.

Marketing is simply saying the right things to the right people; one of the oldest known forms of doing that is storytelling.

Think about the powerful capacity that stories have for drawing people in: from Hollywood movies to great novels; Shakespeare’s plays and Grimm’s fairy tales; narrative nonfiction (think Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love), even corporate stories like how Ray Croc stumbled upon the idea that became McDonald’s.

A compelling story is precisely what you want to achieve as an artisan or author looking to sell the end result of your creativity.

And that’s what you’re going to begin to learn to do over the next four days. As an author, journalist, and communicator with 25 years’ experience weaving stories in a variety of different forms, I’ll share with you how to:

• Find the right place to start your story (and it’s not at the beginning!)
• Identify the compelling parts that most entrepreneurs like yourself typically leave out
• Decide where to end, with a story that obviously isn’t over yet.
• Turn the focus on the hero your clients will love the most.

A picture may paint a thousand words, but a story—well told—shares thousands upon thousands of pictures with people, including clients and customers who want to buy from you…even if they don’t realize that quite yet.

Catch us tomorrow when you’ll discover how to draw in more clients and customers. Doesn’t it feel good to know you can soon give up “marketing” for good?

Main image courtesy of shutterhacks.

Dr. Liz Alexander, The Insourcer, helps people access their inner storyteller to bring their art to life.