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It is becoming increasingly difficult to grab attention of potential investors, customers, and employees. The reason for this is quite simple; there is just too much noise in the technical world.

It is the “wild west” out there. All the companies and startups are trying to grab their share of attention. The outcome is that, mostly people shut everyone out. A big company can bypass this by blasting out advertisements. But for a startup this means big problems. Startups have to connect with their audiences so that they care what they have to say.

There is no way around it.

One of the best ways of establishing a connection with your audience is to tell them the why behind your company. What are your values?  What is your vision for the world? Why you do what you do?

By letting the world know the why behind your work, you will be able to attract the right kind of people. These people will resonate with you because they might have a similar vision for the world or thing the problem you are solving is actually a genuine one. Our motivation to do anything is to large extent dependent on why that thing is being done.

Take this for example, you had to work for one day for a company. (Usually you have to work for more than one day). Will you work for a company that made hamburgers? Or will you work for a company that fed the hunger of the world? Most people will go for the second option.

Your employees, users and investors need to understand three things about your business.

• Why do you do it?
• How do you do it?
• What do you do?

Start with why

People who believe in both you and your product’s vision will always take that extra step in helping you. They will treat your problems as their own problems. It is not just your marketing strategies that need to reflect your vision but your product also has to do the talking. People should be able to feel that yes, this is a product that has been made by someone who really cares about the problem he is tackling.

A minimum viable product will help you to gather the research you need to develop your product further. But these days your product cannot be viable if it does not provide a good user experience. People have become used to a minimum threshold of usability.

So instead of creating a minimum viable product try to focus on creating a minimum lovable product.

Chocolate candy lessons

I was in discussion about how to create great products with one of my mentors Sameer Guglani. The discussion was on similar lines, create something that reflects your vision and something you love.

Then, he showed me the cover of this chocolate.

The chocolate is made by a couple who lives in Auroville, India. These guys travelled all across India to find organic cocoa for making high quality chocolates. They interacted with local communities to teach them how to produce the highest quality cocoa. The reason why they did all this because they loved chocolate and found the quality of chocolate produced by big corporations in India to be horrible.

 

Marketing strategies based on story that reflects your vision can be a great boost for your business.

Another great example

Take the example of Apple. One of the main reasons Apple was able to develop such a big brand and brand loyalty was due to the “Think Different” campaign they did back in the day. You can read about the “think different” campaign if you want here.

Even today the perception of Apple’s brand image is still the same. It is still all about doing something different and challenging the status quo.

Actionable tips

These tips are related to creating the strategy for telling your story to attract the right people. But without the right product these are not very likely to work.

1. Prepare the strategy for your storytelling campaign

Creating a strategy is the first thing you need to do. Just writing from your heart is not enough, you still need to have you detailed strategy. Follow these simple steps and figure out answers to the following questions.

a) First figure out how to effectively communicate with your audience. Do some research to figure out the persona of your audience and what will resonate with them?
b) Figure out which content types will work best to communicate your story. Will your audience best respond to a video, pictures, or a blog post.
c) What kind of resources will be required to produce this content and do you have the necessary resources to do so. e.g. if you have identified blogging as an effective communication medium, do you have the requisite skills to write a good blog, or would you have to freelance someone to do so.
d) How will you track the progress of your campaign? There are various analytics and campaign management softwares that you can use, but lay stress on what exactly will you be analyzing? How many click through’s and conversion you get or maybe a metric that better suits your product.

2. Have a blog for your prospective employees/investors

I think it is very important to write some content for your employees and investors. This should/can be more personal. This should reflect what kind of person you are and what kind of people should connect with you. The reason why this is important is because your employees and investors need to be in sync with the vision. This is only reason why they will stick with you in the long run and take that extra step to help the company.

As a startup you don’t want people working with you just for the pay check.

3. Mini campaigns (launch, test and repeat)

One kind of content will not work everywhere. And just publishing a content piece will also not work. You need to continuously do mini campaigns on different mediums if you want to effectively engage with your audience. You should keep on testing and see how you can improve the overall effectiveness of your campaign.

If you want to learn more about creating a compelling story for your startup you can read my research here.

Try to be different and unique. Be yourself because everyone else is taken. This is only way you can stand out from the noise.

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