Why start-ups need stories to grow.

Why start-ups need stories to grow StartupBootcamp, Amsterdam, 29th May 2015, @corhospes

70 - 95 % start-ups fails

Failure is the norm

Fail: -slecht idee

-te vroeg -slechte marketing

Silly Idea; Too Early Idea; Marketing Sucks

Innovative Idea; Old Skool Marketing

What the Fuck is that?

Ever heardSure you’ve heard of contentmarketing

Contentmarketing is a marketing technique of creating and

distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly

defined and understood target

Joe Pulizzi, founder CMI

Create passionate stories worth sharing

66% of startups reported that content marketing

was important in driving growth in their business

(source: WP Curve)

Without stories content is just a bunch of noise

Wow, great content.

Wow, great content.

Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist

Edelman

We need to look at content more as an art form

than a marketing form.

When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just

wait for the story to come. I don’t choose what kind of story it is or what’s

going to happen. I just wait.

I didn’t want to become a writer—it just happened.

It’s a kind of gift, you know, from the heavens. So I think I should

be very humble.

When I started filming I just realized that I only had one talent:

making movies.

The boys in my class liked my films and stopped bullying me.

From that moment on I just wanted to make films.

What are the bastards hiding.

We need to find out what’s

going on

What’s your story

What do you do; Why do you do it; What’s your goal.

Stories connect

1) ‘Behind every person, behind every company, behind everything, there is a story about how it got there. The most relevant stories connect on a personal level.’

2) ‘Simplify.’

3) ‘I find often in business we only want a logical, mathematical, financial dealing, and the reality is that you have to be about a story to connect. To connect to a person, to a customer, to a product.’

4) ‘People don’t wanna be sold. They wanna be inspired.’

5) ‘If you kinda embrace who you are and find an elegance and a beauty in it, it’s amazing where it takes you.’

6) ‘What’s important for the company it’s what’s important to connect on the human level.’

7) ‘You can’t sell something until you entered someone’s mind. We talk about marketshare, but it’s really about getting mindshare.’

8) ‘As a storyteller you wanna connect but you have also a message to convey. It is a bit of an art why is this relevant. Why should you care.’

9) ‘The return on storytelling is that you make a connection. Are people finding value in it enough to share it. Off course in business there is always some return in investment from a financial perspective. But I’m a big believer if you plan enough

seeds, if you made yourself open enough, people understand and relate to your story, the commerce will follow.

Let the staff/workers tell your story

Passion/ Hobby

Person behind the product

Users

Let customers tell your story (Starbucks: the third place)

Stories moves people

Daniel Kahneman ’Thinking fast and slow’ Nobel Prize Economics

“If you want to persuade people

use personal stories. No statistics.”

Use smells, colors, flavors

and movement to activate the brain

+ The more images and metaphores, the more brain activation

‘The harpist was playing nice.’

‘The harpist touched

all my strings.’

‘He felt sad’

‘Sadness burned

his heart’

Synchronously

Stories can shape your audience

It starts by knowing who you are and what you stand for —without that, you are all over the place.

And try a lot of things.

Beth Comstock CMO GE

Many retailers see internet and social as an end in itself. They forget that

online should be an extension from their store. They forget the essential

question: 'who am I’. What is the concept of my shop. What is my core, my distinction. Why do we

do what we do .

Menno van Meurs Tenue de Nîmes, Amsterdam

Great stories are a competive edge: easy to attract an audience

(investors, employees, media, partners, customers)

Expertise/ skills

Trust

Visibility Awareness

Nobody cares about products and services.

What they care about are themselves and what they care about is

solving problems.

David Meerman Scott

People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want to buy a quarter-inch hole!

Theodore Levitt (economist, lecturer Harvard and editor HBR)

Solution hotel: not a bed but a good night sleep

Solution bank: not mortgage but happiness

Solution CRM software: not technique

but more satisfied customers

Don’t talk about drills, beds, mortgages, CRM software

or about any product or service.

Talk about the solution you offer

I’m Winston Wolf, I solve

problems

Pulp Fiction

Listen to understand, not to sell

What’s your

solution?

First serve than deserve

Help!

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down. And I do appreciate

you being ‘round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won’t you

please, please help me?

Content driven experiences

SAVE them

Product Solution/ Service

Place Access

Price Value

Promotion Education/ Exchange

Source: Harvard Business Review, ‘Rethinking The 4 P’s’ (Ettenson, Conrado & Knowles)

Content is king

Content is lackey

(met dank aan Reg van Steen TNS NIPO)

Who’s your audience

Ich bin kein Buyer

Persona

Commom interests (Shared values/targets/frustrations

hobbies aso)

Niche

Do not make content for anybody, but for somebody

Make an appointment

with your audience

Fans, followers, friends: subscribers (opt-in)

No campaigns

No campaigns

Content based relationship Long term

Cor Hospes Author, Advisor,

Speaker, Inspirator and Creator

# Former Independent Journalist and Copywriter (20 years) # Trainer # Founder SMC058 # Founder Content Club Netherlands # Jury Chairman Content Dutch SpinAwards

Wrap up

Start-ups Why not using content?

#Time (71%) #Don’t know how to create

good content (14%) (source: WP Curve)

Joe Pulizzi, wereldwijd contentbaas

CM World Sydney

Don’t treat content as a price tag,

but as a product

Distributie = king

Make your audience

care

Involve them Touch them Move them

Relevant (brand: DNA)

(audience: SAVE

Awesome

Consistent

Value

Thx 4 your attention

[email protected]