DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
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10 DIGS.NET | 3.1.2019 Consumers are too smart, sophisticated and will tune out your marketing noise pollution. Instead, be authentic and invite consumers into your unique story. Dig deep, be vulnerable, be honest and don't pretend to be perfect. In today's crowded and commoditized marketing environment, the value your brand brings to the market needs to be more than a bullet point list – consumers are real people and need to make an emotional connection to your brand story. What's Your Story? Best-selling author and business leader Tom Peters said it best, "He who has the best story, wins." Case in point, I bet you already know the creation stories for Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. Your brand story allows consumers to better understand who you are, why you do what you do and relate to your ups and downs along the way. An honest and authentic story can create an immediate connection with consumers. If your prospects know how you became you, they'll be more likely to trust you – and therefore do business with you. Differentiation Starts With Being Authentic. As a starting point, ask yourself the following questions. Why are we doing this? What is the purpose? Why do we exist? What problems are we trying to solve? What do we stand for? Why should people care? Who cares if you're #1 in the market? Just imagine if that's all it took – 'we're number one so choose us!' Easy right? Wrong. The fact is, consumers and the market don't care if you're number 1! (And frankly don't even care about you.) So what, you're number one – what does that mean exactly? You have the most sales? Largest market capitalization? Biggest ego? If that was all that consumers really cared about the world could save billions a year in marketing – the market would just reference a list of the companies that are number one in their industry and the game is over. It doesn't work this way. The fact that you're the biggest company and have the most sales benefits the customer how exactly? Cheaper prices? Maybe. But that's not built to last. Too many brands and marketers focus there brand messaging around industry status and personal gratification, but the truth is no one really cares. Build a StoryBrand. Best-selling author Donald Miller's recent book "Building a StoryBrand" provides an excellent framework to help you clarify your message so consumers will actually listen. Looking at the way stories have been told in movies and throughout history, the StoryBrand concept is about inviting customers into a story, and that companies need to understand that their brand is not the "hero in the story," the customer is. The brand's role is to successfully guide the customer through their challenges and be the "Yoda to Luke Skywalker." Every memorable story and blockbuster movie is built on a simple framework. Hero has a problem Meets guide who gives them a plan Calls them to action Failure would be devastating but the guide navigates the hero to success. So, invite your customer into a story and give them a vision of a better life, help them overcome challenges, act as their guide in the journey and take them to a climactic scene so their story ends happily. The DIGS Story. Prior to launching DIGS in 2010, I spent 14 years in the commercial printing industry where I had a "front row seat" to the early beginnings of the internet and the dawn of the digital revolution. It gave me unique insight and perspective into the plight legacy media companies faced as content migrated online and the world changed forever. It was this story that I invited real estate agents into when DIGS came to be. The real estate industry was being disrupted and the media/marketing environment had changed. Home consumers were using online portals (Zillow) to search for homes and were more educated than ever. The implications were clear, but DIGS had a plan and I was to be their trusted advisor and navigate them to success. With ignorance to the prevailing marketing wisdom in the universe, I reverse engineered the solution from their position and vantage point, placing their needs and calls to action first. My passion was and still is the "hero journey" my clients and I take. What's Old is New. Storytelling has been around for thousands of years and yet it's never been more important than today. History as we know it is simply a series of stories that continue to teach us, inspire us, and entertain us. Every story serves a purpose, even if it's a simple message. So, take off your sales hat and stop selling. Instead, create a sense of empathy between you and your prospects so you can take the first step in building a relationship based on trust. Invite your audience into a story and you will gain their support. Be authentic and transparent – you are unique. The traits, strengths, and weaknesses you possess are inherent in your character (who you really are). We all crave stories because they allow us to sympathize with characters. A story gives people a reason to pay attention and actually care about what you're saying. They relate to your story, and therefore your message. And we all love heroes. Just remember, the hero in your story is your customer. Until next time ~ Warren J Dow | Publisher wdow@Southbaydigs.com | 310.373.0142 BRANDS- STOP TELLING THE STORY YOU THINK CONSUMERS WANT TO HEAR. PUBLISHER'S MUSE