What is the value of a compelling story? What’s the ROI of messaging that does an amazing job of describing the value of a company’s product and who needs it?
Sometimes, the answers are challenging to quantify. While good stories are more impressive and interesting, how do you know if they are delivering value?
In some cases, you know storytelling works when people immediately understand what a product does, the benefits and the target audiences. In a fast-moving world, the ability to quickly and clearly communicate is crucial. Brands with bad or confusing stories struggle to capture the spotlight because consumers have little patience for ambiguity.
As someone who does storytelling for startups, one of the biggest challenges is getting customers to under the value of benefits of good stories. They recognize their business is missing a key ingredient because Websites don’t convert or prospects fail to see value proposition to get them into the sales funnel.
From the outside looking in, the problem is bad stories or a lack of stories altogether. But for people focused on product and sales, storytelling is a strange creature. And having to pay someone to develop their stories is a difficult thing to swallow. After all, it’s their startup so they know it best, right?
From my experience, the ROI of good storytelling is like those MasterCard “Priceless” advertisements.
Sometimes, you can’t place an exact value on good stories but they deliver in a major way. Good stories and compelling value propositions are a rock-solid one-two punch that super-charge a startup’s sales and marketing activities. It is everything from a better Website and engaging one-pagers to attractive presentations and entertaining videos.
While the benefits of storytelling are often not obvious or immediate, there is lots of long-term value. It is a matter of having faith and embracing the ability of storytelling to deliver ROI.
In some cases, the ROI of storytelling is obvious. On the Ceros blog, Justin Lafferty talked about two researchers, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn, who created http://significantobjects.com/SignificantObjects.com to test the value of storytelling. Walker and Glenn purchased knick-knacks for about $1.50 each, created stories about them, and then sold them on eBay. A $128.74 investment generated $3,612.51 in sales when powered by stories.
Lesson: People are willing to pay more for products that feature stories.
A good example is Que Pasa organic tortilla chips. On the back of each bag is a story about how Que Pasa’s founders, Joe & Maria, decided to make their own organic tortilla chips. It is a story about how two people discovered entrepreneurial success. It is a story that, I believe, helps Que Pasa sell a product that is more expensive than other chips.
Calculating the ROI of storytelling is a mixed bag. Sometimes, it is easy to quantify the value. Sometimes, the value is anecdotal. It is a feel or a belief that better connections with target audiences are happening. As a storyteller, stories deliver ROI in different ways. It is what makes them so compelling and necessary for startups to drive their success.
I’ve worked with dozens of startups and fast-growing companies looking to accelerate their marketing and storytelling. My services are driven by frameworks and processes to create messaging, strategic plans and content. If you want marketing that makes a difference, let’s talk. If you are looking for hand-picked startup content, subscribe to my weekly newsletter.
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