Your Story, The Most Compelling Marketing Tool For Small Business
Some people call it an elevator pitch, others call it an audio logo. Why have one? To give a person a shortcut. A snappy sentence that communicates the essence of what you do in a memorable way. My view is that this pitch, comes second to documenting your real authentic warts and all story.
People buy off those they like, know and trust. Part of that is the story behind the person. Their real story, the reason for their business. People want the story. But I don’t mean catchy phases or hyped up jargon. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to have a way to communicate what you do in 30 seconds but I would place more emphasis on your story!
Why?
Well, the second most visited page on most websites is the About Us page. This is a chance to position at lot of things.
1. Your values through storytelling – which can attract similar sorts of customers because the identify with this .
2. Your reason behind what you do – gives the prospect a level of trust by building understanding
3. Your staff and personality – what you’re going to be like to work with
4. A profile of you ideal customer – to see if they will fit
I have been searching lots of personal stories online and here are some I would love to share with you.
Wufoo is a company I love. Their personality shines on every page, not just the About Us page. From their quirky comments as you create a survey to the great layout of their clean simple software, what is not to love? However, it makes me feel really great to be supporting a team of young groovy real people (from the hunklebuster designer Chris to the Number Crusher Elanine) in their goal to achieve a truly awesome company! Go get them guys! (Plus I am an IT Geek)
Freshbooks I am equally in love with. Their manifesto provides a great rationale around the pain I was experiencing as a small business. The text has personality while informative.
“We wanted something so we built it .” says it all really. It is really nice that you can meet their team. I can eye ball them (at least on my computer) and see if they are a match for me! Note for Mike McDerment the MD, I talk faster than I write too (sorry about the typos). I too have a million and one balls in the air, so sounds like we would get on! Love freshbooks! What I also love it is I get a sense that your team is really fun. Basically you tick all my boxes and your product is totally awesome.
Modcloth is another such company, that headed by Susan Gregg Koger is showing part of their brand personality with her great story about how she built Modcloth. From collecting from op shops as a uni student and spotting that the market for girls who wanted to express their individual style with a piece of unique apparel, 
Susan has built her company to employ over 100 staff. Even showing her personal style gives me a chance to see if this label is something that I can identify with.
Tom‘s is a fantastic story. It is about Blake Mycoskie, who decided that he would make shoes a social issue by building a community that supports another. When you buy one of Tom’s shoes you are providing another pair to a person in need. 
“In 2006, American traveller Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers”. Kind of nice huh. Really makes you want to buy shoes from this online site. Go on! Me too!
Others great company doing a really great job of telling their stories include:
Next Steps:
So what is your story? Start to tell it. I challenge all my clients to write it from the heart. The more authentic the better.(Keep the fluff for the grandkids).
Relevant other posts: Look on the sidebar under Personal branding tab
Build your business from the inside out
Tech tip: 
Look at fiverr.com to get some quick tasks done for $5. Awesome resource for small businesses.
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Hi, pleasent read. Enjoy every bit. Thanks.
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for starting this up. this website is something that is needed on the web, someone with a little originality. useful job for bringing something new to the internet!
Really like this Danielle. I also thing the ubiquitous About Us, should be About (name). and the story should always be in the first person, unless it is describing a company. I have lots of “warts” and I find by sharing them my clients relate to me so much better than if I presented a perfect, featureless profile.
Thanks Wendy. Love your insights and your web. http://www.wendybuckingham.com.au. Packed with good tips for coaches.
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Thanks so much, appreciate the feedback everyone!
Really good, Danielle. I’ve don’t think I’ve given the story/about us areas of my websites much thought. Now I will.
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