In a report just released – Top Priorities for Senior Digital Marketers on Marketing Charts, top of the list is “telling our story so we can stand out from our competitors”, this is also a massive challenge for any organisation as the business first has to understand what its’ story is and how that resonates with customers and influential stakeholders.

Its nearly a management issue that marketers have to work with as there is so many facets to your brand story. To be successful you need to to have all your communication touch points grounded in the story and reflecting how it should be told and engaged with, in a credible way. This involves staff (read employee advocacy) being empowered and happy to tell the story and all your media channels and touch points reflecting that story. Poor morale, non customer centric processes, inappropriate calls to action and sponsorship’s, for example, will just tear a hole in the story !  This causes loss of customers, churn and complaints as customers see or feel a gap in what was (probably perceived to be) promised. The amazing flip side to this is that empowered teams, cleverly integrated communications, and a strong organisation vision or ethic will make you talkable and customers sticky, as they invest physically or better – emotionally, in your brand.