How to Make Prospects 22x More Likely to Remember Your Small Business

Do you want to make sure your small business sticks in people's minds long after they've encountered it? 

We've got the secret sauce that will make your prospects 22 times more likely to remember you.

We're here to talk about how storytelling can transform your marketing strategy. Forget trying to out-shout the competition with facts and figures. We show you how stories connect with emotions, making your message unforgettable. 

Learn how to craft clear messaging through marketing guiding statements, build a website that pulls customers in with story-driven content, and use everyday stories in your marketing to keep your audience hooked. 

Let's make sure your small business isn't just another name on the roster but a story that sticks.

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• Using storytelling in marketing to be memorable
• Crafting effective messaging with marketing guiding statements
• Creating a story-driven website that converts

Other Mentioned Links & Resources

Episode 107: How to Write Website Copy for Your Small Business
https://treefrogmarketing.com/how-write-website-copy-small-business-how-write-home-service-about-pages

Get access to this free mini-course- Marketing Guiding Statements:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/marketingguidingstatements

Get a Free PDF Guide: The Most Effective Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses: The Flywheel Marketing Method:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/most-effective-marketing-strategy-small-businsses

Check out One Peak Creative on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@onepeakcreative

Check out Jordan Lee Dooley on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jordanleedooley

Check out Akua Konadu on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/akuakonad

Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com

Use this coupon code to try Showit for FREE
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/showit-coupon-code

Book a Strategic Marketing Coaching:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/marketing-consulting-small-businesses

Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426

Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefroggers

Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefrogkelly

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 5:19 Create marketing guiding statements for effective messaging
• 8:22 Website is key marketing tool; tell a story
• 13:08 Use story-based marketing for small business success
• 20:13 SEO strategy success stories for marketing engagement
• 26:25 Premier's story marketing boosts small business success

Transcript

Kelly Rice [00:00:00]:
Your website is going to allow you to tell that story in full. However, it's still important to invite prospective customers into the story with your other marketing materials, including your social media post, emails, ads, content and whatever else, right? And with these mediums and tactics, you'll only be able to give kind of like the abbreviated version or just tell parts of your story. But with your website, story is going to help you stand out.

Victoria Rayburn [00:00:29]:
Hey there, you're listening to Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.

Kelly Rice [00:00:42]:
And we're your host, Kelly Rice and Victoria Rayburn. And there's nothing that we want more than for your small business to succeed. So we are very excited for today's episode because the tactic we're going to discuss is proven to make prospects 22 times more likely to remember you when they need your products or services.

Victoria Rayburn [00:01:03]:
Now this probably goes without saying, but in a fast paced world filled with constant information overload, it is harder than ever to capture your ideal customers attention, right?

Kelly Rice [00:01:16]:
It really is. And I've worked in marketing for it's at least 25 years and it feels like a million years. But I totally can attest to this because, I mean, you can continue with the traditional authoritative type of messaging and marketing tactics and literally hope for the best. Or you can work to break through that noise simply by using the timeless art of storytelling in your marketing.

Victoria Rayburn [00:01:40]:
Now, if you thought you're going to listen to this episode and learn the secret to running social media ads or something like that, I am so sorry. However, when you use storytelling in your marketing, I can promise you that your ads, your website, your content and just every piece of your marketing is going to be so much more effective, right?

Kelly Rice [00:02:00]:
Because if you look at it like we as people, we love and remember stories, while very few of us can retain list of facts and statistics, research shows that when we're presented information in a story like framework, we are 22 times more likely to remember everything from like how to do something to specific data and then brand messaging. In other words, what a company does and how they can help us solve a problem is something that we can remember when we use story. And this is because stories have the unique ability to bypass the analytical side of our brain and it resonates with our emotions, which helps us remember things and makes us more likely to remember something specific.

Victoria Rayburn [00:02:42]:
Yes, and if you don't believe us, you know, quick question for you. What did you study in history class as a freshman in high school. You probably can't remember. I mean, I know I can't. I have absolutely no idea what the COVID of that textbook looked like. However, can you recall a seemingly random story your history told teacher told you about his or her personal life? Like in my case, how he found out he was diabetic at 19 years old after eating pecan pie his girlfriend's mom made, and how he had to be rushed to the hospital by his future father in law and he was just mortified by the whole thing. Now, this might seem oddly specific, but again, the fact of the matter is that people enjoy and remember stories. I mean, Mister Benner told my class that story more than half of my lifetime ago and I still remember it and I honestly still think about it every time I see pecan pie, so.

Kelly Rice [00:03:34]:
And I'm sure he's really excited that that's the thing that you took away from history class.

Victoria Rayburn [00:03:39]:
Yes, I know. Yeah. There are so many things I should guess, but glad he's doing ok, right? Yes. You know, so if you have been anxiously waiting though, to hear how to make your prospects 22 times more likely to remember you, the answer is simple. It's story. That said, you know, how do you make story part of your marketing? Well, that is exactly what want to discuss today? We want to discuss some practical ways that you can turn your marketing into a story that you can make story part of your marketing strategy. So on that note, Kelly, do you want to take the first one?

Kelly Rice [00:04:16]:
Absolutely. Okay, so our regular listeners have heard us say this, I don't know how many times at this point, but the key to effective marketing is clear messaging. And clear messaging, which is communication that your ideal customers can understand quickly and easily, is critical because research shows that consumers don't always buy the best products and services, they buy the ones they can understand most easily. So in other words, if you have the most amazing widget in the world, but if you confuse potential customers by using industry language or talking over their heads, they are much less likely to buy your product and service. So they will simply look for something similar that they can comprehend more easily. So before you can design and implement a successful marketing strategy, you have to determine your messaging. Because without clear messaging, you won't be able to connect with your ideal customers and hold their attention. In fact, in our opinion, all marketing tools and tactics are useless if you don't know what to say to convert your prospects into paying customers.

Kelly Rice [00:05:19]:
So before you decide things like which social media platforms are going to use, how much money you're going to invest in Google Ads or make any other marketing decisions, you need to create what we call marketing guiding statements, and these statements are written guidelines that position your business as a trusted partner. And the process of writing these statements allows you to get the information you need to write clear, concise, effective messaging in a story based framework. And essentially, by writing your marketing guiding statements, you'll have the exact copy you need to turn your messaging into a story that allows prospects to easily understand what you offer, captures their attention, and makes them more likely to remember you when they're in need of your product or service. So then, once you have this copy, because you've written your marketing guidance statements, you'll be able to use it on your website and your social media post and your ads and pretty much everywhere else so that you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing. Now, we've done several episodes about how important marketing guiding statements are. So if you're a regular listener, hopefully yours are already completed. But in the case you've not done that yet, we put together a free mini course breaking down exactly how to write your marketing guiding statements. And you can access this mini course at the link in the show notes or by going to trefrogmarketing.com marketingguiding statements.

Kelly Rice [00:06:45]:
And by the end of this course, you will know exactly what to say to convert your prospects into paying customers in all of your marketing materials, efforts, tactics, everything that you're going to do. So again, you can access this mini course at the link in the show notes or by going to treefrogmarketing.com forward slash marketingguiding statements. And if you don't take anything else away from this episode, please remember that clear messaging is the key to effective marketing and all marketing efforts and tactics are again, in our opinion, a waste of time, money and resources if your marketing isn't clear. So before you spend another minute or dollar on your marketing, make sure you have a clear message that utilizes story. Please, please, please, right?

Victoria Rayburn [00:07:29]:
Yes, yes. Your time and resources are simply too valuable to waste in marketing that doesn't work. So please, please take your time to write your marketing guiding statements. But then, in addition to using story to create clear, compelling messaging, you can use story to create a high converting website. Now, I can't tell you how many times we've heard small business owners, leaders and their team say we have no idea what to write on our website and then they just put some random stuff on it and then it doesn't work. But like Kelly said, if you write your marketing guiding statements, you will have almost everything you need to write your website copy. Then from there you can use a story based website framework to help your site visitors just easily understand what you offer and how you can help them achieve success. Story is going to be effective in all of your marketing materials.

Victoria Rayburn [00:08:22]:
However, it is especially effective on your website, which is we've discussed in past episodes, is your small businesses most powerful marketing tool. You see when consumers compare products and services like studies show that most open three to five websites and then they compare their options. You know, they open all the tabs and they go back and forth like we all do. I don't want to tell you how many tabs I usually have open, but with the average human attention span being just 8 seconds or less, your website has to quickly capture and keep your audience's attention. And the most effective way to do this is honestly through story. Now, to tell your brand story on your website, your site needs to establish your business as the guide who can help your ideal customer? Who is the hero of your marketing story and your web story solve their problem. Because when you do this, your website is going to stand out from your competitor sites as it will make your offer easy to understand and your business just more memorable. I mean, again, if you're comparing three to five options, like what's going to stand out, the one that invites you to be part of a story or the one that spits random facts at you, story is the answer.

Victoria Rayburn [00:09:33]:
So again, there is a framework you can use to write your web copy in a way that invites prospects into your story for the sake of time. We aren't going to break down the framework in this episode. However, if you want to learn it, go back and listen to episode 107, how to write website copy for your small business. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts and we will be sure to link it in the show notes. But in this episode, our content director, Angel Toby walks you through how to write the main pages of your website using story so you can capture and hold your website visitors attention and ultimately convert them into paying customers. So she walks you through how to write your homepage and your about page and your product and service pages. It's, it's a great episode, right?

Kelly Rice [00:10:16]:
She did a phenomenal job of breaking down the web writing process in that episode. So if you want to understand how to update your current website, or you're writing a whole brand new one, go back and listen. It'll make your job a lot easier than sitting there staring at a blank computer screen going, I don't know. Especially when your web designer says, hey, what do you want on this website? And you're like, yes, no, I don't know. This will help you.

Victoria Rayburn [00:10:42]:
Yep, exactly. Yeah. Angel did such a phenomenal job with this. And honestly, this is by far one of our most listened to episodes. I can very rarely remember episode numbers. I mean, sometimes we'll be talking, Kelly, be like, what? You'll ask me, like, what episode was that? I'm like, I have no idea what that number was, but I refer to this so often, I know it is episode 107. I have that memorized. I mean, it's that good.

Victoria Rayburn [00:11:05]:
So again, be sure to go back and listen, right?

Kelly Rice [00:11:07]:
Because we use it a lot when we're helping people reference things or whatever. So I think I know this episode number very well, too, and have it saved in my quick link so I can just share it with people when we get those questions right. But in addition to helping you write an effective website, your marketing guidance statements that we've talked about, they're going to help you give you the exact copy you need to write story based social media posts, content, emails, ads, and literally whatever else that you need to write. So essentially, when you take the time to write your marketing guiding statements, you're going to write your company's brain story in full. And this story is going to show customers that if they trust your business and they invest in your service or your widget, they can solve their problems. Now, your website is going to allow you to tell that story in full. However, it's still important to invite prospective customers into the story with your other marketing materials, including your social media post, emails, ads, content and whatever else, right. And with these mediums and tactics, you'll only be able to give kind of like the abbreviated version or just tell parts of your story.

Kelly Rice [00:12:16]:
But like, with your website, story is going to help you stand out. I mean, if you think about it, like, with social media posts, you are more likely to engage with one that uses traditional marketing language that says, I'm sorry, what, you mean you're less.

Victoria Rayburn [00:12:34]:
You're less likely to engage, right? Like, yes, with traditional.

Kelly Rice [00:12:38]:
I'm so sorry, yes. No, you're less likely to engage with one that uses traditional marketing languages like, I don't know, we've been a trusted marketing agency since 2020. You should work with us. Right. That's very authoritative. That is the, we're the best. We know what we're doing. We can solve your problem, use us, and you're going to be less likely if you, I mean, if you think about it, how you engage with content to stop and read whatever, you know, whatever attachment they have or graphic or video, whatever it is.

Kelly Rice [00:13:08]:
If you see a status like that. But if you see one that empathizes with you by recognizing that trying one marketing tactic after another without seeing results is frustrating, gives you a solution and reminds you that you deserve a marketing strategy that works as hard as you do, you, you're probably going to like literally swipe past the first one, but you'll likely notice and engage with the second one because it invites you into the story. So also, really quick, I want to note that when you use story in your marketing, you no longer have to use that gross feeling sales language, right? We all don't like to feel like we're selling to someone and we don't like to feel like we're being sold to because like we discussed, you're inviting your customers into a story where they win. And as a result, you don't have to brag about yourself or use authoritative, arrogant sounding type of messaging that makes both you and your prospects uncomfortable. So, but for the sake of time, we aren't going to get into exactly how to use your brain story in each and every one of your marketing materials. However, the flywheel marketing strategy, which is the strategy we use for our agency clients in the strategy we teach our coaching students rooted in story. And because there's nothing we want more than for your small business to succeed, we created a guide that details this strategy in full so you can make it on your own. So I think to access this guide, the most effective marketing strategy for small businesses, the flywheel marketing method, visit the link in the show notes or go to treefrogmarketing.com forward slash Flywheel and I think, Victoria, this is one of the other resources that we both have bookmarked that we send out all the time.

Kelly Rice [00:14:49]:
Do you ever get frustrated when you have to wait weeks for your web designer to make a simple change to your website? Is your current website so slow that it's hurting your SEO, or do you wish designing a webpage was easier? If so, you have to try Showit. It's a drag and drop website platform that provides complete creative freedom over the layout and design of your website. So whether you're looking to diy your site with a Showit template or work with a professional designer, Showit is the perfect web builder for small businesses. As an agency, we build many of our clients websites with Showit because it gives our designers the freedom to build strategic visually on brand websites rather than being forced to use a specific layout like you are with other website builders. And it comes with robust servers, meaning Showit websites are exceptionally fast even if you're a photographer with lots of images on your site and it's easy for our clients to use. While we are always happy to make website changes, things can change fast in small businesses. And sometimes our clients need to be able to easily update a thing or two on their own websites. So we love Showit so much that we want to give you an opportunity to try our favorite web builder for free.

Kelly Rice [00:15:51]:
Whether you like to try Showit or you're already convinced that it's the right web builder for you, visit treefrogmarketing.com showit to receive one free month of Showit. Again. Visit treefrogmarketing.com showit to try Showit for free and so that you can have a website that is easy to use but works as hard as you do. Many small businesses dont have an effective marketing strategy and because of this they try one tactic after another without seeing results. This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesnt deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow on our website. You can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve.

Victoria Rayburn [00:16:47]:
Honestly, I need to like just create a shortcut on my phone because I dm it to people all the time and that would make my life a lot easier. But that's also another conversation. But y'all, you just work too hard for your business's growth to be limited by your marketing. So you know you work too hard not to have clear messaging either. Clarify your message right have a marketing strategy that works.

Kelly Rice [00:17:09]:
Ding ding ding.

Victoria Rayburn [00:17:09]:
All the things we usually tell you on the show. But sticking with story, please be sure to check out the guide that Kelly mentioned in the show notes. And again, the flywheel marketing strategy is rooted in story and that is one of the many reasons that is effective for small businesses. Okay, so far we've discussed how you can tell your brand stories. That's that big overarching story like Kelly talked about. And this is important. But in addition to telling your brand story, I also want to encourage you to tell stories in your content that will resonate with your ideal customers. So I'm going to give you some examples in just a second, but if you're already brushing this suggestion off, I want you to think about TikTok for just a second.

Victoria Rayburn [00:17:51]:
Yes. TikTok contains educational and other forms of content, but TikTok arguably found its place in the marketplace because of storytelling. I mean, if you're on the app, how much time have you spent watching seemingly ridiculous videos about things like a wife buying new dishes and seeing how long it took for her husband to notice? Or about how all it took was a banana for a momma panda to be willing to let the zookeeper hold her baby? I mean, it seems ridiculous, and I don't want to tell you how much time I spent.

Kelly Rice [00:18:21]:
It seems ridiculous, but I'm like, oh, yes, I've seen those.

Victoria Rayburn [00:18:25]:
Yes, yes. And like, oh, the TikTok rabbit holes are so funny. I mean, just the other day, my neighbor was telling me that she regularly watches videos from parking lot King, which I then had to look up. Who? He literally shares daily videos about a triangle shaped parking lot that is difficult to park in without blocking other people in. He literally narrates the parking choices of the people who park in this lot who, like, seemingly, like, work somewhere nearby. He has nicknames for all the vehicles. He's given the cars personalities and backstories. And, I mean, it sounds utterly ridiculous, but I have watched a few of his videos, and honestly, the only thing that they prove is that story is captivating.

Victoria Rayburn [00:19:09]:
So I'm gonna have to look that one up.

Kelly Rice [00:19:11]:
I haven't seen that one, but that's what we kind of do at softball games, right? Like, all of these people come, and then they're in the parking lot, and then we just sit there. We're like, okay, this is their story. This is how they fit together. This is what. This is what their family is. So story definitely is captivating.

Victoria Rayburn [00:19:28]:
Yes. Oh, my goodness. Okay, well, before we get down the TikTok rabbit hole now just talking about TikTok, distracted. Okay. This is how powerful and captivating TikTok is, just for the record. But if an entire social media platform can arguably exist as a result of stories that people resonate with and find engaging or at the least, entertaining, how much more connected to you and your business would your prospects feel if you simply told stories now, friend, there's so many places you can share stories. You can tell stories in social media posts and your Instagram stories on your blog, with videos on your podcasts and emails or in any of the content you produce. Just to give you a few ideas, you might put a customer testimonial up in the form of a story.

Victoria Rayburn [00:20:13]:
So, for example, if I wanted to share something about co, I could create a social media post or an email sharing how Ariel Peters, one of our coaching SEO students, wanted to break into the Chicago wedding market because she wanted to shoot more high end weddings. She wasn't appearing on Google for anything related to Chicago. But within six months of implementing the SEO strategy we teach, she consistently appeared as the top Google listing for searches related to Chicago editorial wedding photographers, and she is now regularly booking her ideal clients in the Chicago area as a result of SEO, in addition to sharing client testimonials, you can tell stories that resonate with your ideal clients. For example, one of our most engaged with emails ever started with a story about my father in law, who owns a plumbing and H Vac company, telling me that client communication was why they were able to have their best year in business ever. And I just spun into a little story. I mean, literally, it's exactly what happened. We were sitting on the couch and that's what he told me and seems really silly, but I mean, click through rate was great. And then just the other day, my good friend Caitlin of Caitlin Mendoza photography, she shared an Instagram post about how her four year old said she was ready to head home from vacation.

Victoria Rayburn [00:21:28]:
And Caitlin turned this into a beautiful story and a reminder to moms that they're building beautiful lives for their families. And this was one of Caitlin's most engaged with posts ever, arguably because it told a story that resonated with her ideal clients who are moms of young kids. Now, you also tell Stor, you can also tell stories that just to simply entertain your audience. I mean, a couple weeks ago, I shared how my husband and I decided this was the summer for biking. So we bought bikes and bike trailers, one for our daughter, one for our dog. I shared our first outing on an Instagram story, and this might seem silly, but these stories received a lot of engagement because, one, they told a story and two, people just found this entertaining. As a quick side note, your Instagram Stories are meant to tell stories, not just to throw up random posts. If you want more engagement, use this feature as it was intended to tell stories.

Victoria Rayburn [00:22:22]:
Those people on Instagram, they're really smart. They know what people want to see. So yeah, kind of a side note. But remember, people buy from people. They don't buy from businesses, but they don't just buy from anyone. They make purchases from those they know, like and trust. In addition to helping prospects remember you, story is arguably the most effective way to help your ideal clients get to know you and feel connected to you. As a result, storytelling is only going to increase sales.

Victoria Rayburn [00:22:53]:
So if you aren't a natural writer, I know that this can feel, it can feel difficult to come up with stories, but I promise you that there are stories all around you. You just need to start paying attention and looking for them now in case having samples from real accounts is helpful. If you'd like to see company brands effectively telling stories, I want to highly encourage you to check out one peak creative on TikTok and then, honestly, any of lifex content. I don't know who their content manager is, but while they kill it all the time, these brands are very different. Like, they're very, very different. However, they both do an incredible job of telling stories. And if you have a personal brand, which we would recommend all business owners should for the record. But again, that's a conversation for the other day.

Victoria Rayburn [00:23:38]:
Up for another day. I want to encourage you to check out both Jordan Lee Dooley and Akua Kanaru. Both do a great job with storytelling, and Akua actually teaches how to tell stories and make storytelling part of your marketing. So we will be sure to link to all of these examples in the show notes. But friend, I promise you, you have stories to tell and that when you take the time to tell these stories again, it's only going to help your business grow.

Kelly Rice [00:24:04]:
Right? And I think I want to make something clear really quick. Your brand story, there's a strategy and formula in all of that that you're developing in your marketing guiding statements. It's literally not a once upon a time story or you're trying to make up a story about this incident or whatever. There's a formula that you use to help tell that story because there's a process that your brain goes through to help clarify messaging. And that's what you do in your marketing guiding statements. Then you're able to take pieces of those marketing guiding statements and then build different stories from around you that resonate with your audience. Just like all the examples that Victoria just talked about. These companies have an idea of who they are and what they do and what they offer and who their clients are and all of that, which is why they're storytelling from their real lives or their I, their company lives resonate.

Kelly Rice [00:24:53]:
Would you agree?

Victoria Rayburn [00:24:54]:
Yes.

Kelly Rice [00:24:55]:
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I know a side note. We throw in a ton of information at you today, but. But before we wrap up this episode, it only seems fitting to end with a story. So you see, Dante Wilburn, who is one of our clients, opened premiere auto detailing in Lafayette, Indiana in 2008, and through his and his team's hard work and excellent customer service. Side note, if you're in the area, the best customer service you will ever experience. They built a small business that brought in approximately about around $250,000 a year back in 2008. However, if you know Dante, he wanted to do more.

Kelly Rice [00:25:33]:
He wanted to serve more. He wanted, he wanted to kind of change the auto detailing industry from the inside out. So as a result, in 2018, he partnered with us to turn his marketing into a story. And in 2020, Premiere's revenue increased to 1.4 million. And then ever since 2021, Premier has invoiced more than 2 million every single year. And they continue to grow, opening up new service lines, new opportunities, new stores, all of those types of things. Now, I want to make sure to give credit where credit is due because Dante and the rest of the premier team work incredibly hard and their customer service is second to none. However, when you ask Dante how he grew his small business and revenue so quickly, he'll tell you that the only thing he changed was his marketing messaging.

Kelly Rice [00:26:25]:
So in other words, Dante and his team have worked hard and served their clients well. But premier couldn't reach Dante's goals until premier started using story in their marketing. So just think about it. You tell and listen to stories every day and as a result, there is no reason that you can't turn your marketing into a story. So that your prospects are more likely to know, like trust and remember and really support your small business. So if you're ready to do that, be sure to check out the marketing guiding statements, mini course, the flywheel marketing guide that we shared in the resources and all the other things that we have mentioned today that we'll add to the show notes. And then if you're really just not sure where to start or you would like some guidance, check out the link in the show notes or visit our website to schedule a discovery call. We'd be happy to kind of help you walk through that and give you a starting path.

Victoria Rayburn [00:27:16]:
Yes, as we've discussed, you know, story is so powerful and it can only help you reach your business goals. So on that note, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple podcasts and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.