CDG Interactive Blog

Last week we talked about why you need a story for your business. Now we’re going to discuss the different types of stories your business can use and how they integrate into your web marketing. Once again, we’re talking to Amy Saidman, the artistic executive director of SpeakEasy DC, an organization dedicated to teaching people how to tell better stories.

Origin Stories

“Origin stories humanize an organization,” Amy says. “They can anchor the vision and mission statements and help clients and new staff members understand the history of the organization and how they connect to it. The best origin stories keep going – you keep adding to them.”

The About Us page of your website is a great place for an origin story – it’s much better than a dry recitation of corporate history.  At my former employer, we had to know and tell clients the story of our founder pedaling on his bike around Amsterdam and working at his desk in his house – I still remember the story, and after talking with Amy, I understand why it was an important part of making a multi-national corporation feel service oriented and personal.

Successes

“One great way to frame success stories is to tell the story of your clients’ or members’ success,” Amy says. “That way you can show your impact on their business.”

Success stories highlighting a mutually beneficial partnership are great content for a case studies page.

Challenges / Overcoming Obstacles

“Overcoming challenges can be part of an origin story,” Amy points out. “Or they often work better in presentation.”

CDG recommends letting your clients tell the story of overcoming obstacles, and use those for your testimonials.

About Our People / Individuals

“These are more personable and personal when told in the first person,” Amy says. “So they don’t turn into a dry recitation of credentials. You may have to give people a prompt or probe to get the story of their journey from them, but it’s worth it to get to the thing that makes their work meaningful to them.”

If you have an Our Team page or staff listing on your site, these stories belong there. Some sites also put this type of content throughout the site, depending on what works best for you and your organization.

Future Stories

“We call these ‘what could be’ stories,” Amy says. “These work particularly well for non-profits or vision-driven organization. These stories connect actions to a vision of the future.”

These stories often work well throughout the site, connecting the content to the organization’s vision.

Once you’ve identified which types of stories you need for your organization, you’ll need to know what makes a good story – we’ll be talking about that next week.

Next steps

• Think about the story of your company – what stories should you be sharing with clients and new employees?
• How can you incorporate those stories as part of your regular communications?

If you’d like to create your own story, SpeakEasy DC offers classes in the Washington DC area and personal coaching by telephone or Skype. Contact SpeakEasy DC for class or coaching information.

If you need assistance getting your story online, CDG can help with your content strategy, website marketing strategy or website design. Contact us for more information.