The Daily Freelancer: Finding a Different Way to Market
While doing some research on storytelling in business a few weeks ago, I came across this TED Talk featuring Simon Sinek (go watch — I’ll wait):
Quiz: What does he keep repeating?
Answer: “People don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.”
We’ve started seeing a shift in valuing these kinds of businesses lately, companies who are connected to a deeper cause (think TOMS or Warby Parker), or organizations that have great stories to tell (think Charity: Water or Disney or that Loretta commercial from Google), or businesses that use fun, quirky ways to speak to their customers (think Olark or Mailchimp).
But Sinek’s talk goes beyond good storytelling to connecting with the customer at a deeper level. Read that again: Something the company is doing is speaking to a deeper identity in the customer, like Sinek’s Apple example. It’s solving a problem, or providing a way for you to become more of who you want to be.
For freelancers working with clients, I think this is something we have to keep at the forefront of our work. Recently, I’ve a had a few website copywriting projects, and they could go one of two ways:
We highlight the company or service provider and list all the great things they’ve done, and all the things they’re good at, and all the services they offer.
Or, we could think of the customer, and what they’re looking for, what problems they need solved or what they need help with, and write the website for the customer.
For example, if I’m looking to buy a phone, what would serve me better? A website listing its technical specs, the size of its screen, all the storage capacity is has… Or a website that says “You can be a better version of yourself with this phone because it can help you schedule your time, connect easier to friends and colleagues, get fit, etc.” It’s a shift in perspective that I just learned how to see — and you can’t unsee it when you do, which is a good thing.
As I went through picking a photo for this post — of a busy coffee shop — I thought about the coffee shop I go to. Does it have the best coffee (well, yes) and the best food? Or do I go there for the atmosphere, for the vibe that connects to who I am but also to who I want to be? There are other coffee shops I’ve visited, and maybe I would like the products there better, but I don’t relate to who they are.
And I’m sure as much as that coffee shop wants to advertise just their products, they needed to be keyed in to why their customers come there: Products, atmosphere, feeling, connection, identity.
Additionally, as we freelancers work with businesses and find out more about them in order to better represent them as writers, we want to go beyond just how they make money. What is their story? Why did they start this business? What need did they see that had to be filled? Often the story is as compelling as the business, and can also give us great content to work with on home and about pages, and in marketing material.
This focus shift — or, as Sinek shows us, the act of reversing the Golden Circle — can be the difference in connecting and engaging with customers or clients, or watching them move along.