Does your content tell a story? The story of who you are? What you do? Why customers should stop to listen to you? Or does it tell a story that inspires people to change their lives.

Ikea – along with Volvo Sweden’s most recognisable brand – are brilliant storytellers. Their catalogue tells the story of how they see Swedes living in cool, urban settings from season to season, surrounded by furnishings that make life easier, slightly more stylish.

Each year the catalogue falls into my postbox I flick through it with interest, looking at the story of how they see functional living improving the quality of our lives.

The Ikea catalogue is a brilliant piece of content marketing because it doesn’t look like a catalogue. It’s a narrative in pictures and words that tells me a story that’s easy to grasp and very easy to buy into.

What’s Your Story?

If you’re clear about your corporate story, it will permeate everything you do so your staff and customers know it. That’s why it’s essential you get to the heart of your company’s value proposition, and developing narratives – text, pictures, video and audio content– that will connect with your customers, prospects, investors, employers and so on, and in turn grow your business. [Read more...]