What is Narrative Design for Business?
An Introduction
The State of Marketing:
For the last decade of B2B marketing, growth marketers have ruled to roost. The mighty MQL has defined our craft. And those who can build a machine that consistently generates the most, highest quality leads wins.
But today, buyers’ appetite for mediocre content, then a form, then a BDR call/email is low. Actually, they hate it. Instead, they’d rather just jump into the product and make their own decision. At the same time, building a growth machine no longer requires the deep experience, technical skills, or complicated tools it once took. Reforge, DemandCurve and others have democratized that expertise.
Pair this with a massive rise in competition across all industries and well, most marketing leaders are struggling to grow. The cost to acquire a customer is going through the roof. And it’s harder to stand out, hit lead goals, and motivate sales partners. Even though the product team swears they are delivering the goods.
It’s tough. It’s also hard on buyers. More options, and more marketing, leaves normal human beings paralyzed. Stranded on an island of indecision looking for any sign of differentiation to help us make a damn decision.
What this means for Marketers:
All this means the costs to acquire a customer is going up, up, up. So you can either keep paying or adapt. And of course most of us don’t have an unlimited budget or patience from our CEOs.
This really puts the squeeze on marketers. But instead of trying something new, most folks just keep running the same old playbook. Essentially they throw their hands up in the air, and double down on Facebook ads. This strategy won’t get you far. In fact it’s likely to cost you your job eventually.
This situation is bad for most, but good for some.
Good for some? Yes, because companies that can adapt in the face of this enormous change are winning big. Those companies think radically differently about their business. In particular their company story. Instead of adhering to the status quo, and playing the existing game in their category, they take hold of their narrative. They don’t let their space define them, they set out to define their space.
How your story becomes your secret advantage
What does that mean? It means these companies go out and design their narrative. They take hold of the conversation. Here is a list of some B2B brands you likely know.
HubSpot, the creators of Inbound Marketing
Drift, the creators of Conversational Marketing
Gainsight, the creates of Customer Success
Why do you know them? They are successful, sure, but why else? They have the same technology as other companies, and operate in crowded categories. You know them because they created a story you can’t ignore. They designed their narrative, instead of adopting what was status quo in their space.
HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing is the archetype. HubSpot knew that marketing was changing back in 2009 and they were creating tools to help. Tools that looked like others in the marketing automation category. But the founders also knew that they could tell a story that would differentiate their solution and give them a fresh take on a crowded space. They knew they had too, if they wanted to breakthrough.
Instead of becoming another “internet marketing” company, they invented a new game. Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing was a reaction to a change in the world. And gave HubSpot a way to enter the market with a bang. This is from a recent interview from Brian Halligan (the co-founder of HubSpot):
“We invested more in marketing the “inbound” term than the HubSpot brand.” Think about that. That is a pretty radical approach to building a new business. But we knew we had to be radically different to stand out.”
This extreme commitment to their new game (inbound) set HubSpot apart and allowed them to break through. But they didn’t just invent a new game, they told the world how to play it. They invested mountains of time, energy, and money into content to help people understand and master their new game. Their software is designed to help people plan and win their new game. And it worked. HubSpot is now a massive global business worth about $18B, as of me writing this.
Why it’s so hard
Telling a story that breaks through however is easier said than done. Storytelling is akin to black magic these days. It’s like “the force” in the Star Wars movies. Many claim to be able to do it but few offer more than a slick presentation on how.
And most great stories never see the light of day. They are crushed internally by committees or non-believer executives. Great stories are radically different. And radically different is scary. Most companies try to mitigate risk not embrace it.
To launch a great story you need a process. You need to know how to develop it, get people to believe in it, turn it into great marketing, and then inspire an audience to take action. It requires a plan, creative thinking, practice, and extreme dedication. A plan and process gives everyone a common language and shared set of believes. It’s what pushes your story through. If you believe in the power of story, and the impact it can have but are struggling to make it work, then Narrative Design is for you.
Enter Narrative Design
Narrative Design for business is a process that I’ve developed to help product marketers do just that. It gives product marketing leaders the tools you need to create a story that breaks through. It’s based on my work at HubSpot, and the Flywheel Narrative I helped develop there, as well as my own research and learnings from some of the best storytellers in business.
I’ve been a solid storyteller all my life, but it wasn’t until I developed the Narrative Design process that I was able to codify, replicate, and consistently create amazing stories. I’m excited now to teach my process, so others can do the same. Being a natural storyteller is good, but you won’t be recognized as a great storyteller until you have a repeatable process that you can teach to others.
This week I’m excited to launch a new Narrative Design Master Class with the Product Marketing Alliance. It’s the culmination of years of work into a tight package of materials.
This Master Class will give you everything you need to implement the Narrative Design process at your business. Narrative Design won’t only help your business stand out, it’ll help you stand out. Whether you’re a startup founder trying to secure funding, a Product Marketing Director looking to transform your company’s positioning, or an individual contributor PMM who just wants to blow away marketing leadership with their storytelling skills, this course will give you the most cutting edge approach to storytelling and positioning available today.
Click here to sign up, and become a certified Narrative Designer
