Storytelling is important for any business anywhere, but manufacturing companies and industrial partners are a little bit slower to adapt marketing and storytelling as a way to get new business or hire better talent.
In fact, it's changing now as the younger generation becomes the decision makers in these companies. They're already using digital media and platforms like Google to research online for their next partners. So it's incredibly important to start telling your company's story now to influence them to select you, so they don't select your competition.
Now I want to go through a few main reasons why this is so important so you can draw some lines between your business and how this might integrate into your current system.
One of the first reasons especially the top of the funnel, meaning before somebody even starts looking, is that storytelling allows you a new opportunity for discoverability.
The more stories you tell using as many different mediums as possible, across as many platforms as possible, the more chances somebody has to discover your company as a potential solution.
For example, if somebody has a need internally to get some sort of widget made for their company, or they're developing a new product and they need a piece of that product developed by somebody else, they're going to start looking for a vendor.
They might start by looking at trade organization websites. Then they might search Google to compare some options. Then they will ask around. But regardless, eventually, they're probably going to land on your website.
The younger generation is digitally-driven and has integrated this way of searching for a solution into every decision they are faced with.
They're going to do the research before they even contact you.
This is why it's so important for you to make sure there are things like white papers, videos, testimonials and case studies on your website.
Then distribute these mediums across a bunch of different platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Industry websites, and SlideShare-which is actually owned by LinkedIn.
YouTube is a point of discoverability all by itself, so by telling your story in video form, it gives you new opportunities for somebody to find you.
Storytelling empowers your sales team or your business development team to go on the offense.
It provides them with the ammo to be able to attract new potential clients.
So if you have an amazing video that tells a story about your firm, your manufacturing company or your manufacturing support services, they can send that out via LinkedIn or email.
They can send that out to prospects as a way to introduce them to your firm.
You can have one main video, that's the easy way to do it, or you can have tons of little videos that describe the different products you offer, the services that you offer, and how they integrate with their particular company.
The more of these micro videos you have, the more targeted and laser-focused your sales team can be.
If they're focusing specifically on a precision manufacturer, or they are a lawyer with a specialty in a manufacturing niche, they can send a video out that says exactly why you're right for them.
This goes for white papers and slideshows.
Again these are different mediums and can tell the same story in different ways, so by creating these stories on various platforms you empower your sales team with content that can help them secure new business.
For example, this exact blog post was derived from an episode of Grand Advice I filmed a few weeks ago and will be converted into a SlideShare in a few weeks.
The more stories you tell about why your company is valuable, the more trust you build.
It's as simple as that.
If somebody stumbles upon your website by going to an industry organization website and they see you have great stories from other clients or partners, it'
