We just took a dose of our own medicine. And as tends to be the case, it was hard to swallow in the moment but was so worth it in the end.
You see, we just updated our website. Through this process, we further refined how we communicate the story of our business. While we work with our clients day in and day out on how to tell THEIR story, it was now our turn to review our own story and refresh how we tell it. This process has been a great first-hand reminder of the difficulties that can sometimes come with communicating your story.
We leaned heavily on a few key strategies – the same ones we introduce to our clients. We’ve summarized them below because we know whether you’re working to communicate the story or your business, your new product launch, or your latest cutting edge research, these strategies can help guide your process.
1: Write your own story
Sure, it sounds nice to delegate the task of writing your presentation to someone else. But what you’re going to get is someone else’s words trying to tell your story. It needs to come from you. This doesn’t mean you don’t get help – but it does mean your voice needs to drive it.
2: Know who you’re talking to
It can be easy to get sucked into sharing great information while losing sight of what’s important to your audience. So before you dive into writing content about your new product’s features or your team’s latest activities, first make sure you know exactly who you’re talking to and what their needs are. This will help you frame your message to resonate with your audience.
3: Get clear on your purpose
Many of us know that if you don’t have a clear outline for how you’re going to organize your message, then the story will get lost. But what sometimes gets forgotten is that this process starts with clarifying the purpose of the message you’re delivering. Consider what your one overarching message should be. Make sure you connect that to what is important to your audience, and then get really clear on what you want your audience to do with the information. Clarifying these points will help you define your purpose. Now you can create an outline that accomplishes it.
4: Start early
You don’t necessarily need months to create a presentation. But you do need enough time to crystallize what you really want to say. If you cut short that process, you’ll end up with a lack of clarity – and results. Make sure to give yourself sufficient time to reflect on the message you want to get across before putting pen to paper or creating slides.
We hope these reminders will help you as you create and communicate your story. We know they’ve helped us.
