← Small Business Quick WINS w/ Jay Schwedelson l Presented By Thryv
Small Business Quick WINS w/ Jay Schwedelson l Presented By Thryv
UNLEASH THE POWER OF BRAND STORYTELLING! 🎯 Amanda Zantal-Wiener on Connecting with Customers 🚀
00:11:51
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- [00:00]
Jay Schwedelson
Foreign.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Welcome to Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive. This podcast is exclusively designed for small business leaders like you. Prepare to get invaluable insights from every episode, equipped with actionable tips made for immediate implementation in your business. Tune in as we feature firsthand lessons from fellow small business owners and thought leaders. I'm your host, Jay Schwedelson. Over the last 25 years, I've grown multiple small businesses that have generated over $300 million in revenue. Along the way, I've learned pitfalls to avoid and quick wins that can transform your business immediately. I'm excited to share it all. So if you're ready to win on Main street, let's dig into this episode.
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Jay Schwedelson
We are back for Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive. And today we have an exciting topic. We're talking about the power a brand storytelling. And we have an amazing person here, someone that is a friend of the podcast, Amanda Zantel Weiner, and she runs content at Thrive. Okay, I think I butchered her name, but that's okay because everyone butchers my last name, Schwedson, so I never feel bad. But more importantly than any of that, we're going to talk about storytelling. And Amanda's perfect because she did content at HubSpot. She runs it at Thrive.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
She.
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Jay Schwedelson
She lives storytelling for small businesses. So let's dig into it. Amanda, welcome to the show.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Thanks. So good to be back. And I'm so glad to hear that we're friends. Jay, that. That really made my morning. Thank you.
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Jay Schwedelson
Lies. You're starting out with lies. That you care about our friendship, but of course we're friends. That I ruin your last name. I need to know.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
No, you did not. You nailed it.
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Jay Schwedelson
Amazing. All right, we're starting out on a good, good thing here. All right, let's get into storytelling, because I think there are some small business out there, owners that are out there listening, like, oh, no. And they're about to turn this off because they're like, who cares about brand storytelling? I'm trying to get a new real estate client. I'm trying to get my H VAC services sold. I don't need about storytelling. Let's first dig into why small business owners should care about this topic at all.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Yeah, you know, I. First of all, I have to just preface this by saying I'm a Greek Jew, and so storytelling is my favorite thing to do. I don't just tell stories for brands. I've been telling stories Since I was 4 years old, you know, because it's in my blood. And I think that small businesses. I get it. You're just trying to keep up. Why the heck do you need to tell a story about your brand and what even is your brand? And I like to kind of frame this as, let's say you're dating somebody or you just started dating someone. Okay? A lot of the things that help you get to know that person is the stories that you tell each other. And it's just sort of. It goes beyond this basic exchange of information. It's just like, do you really care about the fact that I'm an only child? Is that really going to be the thing that makes you decide whether or not you want to spend time with me? No. You want to see if I'm an interesting person, if I'm interesting enough to be worth your time. And I think that sometimes that does translate to the small business landscape too. And I'm going to tell you why. There's something that's called the brand story framework, which, when you boil it down, it basically is a very compelling way of businesses telling their customers what the problem is and how they can provide a solution to it. So the customer is the main character of the story, like any story has. And then you are the person. The customer always has a problem in a good story, and then somebody always solves it for them, and that's your small business. So that's my little intro to why brand storytelling matters, even for small businesses.
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Jay Schwedelson
So does that mean, okay, I have that plumbing supply company, plumbing company, whatever it is, that what I want to do is I want to position my content in a story format. Like, hey, we went to Bill's house in this neighborhood and their pipe exploded. And we were able to get in there and fix it before it ruined their, you know, their entire kitchen. And now they are able to celebrate their party that they were going to have. I mean, is it like that simple?
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
It can be. It absolutely can be. And it kind of goes down to, or boils down to a lot of the sort of fundamental ideas of getting discovered when you're a small business, where it's like, you provide this amazing plumbing service. You did save the day. But how do people find out about it? And so I think that it really can be that simple. You have a character, you know, what their desire is, what their problem is. Then you present how you are the ones that are going to help it, and then what your plan is to help it, and then what action does the customer have to take in order for, you know, and what is this compelling action that they have to take in order for that business to solve the problem. So, yeah, I think it really is that simple. And there's, you know, we can get into more granularity of it in terms of what a good brand story looks like and how to actually execute it. But yeah, I think you nailed it, Jay. You don't actually need me.
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Bye.
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Jay Schwedelson
Oh, we're done. Bye. So let me just play out if I am that plumbing company, how I would do this. So if it was me and then you tell me if this makes sense, I would look at, you know, our biggest lines of service, what people come to us for the most, and then maybe go to our reviews and find some, like, raving fans that love what we did. And then what do you intentionally reach out to them and say, hey, we want to make a couple of these very small kind of video stories, if you will like to highlight you. And then you do a few on the different biggest categories of where you make your money. And then you stick that on social, in your emails, on your website, everywhere. Is that like an easy way to kind of leverage storytelling and then try to leverage it for your small business?
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
That is definitely one way to do it. And you're happy customers. This is why we always kind of preach asking your customers for reviews and then responding to them, no matter what, acting on the feedback, whether it's good, bad, or ugly. But we're talking about the good feedback right now. And, you know, referrals, for instance, happy customers referring new customers to you. That's one of the most powerful marketing tools that are out there. It's great to put customers at the forefront of your marketing, at the forefront of your story. We do it all the time here at Thrive. But there are other ways of using that data. You can use it more than one way. So that is definitely one way to feature those happy customers and let them do the talking about why you were their hero, they're your hero, and why you solved that problem and who the different characters are. But you can also multi use that same information. So let's say you, you took this one customer's problem. You use the example of the leaky pipe or the burst pipe, I think. So let's say we have the. We're. I don't know if I'm giving anything away, but we're recording this when the holidays are coming up, okay. And a lot of businesses, a lot of businesses are going to be closed or closing down for the holidays, but at the same time, a lot of people are having friends and Family come into their house, a pipe burst. Oh, my God. What do you do? That's a. I mean, that's happened to my family during the holidays. I don't know about you.
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Jay Schwedelson
Oh, yeah.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
And so given that that is such a common problem, let's say you're trying to think about what to put on social media for the holidays, for instance. Okay, this is just one probably not so timely example. You can take that one customer's experience and use that to create, you know, an Instagram carousel or even a really quick Instagram video or Facebook video about, like, oh, my God, you sprung a leak. You can't get in touch with the plumber. I mean, of course you can always get in touch with me, but, like, let's say it's going to take me a little while to get to your house. Here's what you do. Here's what you do right away to solve the emergency to stop the problem from getting worse. I love that that becomes part of your story.
- [08:09]
Jay Schwedelson
Yeah, I love that. And I think that that really resonates, and I think that's where things are at now. Right? They want to be able to. People want to see themselves in your marketing. Right. And how you're positioning your. Your brand and your company, like, oh, I have that problem. They're good with that problem. I will work with them. It's really that simple. So what are, what are a few other tips about brand storytelling before we run out of time here?
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Yeah. So, you know, part of this. And I hate the word framework, Jay, because framework is one of those words that it's just like human beings don't use it in conversation. It's just like, ew, are we really saying that out loud?
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Jay Schwedelson
Ew.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
But because it is a thing and it actually is a valuable guide. There is another piece of the brand story framework called Avoid Failure. And basically what that is, is it's basically telling brands or businesses that in this process of creating content that that is the brand story is you. You explain what the risks are of not taking that action. And so, you know, I think that that can also kind of be, you know, when you can use your customer experiences and making that part of your brand storytelling that can be part of the content that you create as a result or just kind of stemming it from one customer's experience where it's, okay, well, we solved the problem of the burst pipe. We know how to stop the leak until the plumber can get there. Now how do I stop that from happening again? You know, and that's More content that you can create, those are more stories that you can tell. And the one thing that I really want to drive home if I say nothing else today, and I know I've said a lot, is that in all of this, when we really kind of all of the examples that we've been talking about, the customer has been the main character of the story. The company has not. The company is a helpful sidekick. The company is sort of the best friend in the plot who helps to solve the problem. But the character, the main character is the customer. And I think that that goes back to your point of people wanting to see themselves in a company's content. So I think that those are, if I, if I, if people remember nothing else from the power of brand storytelling, it's that I want to leave people with that.
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Jay Schwedelson
Well, I think it's really valuable because everybody you know is out there with their website, their social posts, whatever, and it's really wallpaper. And you have to always be saying to yourself as a company owner or if you're doing your marketing, like, how are we going to actually break through the noise? And people love stories. That's why we watch tv, that's why we watch movies. I mean, we just love stories. So allowing your brand to have a story is really, really powerful. So it's great stuff. Listen, Everybody, check out thryv t h R-Y-V.com it is this all in one solution for your operations, your billing, categorizing, your social reviews, everything, your CRM, you name it, you could do it on thrive. They're incredible. T-R-Y-V.com and Amanda, thanks for joining us today.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Of course, it was my pleasure and I wish I could tell you all the stories I have, but there's no.
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Jay Schwedelson
Time for that on the next episode. All right, see ya.
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Amanda Zantel Weiner
Well, that was fun and great news. We got way more where that came from. Subscribe. Make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips from today's top small business leaders. And hook us up with a five star review if you've got at least one new idea you may consider using. Lastly, if you want to ensure you never miss a message from your customers Again, check out thrive.com wins to get your free account with Command center today.