What's the Story?

When talking about your brand or company, do you tell a story? If not, how do you connect with people emotionally?

We grow up listening to stories and throughout the centuries, storytelling has been the most effective way of passing on information and emotions. In the last few decades, storytelling has lost its allure. People have started thinking that just using facts and figures can persuade people to trust you and buy from you. Unfortunately this doesn't work.

In order to build trust and a connection you need to connect emotionally. Whether you are speaking to your people internally or to your customers, you need to tell stories. Stories about what you stand for, what you're fighting for and how you are changing lives.

To tell a story effectively, you need to understand what makes a story effective. Just reciting a series of events is flat and boring. You need to bring all your passion and talk from a personal view. Shout about what you are fighting for and show what you stand for.

Storytelling is the most effective and engaging way of communication. If you understand it, it's guaranteed to help you build connections with people.

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou 

Don't Sell Features

People make buying decisions based on emotions. Yet most startups, and especially web startups, try to sell their product by promoting their feature set and technology.

If you want people to buy your product or service then you need to create an emotional connection with them. If you don't and only use features to persuade them to buy from you, then you are risking creating a commodity (which means comparison based on cost) and putting yourself against bigger companies with more experience.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't mention the features at all. You should first grab their attention by an emotional proposition and then when you have their attention talk about your features. An easy and popular way to do this is by "hiding" the features. Apple does this by having the spec details in the 3rd or fourth sub-page of a product, the first pages talk about how awesome their products are and how fast you can work by using them.

Don't fall into the trap of just selling features. Especially if you are in a well established industry where your features will be similar to your competitors'. Instead, push the emotional buttons of your customers and get them to buy your products and services because of why you're doing this and who you are.

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou 

Simple, Emotional and Powerful Messages...

Your messages are too complex. You focus on the data, the technology, the research, the process and you forget about what will make people love your brand and chose you over your competition.

People buy based on emotions. They want to know how you will make their lives better by helping them with something, or solving their problem, or addressing another need.

Spend time on all the detail and the complexity. Put it in paper, documents, spreadsheets or wherever they fit. At the end, take a step back and ask yourself "Why choose me?". Answer the question as simply as possible. Forget the research and the function, think about what emotions will be used to chose your product or service. Once you've found that, make that your message.

If you absolutely have to include the details, include them but in a smarter way. "Hide" it or group it so it's accessible but it's not the first thing people see.

Always keep the bigger picture in mind and what makes you the best.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis