Are You a “Difficult Brand”?
Why You Should Tell Stories to Connect With Your Clients Year-Round
I’m in the midst of teaching an arts marketing class for graduate students at the University of Denver.
Our first reading defines arts organizations as “difficult brands,” because there are major periods of downtime in-between significant experiences or events an audience member can participate in.*
If you sell a service, launch a program or market limited time offers, you might be a “difficult brand,” too.
Yep. I just called you difficult. Good news though —
Social media, and content marketing in general, can help difficult brands build and nurture relationships even in the “in-between” times.
Of course, this means you have to show up with something to say, even when you’re not selling a thing or coming in hot with a specific call to action.
Which is exactly why I created my free storytelling resource “Show Us Your Roots” earlier this year. I wanted to give you prompts you could personally answer to create:
- copy for your website
- anecdotes for social media
- stories for email marketing
- ideas for videos and reels
- fodder for sales calls
- intros for your speaking engagements
- and more
It was always my intention that this resource would be (a) practical and (b) help my community get to know me better through some short personal stories.
So you’ll see I share my own examples within the resource here.
But I’m currently working on Show Us Your Roots 2.0, and I’d like to include examples from other biz owners and creatives, too.
My hope is that by incorporating a wider variety of stories, I’ll be able to demonstrate how any creative can use these prompts to connect with their audience. And ensure that people who don’t look like me or have different backgrounds/experiences can imagine how their voices might come through using the same prompts.
That’s where you come in!! I’d love for you to download the prompts, tell your own stories, and let me know what kind of content this resource has inspired.
Would you be willing to share stories you’ve made using this resource as examples for my community? Any stories that end up in Show Us Your Roots 2.0 will receive proper credit to your name and business as well as a link to your website or social media channel of choice.
Don’t you think things are better if they’re designed together instead of for you, and by me-and-only-me?
Write to me at hello@amyjacobus.marketing if you’re willing to share!
*Preece, Stephen B. and Jennifer Wiggins Johnson. 2011. “Web Strategies and the Performing Arts: A Solution to Difficult Brands.” International Journal of Arts Management 14, no. 1: 19–31,74.
Are you bringing your personal values and stories into your marketing?
You should!
That’s why we created 5 creative prompts for coaches, creatives & consultants to write, produce and share compelling stories in your emails, on social and more. These are the stories that make you stand out in a crowd.
Amy Jacobus is an online marketing strategist who still sends handwritten thank yous. She’s obsessed with helping service providers, entrepreneurs and mission-based business owners increase their impact with smart, human marketing online. Amy teaches workshops and leads programs full of simple, apply-it-now strategies for your website, email and social media, including her signature program, Confident + Consistent Marketing. She has designed courses, facilitated workshops and participated in panel discussions for University of Denver, LEAP at St. Mary’s College, Barnard College, New York Foundation for the Arts, Gibney Dance, The Artist Co-op and Pentacle, among others. Learn more about Amy and her work at amyjacobus.marketing and follow her at @amyjacobus on Instagram.
This article was originally published on her blog, where she shares weekly marketing advice for creatives and entrepreneurs.
