At Prosper Strategies, we’re in the business of helping organizations bring their best stories to the forefront, and there are a few best practices I can share if you’re looking to make some moves on your own. First of all, know your industry and your competitors – see what’s being talked about and how you can contribute to the conversation. Second, identify what makes you uniquely you. And finally, remember the best stories are always a product of your DNA.
Following are three foundations of a great story:
Conduct competitive analysis
When you’re thinking about how best to tell your organization’s story, research your closest competitors. How are they being covered? What are they responding to? Use this information to identify areas where you can insert yourself into ongoing industry conversations, but more importantly, think about how you can leverage your own story to differentiate and dominate. If you want to position your organization in the thought leadership space, you have to have a unique point of view and something more to bring to the conversation.
Our client, Mind Gym, has a great example with their take on the corporate diversity conversation. Mind Gym is a global people consultancy that works with thousands of companies around the globe to help them and their employees achieve more by thinking differently. While diversity is a hot topic within their industry, Mind Gym took a hard look at existing research only to find that diversity is only the start of the conversation. Leading organizations are those that have not only a diverse workplace, but an inclusive culture. In fact, they found, businesses with high inclusive engagement have an operating profit almost three times higher than those that don’t. This new perspective sets them apart and helps them tell the overall story of their unique approach to consulting organizations on people-related matters.
Define your point of difference
We challenge our clients to think critically about what makes them different not only from their competitors and others within their industry, but overall. Fill in the blanks in the following sentence:
(Your organization name) offers (unique benefit) than other (category) that’s because (your organization name) (reason).
For example: AHC offers a more holistic patient and family-centered approach to patient and insurance advocacy than insurance agents and other healthcare advocates and consultants. That’s because AHC has the experience and expertise to bridge the gap between a patient’s care and insurance needs through all stages of the healthcare journey.
Keep in mind the language you use to describe your point of difference should be specific to your organization. This is a starting point for helping you build a narrative about your organization’s point of view and it’s something we think a lot about at Prosper.
In fact, we work diligently to define our own point of difference and to bring new perspectives to conversations regarding marketing and communications. Yes, we’re a marketing and communications firm, but it’s our mission-driven approach that is our unique differentiator and it’s this perspective we bring to the media. We’re talking about evolving trends that put impact companies and nonprofit organizations at the forefront. As part of this conversation, we’re calling to attention the mission-driven companies and leading-edge nonprofits, but we’re also helping organizations that don’t yet have a strong social focus to recognize the value of adopting a more impactful approach. This is something no one else in our space is doing, and therefore, one of our unique differentiators.
Remember your story is in your DNA
If you want your organization to make the “Best Places” to work list, you actually have to be one of the best places to work. If you want The New York Times to cover your ground-breaking new product, your product actually has to be ground-breaking, and you need to pull together the most compelling nuggets to build a strong narrative with supporting evidence.
If there’s an awards you want to be recognized for or a reporter you want to cover your organization, do some research. What does it actually take? In the case of the awards, what does the application process look like? What are the questions they are asking and can you answer them without bluffing? If you can’t, don’t give up, think about changes you can make in the next year or two, so you can start to strive for that award or recognition.
Still need some help? Contact us for a free 30 minute consult and start building your story today.
Photo Credit: niekverlaan
