Data driven marketing is nothing without narrative

If you've been paying a mortgage for a house on planet marketing for the past few years you'd be hard pressed to not have heard of the following:

  • big data
  • marketing automation
  • web anylitics
  • account based marketing
  • SEO
  • data driven marketing

All. Great. Stuff. However there is a but... and it is a big but. Here it is...

BUT

Where is the story? The humanity? The reason to care. MOVE ME!

You can't automate trust and you can't data mine your way to relationships. Even when you do (like here) you still need to control the narrative. You need heart and soul (and fear, sorry but it's true). Storytelling is at the heart of this and narrative is what makes storytelling real. Applied narratives are needed for everything in your business.

Here's a hit list of business buzz words that need narrative.

  • value proposition
  • positioning statement
  • business strategies
  • marketing campaigns
  • customer case studies 
  • ad campaigns
  • sales training

Get the point?

Now, you may have fallen into your narrative by mistake - amazing people, awesome products and market excitement for what you offer can implicitly inject narrative into your tool chest. A charismatic found, CEO or leader can naturally infuse narrative into your business.

Sooner or later your core narrative needs to be refreshed. Or you will fail.

What is your narrative? How good is it? Where does it suck? Comment below!

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Narrative driven customer journey design

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Business strategy needs narrative