Tell your story and get the results you care about

Anyone who founded a band, built a company or developed community work, has already achieved the almost impossible: They have come from nothing to something. How can we best find out how we Story of this something?

Of course, the best way to tell a story depends entirely on your goals. Do you want to attract more of your current customers? Reach a new market segment? Build brand loyalty? The best version of your story for each of these goals will probably be slightly different.

For several years, I've worked with nonprofits and for-profits to help them identify a purpose and tell a great story to match it. To be clear, these groups are already doing fantastic work. But the right story—shaped by the right purpose—can help amplify the impact.

From those efforts, here are three examples that bring together a goal and a clarifying question that will likely benefit your work as well.

Case Study 1: Heroes Wear Naloxone

• Goal: More approval from existing customers.

• Clarifying question: Is this the right story?

Important outreach work on the opioid epidemic has already been done by distributing naloxone (brand name: Narcan), a life-saving medication that, when administered promptly, can reverse an opioid overdose.

But there was a problem with this initiative: Although naloxone saves lives and is easy to administer, some community members said, “That's for drug users, and I'm not that. So I don't need it.”

This was a narrative issue. Just as you probably can't use a defibrillator on yourself while you're having a heart attack, you also can't administer naloxone to yourself if you're overdosing. This means that carrying naloxone is primarily geared toward being prepared to save someone else's life.

So my organization, Good Loud Media, got involved in this initiative to reframe the issue. In collaboration with Grammy winners and local residents, we wrote a song that tells a new story about how simple, important and heroic it is to carry naloxone to save a life.

This new story – told in song – touched me. Listeners loved it and shared it. One listener responded, “That tells me what Narcan is and why I should take it.” (We couldn't have thought of a better comment!)

Bottom line: Are you telling your current customers the right story? One that addresses concerns and inspires action? You offer something great. If people aren't adopting it yet, ask why not, then tell a story that addresses that.

The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for influencers, innovators and creatives. Am I qualified?

Case study 2: Metalheads also need vocational training

• Objective: Developing a new market segment.

• Clarifying question: Who needs to hear this story?

A well-known nonprofit offered job training to people in economic need. The program was successful and they wanted to expand it. But demand from their regular customers had been exhausted. This meant they needed to identify and develop a new market segment.

Good Loud Media has years of experience using music radio as an outreach tool to help those in need. With that in mind, we knew that heavy metal fans, a small but significant subset of FM rock radio listeners, would be ideal customers for this nonprofit. So we worked with our radio partners to provide airtime. We created PSAs that spoke the language of the heavy metal world – as opposed to the nonprofit world – to connect new customers to these much-needed services.

This approach worked. While the nonprofit had not imagined that metal fans would be a potential customer base, the overlap between program and need was large. Unexpected customers are still customers; Slayer and Megadeth fans need access to job training too!

Bottom line: To find the next market segment, ask who needs it but may not know about it, and be open to surprising answers. Then go where those people live and tell them the right story.

Case Study 3: Everyone wants to be in a music video

• Objective: Build brand engagement.

• Clarifying question: Who can best tell this story?

A friend of mine worked as a youth social worker in a troubled neighborhood in Chicago. He helped kids make good choices and avoid getting involved in gang organizations. We wanted to create media that would help these kids take more responsibility for their lives and share that concept with their friends.

Our breakthrough was simple but profound: we created a music video that not only for the children in this neighborhood; it with star the kids in that neighborhood. We envisioned a high-production video where the kids themselves were the stars, storytellers, and brand ambassadors for all their friends.

When it was time to shoot the video, the house was packed with young people who wanted to be part of the process and knew the music by heart. We asked the kids to show the positive choices they made instead of joining a gang, and they happily showed off their skills in everything from art to ball playing to dance moves. And, more importantly, they couldn't wait to show their friends the finished product.

Bottom line: To build brand engagement, use the right storyteller? Someone your customers can relate to? Someone they trust and who understands their life experience? Find people in that position of influence and partner with them.

Final thoughts

If you've built something new, you should be proud of it. Now let's find out how to spread the message effectively – starting with the right story and the right storytellers.

The greatest value proposition in the world still requires the right people to know about it, understand it on an emotional level, and believe it's really for them. By examining the story, the audience, and the storyteller, you can achieve the level of growth and success you deserve.