What Makes a Great Marketer? Great Storytelling.

By formal training, I am not a marketer.

However, I use marketing practically every day of my professional career: as an employee, as a manager, as a business owner, and even as a CIO.

• As an employee (or potential employee, as the case may be lately), I constantly promote the brand of me. What is my value promise? What do I have to offer that is unique to me and to no one else?
• As a manager, my direct reports need to understand the direction and leadership I supply. A strong, cogent, message is important in order to get everyone working – and continuing to work – in the same direction, with urgency, and with identical goals.
• As a business owner, I tell – daily – the story of my business: what it is, what it does, how we are the best at what we do, and what value we provide to our customers.
• And, as a CIO, it is vital that I communicate, internally and externally, ITs mission to the enterprise, and how we help the enterprise (corporately and on an individual basis) succeed, thrive, and plan for the future.

But how can all of this be marketing?

At its core, great marketing is simply great storytelling.

Each of the scenarios I described above involve telling a story, in the service of answering one or more questions; why should I be hired? why do I need to perform a task? why should I buy from you? why is what I do important to our enterprise?

And, to answer these questions successfully, we need to examine the following elements:

• Product 
• Voice
• Process
• Engagement
• Measurement

Over the coming days, I’ll take a look at these story elements – and how they are used by great marketers, to tell great stories.