Learn the science behind why stories are compelling and how to practically extend this across digital marketing channels.

1. STORYTELLING IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
! Carla Paschke
Co-Founder, Sandbox
!
@carlapaschke @sandbox_digital

2. • Founded two companies
• Cheered on the sidelines & kept dinner warm through
the journeys of four other start-ups as a wife
• Coached B2C & B2B brands big and small inside their
walls and on behalf of an agency for the last decade
“I get it.”

3. WHY STORIES? THE SCIENTIFIC ANSWER.

4. When processing facts,
two areas of the brain are
activated: Broca’s and
Wernicke’s areas.
!
A well-told story can engage
those areas
PLUS many
additional areas
like the motor cortex, sensory
cortex, & frontal cortex.

5. The human brain does not
distinguish between reading
or hearing a story and
experiencing it in real life. The
same neurological
regions are
activated.
!
The brain doesn’t look like
that of a spectator; it looks
like that of a
participant.
!

6. Stories change our
behaviors
by actually
changing our
brain chemistry.

7. The brain releases
dopamine into the
system when it
experiences an
emotionally-charged
event, making it
easier to
remember and
with greater
accuracy.

8. Studies show that we
spend about half of our
waking hours,
1/3 of our lives
daydreaming.
!
We have about 2,000
of these a day, with an
average duration of
fourteen seconds.

9. When absorbed in a
good story, we
experience
approximately zero
daydreams per hour.

10. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR
MARKETING?

11. 59% of marketing professionals planned
to increase content marketing efforts in
2014.
!
(eMarketer, January 2014)

12. Every status update, image, blog
post, ebook, and tool
that is created in the name of
content marketing is
competing with every other
person, status update,
question, conversation, video,
or song
that your audience is exposed to every day.

13. !
!
“This is the bar your content has to clear
on social:
‘Are you more interesting
to me than my wife?’”
!
~ Jay Baer

14. 5% of students cited a statistic, but 63% remembered the story.

15. “Even though this is B2B, everyone likes a
good story, and everybody likes to laugh.”
~Jennifer Anaya, VP of Marketing for North America
Ingram Micro

17. WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY?

18. 1.Succinct Beginning
2.Authentic Protagonist
3.Relatable Problem
4.Emotive Conclusion

21. Data can convince the mind,
but you need a story
framing that data
to reach people’s emotions and
make them truly believe.

22. People don’t buy what you do,
they buy why you do it.
Why you do what you do, Why you take on the clients you do, and Why you’re
proud of your work.

23. Take 2 Minutes to Understand Your WHY
My name is _________, I love
_________ but was fed up with _________.
So I created _________ that _________.
!
~The Rebel Yell Statement, Kevin Rogers

24. WHY Leads to WHATS: Brands Have More Than One Story
1. Different personas
2. Unusual differentiators
3. Different vertical markets
4. Challenge preconceptions

25. The HOW: Storytelling is platform / medium agnostic.

26. 7 WAYS TO TRANSFORM DIGITAL
STORYTELLING

27. GROUND YOUR STORY
IN INSIGHTS
#1

29. DEEPEN STORYTELLING
VIA VIDEO
#2

30. Videos Increase People’s
Understanding Of Your
Product Or Service by
74%
!
90% Of Users Say That
Seeing A Video About A
Product Is Helpful In
The Decision Process

31. YouTube Is The Number
Two Search Engine In The
World
50% Of Users Watch
Business Related Videos
On YouTube Once A Week
75% Of Users Visit The
Marketer’s Website After
Viewing A Video

32. !
!
75% Of Executives Watch
Work-Related Videos On
Business Websites At Least
Once A Week

33. Click-Through Rates Increase
2-3 Times When Marketers
Include A Video In An Email
!
Just Putting the word video
in the Subject Line Sharply
Increases Open Rates

34. Orabrush
Video Budget: $500
!
Concept:
Bad Breath Test video promoting their
tongue cleaner
!
Results:
40M+ views
340K+ Facebook fans
5K+ Twitter followers
Carried in major drugstore chains

35. Dollar Shave Club
!
Video Budget:
$4,500
!
Results:
9.5M Views
23K Twitter Followers
76K Facebook Fans
12K New Customers
in 2 days.

37. 45% Of Viewers Will Stop
Watching A Video After
1 Minute & 60% By 2
Minutes

38. Video doesn’t have to blow your budget.

39. DISTILL HIGHLY TECHNICAL INFO
INTO EASY TO UNDERSTAND BITES
!
#3

40. VIDEO GUIDES INFOGRAPHICS

41. The average person is exposed to 174
newspapers full of
information every day.
!
99% of all sensory information is filtered
out by the brain almost immediately. Only
1% of information actually
gets through to the brain…
infographics are in this 1%.
!
Publishers who use infographics grow in
traffic an average of 12% more
than those that don’t.

42. 3526)6%!
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(THEY’RE ACTUALLY QUITE SIMILAR)
Recently the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a tongue-­in-­cheek
“Zombie Apocalypse” campaign to educate citizens on disaster-­preparedness. The idea is that if
you’re well-­equipped to deal with a zombie pandemic you’re prepared for just about anything.
We’re putting that idea to the test: Can a plan for surviving a zombie apocalypse help you when
it comes to moving your enterprise to the cloud?
The Enterprise Cloud is Ready!
Over half of enterprises ssaayy tthheeyy aarree
likely to move to a cloud-­based delivery
model while 7 out of 10 companies are
implementing or assessing cloud
projects in the next year. Is your
organization ready for the cloud? Follow
these steps to get there …
The Zombies are Coming!
AAccccoorrddiinngg ttoo ppoopp ccuullttuurree,, aa zzoommbbiiee
apocalypse is right around the corner. In
such a scenario, zombies roam entire
cities, eating the brains of the living. Are
you prepared to fight off the undead and
escape to safety? Follow these steps to
get there …
ROADMAP
You’re ready for the next step.
Appraise your enterprise’s processes,
architecture, technology, people, and
governance to see if your enterprise
is ready for the cloud.
You’re ready for the next step.
Assess your survivors, food, water,
medical supplies and defenses to
see if you’re ready for your escape
to a zombie-­proof shelter.
READINESS
The foundation of your move to the
enterprise cloud is a tactical plan
signed off by key stakeholders. After
all, migrating to the cloud likely
requires enterprise-­wide
participation.
The foundation of your escape from
a zombie horde is a tactical plan
agreed to by key survivors. After all,
your greatest advantage over the
living dead is the ability to think.
STRATEGY
Congratulations! You’ve made it to
the enterprise cloud by creating
disaster recovery and business
continuity plans that promote ROI
and keep infrastructure safe.
OPTIMIZATION
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Whether it’s a move to the cloud or an escape
from bands of zombies, security is hands-­down
everyone’s number-­one concern.
To get answers fast, visit:
www.sungardas.com
Congratulations! Your preparedness
has paid off. By creating plans and
putting them into action, you made
it to safety and promoted security
among the living and throughout
your infrastructure.
CONTINUITY
Leverage enterprise cloud
computing to proactively manage
your business critical applications
and services, including
interconnecting your physical and
virtual environments.
Once in the zombie-­proof shelter
you need to proactively manage
your resources, including fortifying
your physical environment and
establishing a connection with
survivors on the outside.
OPERATIONS
You’re almost ready, but to get the
full benefits of enterprise cloud
migration you need to create more
value and achieve faster ROI by
improving performance.
You’re near your destination, but
sometimes brain-­hungry zombies
are unavoidable. Improve migration
performance through efficient
cerebral neutralization, and then
quickly move on.
This is where you actually make the
move––transitioning all or part of
your company’s data, applications
and services from on-­site to the
enterprise cloud.
This is where you actually make the
move––transitioning survivors and
critical provisions from your current
site to a zombie-­proof shelter.
MIGRATION
Next, identify the most appropriate
systems and services to migrate,
list any and all interdependencies,
and then prioritize your roadmap.
Build a step-­by-­step escape plan
that outlines the best possible
transportation methods and routes
for avoiding the walking dead.
ROADMAP
is ready for the cloud.
to a zombie-­proof shelter.

43. • Launched in 2006
• Focused on blog posts,
slideshows, videos and
infographics
• Grew to 100K accounts in 2007,
600K in 2008 and almost 2M in
2009
• Sold to Intuit for $170 million
!

44. Go-to Resources for Cost Effective Infographics

45. Span your Story over Time
across Smaller Stories
#4

46. Blogging is the single
fastest way to build
traffic and inbound
links to your B2B
website.
!
You’re not simply a
salesman but an
authority.

47. Hashtags: Meaningful Ways to Introduce Organize Content
It's more than coffee. It's
#CoffeeWithAStory.
Coffee meets ice. #IcedCoffee #new
#CoffeeWithAStory
New Coffee. New Taste. New Story.
#CoffeeWithAStory

48. Hashtags: Own and Promote Them

49. Hashtags: Practical To Do’s
#SelfControl: Keep it to 3 tags or less per post.
!
#Relate: Don’t hijack a popular trending hashtag to get attention.
!
#GetSpecific: A specific made-by-you hashtag is like a targeted ad campaign.
!
#SearchTermSavvy: If a consumer clicks on your hashtag, what else will they see in that list?
!
#DoubleCheck: And then look at it again. #nowthatcherisdead anyone?
!
#KnowYourDarkSide: Play to your strengths.
!
#Readability: Keep it short, memorable, and easy to spell. Capitalization is your friend.
!
#CallToAction: Tell your users what to do with yours.

50. Be True to Your Brand
Voice
#5

51. Don’t speak
like a robot.

53. Tap into Others to Tell
Your Story
#6

54. B2B Marketers agree
customer
testimonials and
case studies
are the most effective
types of lead generating
content.

55. An Example: Harvest Time Tracking App
Volume Geo-Relevancy
Face to the Name, Quick to Scan POV
Link to the Company
Credibility
Invokes
Emotion

56. MARKET YOUR STORIES #7

57. SMBs Spend More on Social Than Any
Other Media as of Q3 2014.

58. B2B B2C

59. 91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn.
!
• Targeted at professionals
• Half of members are decision makers
• 69% of members make more than $60k / year
• 79% are over 35
• 6x more impressions of people looking for
company information than looking for jobs
• Drives 60% of traffic to corporate websites
from social media platforms
• Groups drive really high levels of engagement

60. Move From
Social Sharing to
Social Selling
• Connecting
• Listening/Research
• Starting New Conversations
• Entering Existing Conversations
• Posting Valuable Content
• Sharing/Retweeting Other’s
Content

61. Weekly
• 30 min: Schedule posts for the week through a tool like Hootsuite
• 45 min: Listen and research industry trends, top influencers
• 45 min: Research to find new prospects
!
Daily
• 10 min: Respond to replies, comments or new connections
• 10 min: Listen to prospects/customers – what they have been
tweeting, LinkedIn activities such as posting in groups or on their
feed. Engage, quote or retweet where applicable.
Total: Approx. 3.5 Hrs / Week
Social Selling Routine

62. Take Aways
!
• Figure out your WHYs.
!
• Map your WHYs to WHATs.
!
• THEN define the HOW.
!
• Explore third party TOOLS to help you tell your stories.
!
• Be AUTHENTIC.

63. THANK YOU
Carla P!aschke
Co-Founder, Sandbox
!
@carlapaschke @sandbox_digital
http://www.slideshare.net/sandboxdigital