Marketing Stories with "Catch" Become Job-Search Stories with "Catch"

Comments (4)

Story_eBook_MarketingInteractions150.jpg

Marketing Interactions is offering a very cool, free e-book called Why Marketing Stories Have Catch. It’s full of excellent descriptions of how and why stories are so effective for marketing. Author Ardath Albee aptly refers to stories as “stealth marketing.”

Much of the principles in the e-book also relate to marketing oneself in the job search. This set of questions delving into how a company could define its essence can easily apply to job-seekers:

story_table06-24-08.jpg

Albee says stories provide movement, momentum that “pull buyers forward.” In the same way they can pull employers forward:

stories_simulate_movement.jpg

Albee writes:

If you’re presenting your leads with bulleted lists of why your product is the best one,  they have to work too hard to apply the facts to their specific situation. By putting those  facts into a relatable context (story), you transform the reception and follow‐on  interactions taken by your buyers in relation to your marketing programs.   customers can change the story they tell themselves.  

Same goes for employers. They can change the story they tell themselves by relating to the context of you the job-seeker meeting their needs and solving their problems.

Albee cites Seth Godin for the following:

The challenge for marketers is to figure out how to change the story they are living so that their customers can change the story they tell themselves.

Albee adds:

If they can see themselves in the story, they are more inclined to want to participate. 

Just as customers are inclined to participate when they can see themselves in marketing stories, employers are inclined to participate (by hiring the candidate) when they see themselves in the job-seeker’s story.

Most of the “catch” factors that Albee says appeal to buyer attention also apply to the job search:

  • Urgency:

    Every story you develop must play to urgent priorities to gain attention. The more  personally invested with your story the buyer gets, the more attention you generate.  Urgency means aligning the story’s ”plot” (topic/problem) with a priority for the buyer. 

What is the employer’s priority? Tell stories that show your ability to meet the employer’s urgent needs.

  • Impact:
    What will happen for the buyer if they choose to interact with you Buyers are looking for vendors who will educate them on areas beyond their core company expertise. They want trusted partners who work with them instead of just sell them products. 
  • Will the expertise included in your story have a direct bearing on the buyers’ success  in accomplishing their objective? 
  • How is the value you provide unique in comparison to alternatives?  What stories could you tell that show your expertise and how that expertise will contribute to the employer’s success? What stories can you tell that demonstrate your Unique Selling Proposition — the attributes that set you apart from other candidates for the same job?

  • Reputation 

    This Catch Factor is about how credible you are with the buyer. 

Reputation in the job search is closely tied to personal branding. What is your brand, your reputation, your promise to employers? What stories can you tell to enhance your credibility with the employer?

Finally, Albee writes:

By incorporating marketing stories into your content strategy, you enable your buyers to envision exactly that experience. You want them to live and breathe the successes of your current customers and picture just how much competitive advantage they can gain by adding your expertise to the company roster. You need them to see themselves succeeding.
 

The exact same principle applies to the job search. Let’s just plug a few different words into the above quote:

By incorporating stories into your job-search strategy, you enable employers to
envision exactly that experience. You want them to live and breathe the successes of your current and past employers and picture just how much competitive advantage they can gain by adding your expertise to the company roster. You need them to see themselves succeeding.

The e-book closes with a “Quick Guide to Writing a Marketing Story Article” and accompanying worksheet that could be adapted for developing career and personal-branding stories for the job search.

4 Comments

Hi Katharine,

What a great application of Catch Factors and story you've derived from my eBook. Thanks so much for taking the time and thought for the post!

Ardath

Hi Kathy,

I'm right with you in using story telling for job search. How better to position yourself as a problem-solver than by giving specific, vivid examples of just how you go about solving problems -- what the problem or challenge to the company was, what you did to fix it, and what the beneficial results were to bottom line.

In my executive resume writing practice, I work with my clients to capture their top "career success stories". An encapsulation of a few of these in their resume has terrific impact on hiring decision makers reviewing their resume. They can see just how that candidate will get things done for their company.

It makes perfect sense.

Meg

Thanks for your comments, Meg. Storytelling in the job search was the subject of my PhD dissertation. The book Tell Me About Yourself, seen on this blog's sidebar and currently quasi-self-published as an e-book, is an outgrowth of that work. Assuming I update it, especially for publication with a print publisher, I will probably want to talk with you about the way you draw stories from your clients. (Would also love to see sample "story" resumes at some point). Thanks again.

Kathy, I'd be happy to share my methods for tapping into stories.

I noticed your e-book on Quint Careers several weeks ago, and haven't gotten around to reading it. I really mean to do that soon. After a very quick perusal at the time, I think it may help me refine the information mining process.

Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.

About
A Storied Career

A Storied Career explores intersections/synthesis among various forms of
Applied Storytelling:
  • journaling
  • blogging
  • organizational storytelling
  • storytelling for identity construction
  • storytelling in social media
  • storytelling for job search and career advancement.
  • ... and more.
A Storied Career's scope is intended to appeal to folks fascinated by all sorts of traditional and postmodern uses of storytelling. Read more ...


Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to A Storied Career by Email

About
Dr. Kathy Hansen

Kathy Hansen, PhD, is a leading proponent of deploying storytelling for career advancement. She is an author and instructor, in addition to being a career guru. More... emailicon.jpeg

Email me

<


Berrrett-Koeher Publishers - 20% Off All Books & Links




Now Available!
Free E-Book
:

Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling

StoriedCareersCover


Click here to go to download page.
 
Storytelling
Tweets in the
Twitterverse
« »




Pages

The following are sections of A Storied Career where I maintain regularly updated running lists of various items of interest to followers of storytelling:

TwitterStoryFollowList.jpg
story_events_small.jpg
story_wisdom_small.jpg
story_writings_smaller.jpg
storytellers_small.jpg
story_practitioners_small.jpg

Links below are to Q&A interviews with story practitioners.


The pages below relate to learning from my PhD program focusing on a specific storytelling seminar in 2005. These are not updated but still may be of interest:

Tags

December 2009

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

Shameless Plugs and Self-Promotion

Katharine Hansen
My Teaching Portfolio

KatharineHansenPhD.com

My PhD Page

twit8.png


Personal Twitter Account My personal Twitter account: @kat_hansen
Here are tweets from my personal account:


« »
AStoriedCareer Twitter account My storytelling Twitter account: @AStoriedCareer

KatCareerGal Twitter account My careers Twitter account: @KatCareerGal


View my page on
Worldwide Story Work

Kathy Hansen's Facebook profile

resume-writing service

Quintessential Careers

QuintZine

My Books

Cool Folks
to Work With

Find Your Way Coaching

Brandego


career advice blogs member


Blogcritics: news and reviews
Geeky Speaky: Submit Your Site!



Storytelling Books