Online Reputation Management For Dummies

Telling Your Story

The reasons why people get into business are often compelling. People like to know what fuels your passion and creativity. These stories add meaning to their experience with your brand. For example, when I owned an upscale specialty boutique, I shopped relentlessly for the best-quality, most deliciously indulgent soaps and lotions I could find, and in the process, discovered something absolutely astonishing.

My customers, many of whom were extremely well educated and well-to-do, didn’t care about the quality of the item as much as how it was packaged and the story that went behind the product. I’m still wrapping my mind around this one, but I swear to you that it’s true and that every successful wholesaler and retailer told me the same thing.

One particular line of baby soaps we carried had excruciatingly cute packaging. On the packaging was an engaging background story about how the soapmaker created this soap — its scent, its look, even its name. The soap itself was indeed good quality, but it was nothing revolutionary or life changing. Still, the packaging, and particularly the background story would touch my customers deeply.

On the other hand, another soap we carried was indeed revolutionary and life changing: It was an effective treatment for eczema. Some of my customers, people who had spent thousands of dollars on dermatologists and got unsatisfactory results, found that this soap could cure their eczema. It was a great product, perfect for sensitive ...