Every now and again, the argument about authentic marketing reappears online. How can you be “authentic”? Should you be trying to be “authentic”? Is authentic marketing a completely redundant phrase because all effective marketing is authentic?

My take? Yes, all marketing should be authentic. But not all marketing is. And I want to help you make your marketing more authentic. So you can feel better about doing it, and your audience can feel better about responding to it.

And one of the most important keystones of this is story.

The myth of the ‘7 stories’

There’s this theory – there are only 7 stories in the whole world. (here’s a YouTube video explaining them all, if you’re curious.)

Across thousands of years, millions of films, billions of books, songs, and poems – there are (apparently) only 7 different stories. And everything humans have ever created is a variation of one of them.

I call bullshit.

Sure, you can categorise anything you want. My 4 year old quite likes sorting her annoying little Bratz dolls into groups. Long hair, short hair, shoes, no shoes, well behaved, looked at her funny…

(You think I’m joking, but there is currently a tiny doll with too much eye-makeup sitting in a box in our understairs cupboard because “she didn’t say please in the right way)

The categories are arbitrary. And within those categories, there’s so much variation that the category becomes objectively worthless. One doll has long pink hair with sparkles (I know), and the other has a black afro. But it helps her sort things. Make order in the chaos (and man, can I relate to that).

If some bloke wants to do a deep dive into all the stories he can find and neatly sort them so he can breathe a sigh of relief at the organised piles before heading off for nap time, then fine.

But that doesn’t mean he’s right. Or that his opinion has any bearing on reality.

Because stories are infinite, and it’s the variations that make them so magical. That can turn our world on its head when we hear them. That can uncover a deeper meaning we had never imagined. Or that can help us through whatever it is we’re going through that we thought no one else had experienced.

Because, if we decide that there are only 7 stories. Then we’re resigned to believing that there are only 7 types of people. That we’re not really unique at all.

And you really are. Completely unique.

Scratch the surface, get deeper than “how was your day”, “how are the kids”, or “what do you think about Beyonce going country?”, and that’s what you discover.

Nail authentic marketing by using your truly unique story

Everyone has had a specific journey that makes their perspective or experience astonishingly unique.

I sat in a seminar earlier this year on how to market without the traditional “sales funnel”. And this seminar was full of inpsiring business owner, with unique stories. But it turned out none of them were talking about that story in their marketing.

  • They studied international relations at university and then ended up coaching a gymnastics team. But their daughter has a rare disease so they’ve spent a lot of time in the healthcare system.
  • They worked in logistics for a decade before writing a book about surfing. But they also have to care for their elderly father on the weekends.
  • They spent years in hospitality and corporate, before making a hard left into coaching. And it turns out they’ve got ADHD.
  • They grew up wanting to be Prime Minister but instead they worked as a youth worker for 15 years before burning out and taking a hard left into marketing (oh wait, that’s me…)

This seminar was filled with gloriously talented and creative individuals running businesses that make the lives of their clients better in many different ways. But they weren’t fans of selling, because they didn’t want to feel pushy, or big-headed. And, surely everyone knew what they knew, so why would anyone pay for it? Their story wasn’t unique.

Except it was. And it was the missing piece in their marketing. 

They just needed to see it how others saw it. 

How your unique personal experiences inform your brand message

So there are two things I think about this. And, because you’ve clicked on this link, you get to hear them.

There is only one you

The first thing I do with new clients is work on their USP. We look at the things that they are uniquely positioned to provide that nobody else can. Why they are different.

Why do I do this? Because you are the only person who is that unique combination of the expertise that you have, the training that you’ve done, the knowledge that you’ve acquired, the life experiences that you have chalked up, and the personality that you are born with/been nurtured into.

And that “you-ness” is what your future customers connect with – why they want to work with you and, yes, hand over their money. This is why authentic marketing works – because your audience can feel the you-ness behind what you put out there. (I talk more about making that emotional connection here.)

But, because we’ve already acquired this expertise, training, and knowledge, we think it’s no big deal. Anyone could do it, so it’s not really worth that much. But that’s crap. 

  • Your insights are worthwhile. 
  • Your hard work has value. 
  • From a purely capitalistic standpoint – your creativity commands a price.

But, even if you’re not down with full-throated capitalism, you still shouldn’t shy away from selling to your audience.

Why? Because, when you sell to people in an email, in a Facebook ad, or on a webpage, you are not trying to trick them out of parting with their hard-earned cash. You are not trying to encourage them to spend more than they can on something that is frivolous, that won’t help them, or that they could find out for free. You are helping people.

You are recognising that your audience has specific problems. Things that on a smaller or larger scale are making their lives worse, or stopping their business from being as good, as effective, as aligned, as easy, as profitable as it could be.

Because of your unique story, you have a solution to offer your audience.

Whether it’s your incredible service, or a fabulous product, you are providing them with a way of making their lives or their business better. And you’re the only one who can do it in the way that you do it.

So you are not trying to trick them into buying something. You are not trying to tell an engaging story and then segue seamlessly into a sales pitch so that they don’t even notice that they’ve taken out their credit card and punched in the numbers and suddenly sent you £3000 for nothing. Newsflash – that’s not authentic marketing. You are doing something that helps them.

Your emails and your web pages and your adverts and your social media captions are not manipulative tricks. They are ways to communicate effectively. Ways to let your ideal audience know that the problem that has been keeping them awake at night or making them miserable over breakfast – you can help them with it. And it doesn’t have to be there anymore.

How your unique story builds connection

I will still be saying this when I’m an old woman, rocking in the chair on my porch in the house I’m going to retire to in the Canadian countryside (#goals):

“People buy people”

There are a million places that people can get business advice. Thousands of different apps they can download to help them with productivity. Hundreds of courses on how to get the best out of Canva. One way they make that choice is through price, sure. But a huge part of the decsion-making process is done through vibes. 

No matter how logical and rational we think we are – we’re buying the person doing the selling. Would we sit down inn a pub garden with them and chat about our day? Do we feel like they really understand us? Are they “our kind of people”?

And how do they gather the information to make those decisions? By consuming our content  – including our story. And if they like what they hear, then they’re much more likely to buy from us – and benefit from the help that we can offer them. 

And, believe me, they don’t want a cookie-cutter, generic rags to riches, or hero conquers all story. They can get that in a cheap airport novel. They want your real, unique story. 

So, if you’re sitting staring at your social media scheduling software thinking, “Everything I have to say has been said a million times before”…

Say it anyway – say it your way.

Because there are more than 7 stories.

And yours is worth telling.

If you’d like some help with that, book a free strategy call here.