The science of engagement - how to break through the noise

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I see companies with great products. They are designing new categories. Their customers love them. They're getting funding. But no-one else knows about them. They are not breaking through.

Strategy and execution are great; fantastic even. But to create advocates, followers and fans, companies need more than that.

You need to create engagement. You need your potential customers to be thinking about you already. You need to set up desire.

How do you do that? With story. An intentional, powerful, repeatable story that a ten-year-old would understand.

I see companies telling customer stories. That's great. Very commendable marketing. But customer stories are metrics. They don't speak to the heart.

This is about *your* story. It needs to be heartfelt, real and come from a place of vulnerability.

You need to genuinely love your story. You have to be prepared to tell it over and over again. On every stage. In every interview. In team meetings. In funding rounds. It needs to be part of you. Your story will ooze from your pores.

Strategy alone is bare bones. Story alone is anecdote. But strategy plus story spark engagement.

The science of engagement

Strategy plus story work because they combines extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Here is Dan Pink's elegant explanation:

 

 

As humans at work, we need both.

Strategy is extrinsic motivation: the thing we do.

Story is intrinsic motivation: why we do the thing we do and how this makes things better for others and makes us get up every day to do it some more.

Put the two together and you're in a powerful new league. You're creating impact and engagement - whether your audience is employees, investors, customers, partners, analysts or the media.