%
90% of corporate marketing material goes unused in the field
90 seconds is all you can expect a prospect to spend reading a typical brochure
%
Memory recall is 90% greater when told in the form of a story
Pro Sports Team
Title: Friends With Bucky
Description:
When Miranda and Evan’s dad catches them pretending to be the Birmingham Bucks in their room, he decides it’s time to take the whole family to a game. They get to have popcorn and hotdogs, stand for the National Anthem, and best of all, meet Bucky the Mascot.
But in the last inning of the game, Dad looks worried. The Bucks are down. Miranda assures him that if she cheers loud enough, they’ll play their best. Sure enough, they come back and win the game!
That night, Miranda asks if he believed it was her cheering that made them win. “I’m sure it was, Miranda, I’m sure it was,” he told her.
Community Bank
Title: Becca and the Bank
Description:
Becca loves to bake. She makes delicious treats for her friends and family. When she sells treats at a community event, she now has a business that earns money, and needs a place to keep that money safe.
Becca’s parents take her to meet Jennifer, the banker they know and trust at their Community Bank. She teaches Becca what an account is, a deposit and withdrawal. Becca also learns the value that the community bank plays for the clients it serves, and how her community banker helps people and local businesses all day long.
Services
Title: Ready for Takeoff
Description:
After school, Austin is very excited to fly his drone. But lack of preparation makes it hard. He forgets the camera attachment, he needs to adjust a propeller, and he is very low on battery power.
Austin’s father comes out to help him, setting him up with a process to always have a battery charging, a box of spare propeller parts, and a specific location where he always knows the camera, drone, and controller will be. Austin is ready to fly!
When asked why he’s so good at prepping the drone, Austin’s father explains that for his job he’s ensuring that private and corporate jets are ready to go. They get to go to the maintenance hanger, see the scheduling software, and talk to the team making sure everything is ready to go. Austin’s dad is always making sure that they are Ready for Takeoff!
Insurance
Title: After the Fire
Description:
When Peyton’s family goes out to dinner, it seemed like an ordinary day in the routine that she was used to.
The family comes home to a scene of firetrucks and a huge blaze, and that routine and comfort is destroyed.
The very next day, Greg the Insurance Agent, is at her house.
Greg spends time with her parents, but he also spends time talking to Peyton about everything she has lost.
Over the next several months, Greg helps her to return to routine, and seals the deal when he replaces her special one-of-a-kind doll.
Greg is a hero because of the service he provides and he helps Peyton’s world return to normal.
Construction
Title: Cole Digs It
Description:
All across Cole’s neighborhood are electrical wires. The wires are on telephone poles everywhere.
Cole has been told many times he can’t fly his kite, or punt his football, or use his drone outside because of the overhead electrical wires.
One day, a large construction crew comes through with heavy equipment digging up the ground. He learns they are burying the electrical wires, and he will finally be able to fly his kite, and the other activities he’s been excited about.
The construction crew, with their heavy equipment, are all heroes because they allow him to do something he’s always dreamed of. Cole hopes that one day he, too, will be able to operate these big machines!
Medical
Title: Return of the Swagger
Description:
Alex can’t walk as well as the other kids, and he can’t participate in any running games.
When his doctor talks about another operation, he is down and dejected, and his parents are worried.
The doctor then shows them how the new procedure is different because of the incredible use of lasers.
After the surgery, Alex slowly regains use of his legs, and in the end is even able to participate on a soccer team.
At the end of the season, he brings his trophy to a follow up visit, and gets a photo with the doctor – because his doctor is his hero!
Parent
Title: A Brighter Energy
Description:
Katie’s father seems boring to her.
He goes off to work each day at a building that she’s only seen from the outside, and she assumes all he does is stare at computer.
Her feelings change when he takes her on a journey to where energy is harnessed. She sees how Endosenergy’s (his company) transformers enable the transfer of that vast energy into the useable way it is at her house and school She sees he’s not just sitting at a boring computer, but making her life better, and the lives of all of her friends.
Katie’s dad is an energy hero!
Software
Title: Finding the Hard to Find
Description:
Sarah lives in a world of mess: her school desk is a mess, her closet is a mess, her backpack is a mess. But everyday she spends a ton of time looking for things.
One day, she can’t find some of her colored pencils. Frustrated, she breaks down and asks for help.
Her dad helps her organize things in a way that she can find them.
When Sarah asks how he is so good at that organization, he explains that is what he does at his work – he writes computer programs that organize things. Instead of objects, he organizes data. The program makes the data easier to find.
Sarah’s dad pulls out his computer to how her an example of a picture and a graph. Sarah realizes that when she has a complete set of colored pencils, it is like when he has a complete set of data.
They can both make better pictures of what the data says. Sarah realizes that software can be awesome.
Dental
Title: Smiles for Sierra
Description:
Sierra’s mouth hurts, and she doesn’t know why.
Her mother takes her to the dentist, who walks her through exactly what is going on in her mouth and how he will help her feel better using the special tools he has.
Sierra ends up excited about going to the dentist. She even tells her class she wants to be a dentist someday.
Her friend admits to her the fear of the dentist, and she helps her friend get over that fear.
The dentist becomes a hero to her because of what he can do with the dental instruments: he can relieve her pain!
Beautiful illustrations are critical to captivating storybooks
Our client needed a park bench lunch scene with a Salesman father and his son, talking about his customer being the hero. Our creative team went to work and provided 8 different versions of the same scene to choose from. Which will you choose?
How will I use a story book as a sales tool?
Think creatively!
Places you can use children’s books in content marketing:
-
Use the book as a leave behind after a sales call
-
Hand a story out at a trade fair
-
Send the book in the mail as an introduction
-
Put the book on your website as an attraction
The story book becomes a tool that your salespeople can use as a point of difference to make them stand out from the crowd.
Problem: Your sales force seems like every other sales person that comes in.
Solution: The storybook gives your sales force a unique piece of literature that is a talking point.
Problem: Sales material that is too company or product focused.
Solution: The storybook makes the customer the hero, and so it’s all about your customers. Your customers do their job extremely well while using your product as a tool for success.
Problem: For long sales cycles (like capital equipment purchases) the sales team is often out-of-sight-out-of-mind for most of the time. They are only thought about when it’s time to purchase new equipment.
Solution: The story book gives your salesforce a reason to go see the prospect, even if the prospect isn’t in an immediate buying cycle.
When the prospect reads the story to a child or grandchild, or displays the story in their office or waiting room, it is a reminder of the company that gave it to them.
Problem: Most people struggle to connect the dots between products and their features and benefits: how it makes their job better, easier, faster, etc.
Solution: When told through the eyes of a child, the typical marketing lingo is reduced to the simplest possible connection, making the features and benefits clear without the “sales talk”.
Problem: Most customers don’t read marketing pieces with intensity.
Solution: As a story, and typically a story that will be read to others, there is a framework already established that they will read every word from beginning to end.
Also, children typically ask to be read a story over and over again. If the story includes what their parent does, or helps them understand a parent’s job, then the emotional connection is created in the child and they continue to ask for this story.
Problem: Let’s face it, we’re all turned off by a direct sales pitch.
Solution: These stories are the stories of life, and similar to product placement in a movie or TV show, the equipment or services provided are placed in the story to explain how they are used, but aren’t a direct sales pitch.
Types of Stories we create
Your cause is the focus of the story. We'll create a unique storybook focused on what's important.
Customer as a Hero
Your customer is a hero because of what he or she does in their job, and they can do that because of the equipment they have: this is equipment that you provide.
For example: dental equipment
The dentist or dental hygienist is a hero, and they can be a hero because they’ve got your dental equipment.
Service Provider as a Hero
The service provider is a hero because he or she restores normalcy to a child’s world.
For example: an insurance agent
After a major disaster, the friendly insurance agent comes and restores order to the world of the child, as children crave normalcy and routine. Nothing is more important to a child!
Parent as a Hero
To children, every parent is a hero! Imagine if your child reads about their parent’s work in a storybook? They’d think that was awesome!
The child thinks: my parent is amazing because he or she works for your company and my parent does amazing things at his or her job.
This highlights your employees and the important jobs they do.
Product as a Hero
Your products are amazing! The items you create make the world a better place through the eyes of a child.
For example: laser eye correction.
A child couldn’t see very well, but after laser eye correction the child can run, shoot baskets, and do the things that other kids could do.