Make your brand the Hollywood Hero in your Marketing Strategy

Develop a story, says Amanda Maksymiw for Business Insider. It's not enough to be tweeting, blogging, creating video and information via the internet and it's not about creating content for the sake of content.

"Remember that customers are inundated with marketing messages all day long," says Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute, "and we've got to figure out as companies... how do we get their attention?"

"Content marketing is about developing a connection with your customers and prospects within your target segments in order to deliver a valuable and compelling message." advises Maksymiw. "Your content marketing efforts will likely go to waste over the long term if there isn't a story behind the whole program."

Here are a few tricks from Marketing Experts to help you be better at "Marketing Storytelling".

1. Fascinate them: As a real estate agent, you have a natural strength of persuasion. You need to identify and apply this to your marketing.

"Fascination is an intense emotional focus." writes Sally Hogshead, an international speaker and author. "There are 7 fascination triggers; passion, rebellion, alarm, mystique, power, prestige and trust." Think about how to use these "triggers" in your marketing campaigns.

This isn't about how you see the world," explains Hogshead, "it's about how the world sees you." The good news is you already have the natural abilities, you just have to identify your strengths and use them.

2. Learn From Hollywood: Hollywood always has a hero and your brand should be the hero says Robert Rose, of Content Marketing Institute.

"In 2012 and beyond, the main reason you will be successful is because you have a specialized expertise - and because you can create a differentiated experience for your customers with that expertise." says Rose.

Your hero (brand) should be the one who gets results, solves problems, is the one who cares, is the one you can trust, and has successfully done this for many other clients in the past.

3. Make a Marketing Plan. Pulizzi says you need to create compelling, relevant and valuable content. "A blog post is like a miniskirt, it has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject." Figure out a strategy for your marketing plan and how it fits within your company. Then move forward with it on a consistent basis.

Develop a connection with your customers by creating your brand's story and get results.

Read the full story at Business Insider.

photo credit: Kate McKenna