Episode 465 Copywriting With Todd Jones How to Put Value in Your Branding Story

Show Summary

Rob Cairns and Todd Jones talk about putting value in your branding story.

Show Highlights:

1. Why tighten up the message?

2. Find a story around your values.

3. Examples of what to say.

Show Notes

Here by Rob Cairns here and today we’re doing our I’ll be writing with Todd Jones segment. Hey, Todd, how are you?

I’m hanging in there. How about? You.

About the same. Yeah. No, no drama today. So that’s a good thing. We’re gonna talk about. How do you put your branding store your values in your branding story so.

Well, evaluate the brand and the values so.

So.

When I see a lot of people, when they when so OK it it’s popular these days. Right? When you go to when somebody has a fairly well fleshed out about page on their website, they’ve done some sort of branding process and they’ve gotten. They’ve created values. Now the problem I see a lot of times. And. Is that people use what I would call general values, something that pretty much everybody is on, which is not bad. Just you know, it’s just what they do. You know, they they’re like, OK, so values go ahead.

But the problem hang on set dot but the problem there is if you use something general it comes back to my old phosphate. How do you stand out? And I always point back at that book that I tell called the inside advantage by Robert Bloom and talks about standing out. So where is he use something that general, what does it matter?

Yeah. Yeah. I would even submit that there’s probably 2 sets of values. You have the internal values that your company shares, right. And then the external values, the values you share it and and actually when you look at my 6P’s kind of differentiate.

Yeah.

One is a purpose, right? This is our purpose and one is our purpose and the purpose is outgoing, right? So what is your purpose? So I wanted to use. I wanted to see if I could try to pull up some examples in my in my head. And so I’ll use one that I see a lot of people do.

Hi, James.

To and again, this is not me criticizing. It but I’m. Gonna show you that. I think it’s a little vague a. Little general and you can you can. Tighten that in a little bit and I’ll show you how. We do the right thing. A lot of people put that in their branding on their website and so forth. We do the right thing, whatever that means. And I get it. You know, you you wanna, you know you. You’re what you’re basically saying is we have integrity. In fact, you might even say we have integrity. Again, you’re trying to. You’re trying to show that you have integrity, you do the right thing. Universal but here. Is I think it’s a little vague. And I think you can create. A little more. Specificity like say that word ingredients, so yeah, specificity.

Five times fast.

Five times fast. So here’s how I want you to evaluate this and how you can change like. That and make it more specific. Is there a story? That is attached to that.

Then you’re getting into something different, OK? Let’s say. We do the right thing. What does the right thing mean? Well, the right thing is very vague, right? So you go back and you go. Well, our founder believes in doing the right thing. What does that mean? OK, where is the where does? This come from. OK, well, well. The second year he was in business, I’m making this up. This is ad Lib, right on the fly. Second year, he’s in business. You know, we got a customer to come to us that wanted us to do something for them and we were in dire straits. We needed, you know, we needed the project, we needed the money. But as we dug into the project, we felt it was not. Not really. Very ethical. It was kind of legal, but not really ethical. It didn’t really fit our ethics. We thought he was manipulating people and we just didn’t feel comfortable with that. So. Change that we do the right thing, even if. It costs us. A project or money. You’ve gotten a little more specific, so another option would be we do, we do the right thing. What does that mean? Well, here’s another angle.

Great.

You you’ve probably done retail and I’ve done retail, you’ve done customer support, I know and I’ve done customer service. So is there’s nothing worse than a client customer, whatever, who completely assaults with who.

If that makes sense.

Words. You’re your own employee, right? They they even do it to you now, right? You you’ve told me stories, right? People who who say bad things, you know, they’re they’re just just. I’m not coming through that word. But anyway, suppose the second year or the third year in the company, somebody did that to one of your employees and you had a choice to make as a founder, as a C? Yo do I believe the customer you know is the customer was the you know when I when I first started working you know I worked at a grocery store and our boss lived by the mantra customers always. Right? Well, guess what? At 53 years old, I no longer believe that customer is not always right. I get the sentiment.

I agree with.

Customers are always right, so bad value. Can you make it right for customers? Sometimes, yes, you can. Can you go out of your way to make things better for them? Absolutely. But when that customer vert just attacks verbal assault on your employee.

Both. Me.

Maybe you say we do the right thing because that means we kick the customer out. Well, you are no longer a customer anymore because you will not, you will not be raid. My employee that who did not deserve that. I remember a story one time I kind of went through this one time. I was working at the bookstore.

Sure.

And the lady? I don’t know what she said about me. But she said it to my. She said it to my boss. And here’s the deal, Rob. Nobody ever hated Todd. No. I mean, no, no, no. He had some people maybe disliked me. Whatever. When I left that bookstore and moved to another state, I got a Christmas card for one of the couples who who was a regular customer of mine. I’m friends with people who are customers. These two girls, who were teenagers, went out the last year I was there. I have watched, became friends with them on Facebook and I have watched each of them graduate.

School.

And get married. And one of them’s even had a baby. So I. It’s not like I’m not really bragging. I’m just saying the customers in general loved me. I did not do anything vile that just anybody. Just to this person, this lady went to my boss and. I don’t even know what she said about. Me. My boss ignored her. Because she knew how. How I was in, in the sense she believed me over the customer who was essentially lying about me. So this is something you know, but but when I get back to values, if you’re not careful, if we’re not careful, we will come up with the most vague, broad values. Maybe we’re trying to please everybody. I don’t know. But if you have a story, this is how I value it. This I’m. I’m kind of my brain. Works differently if you have a story about that value, it can help you specify what really. Is beneath what you said originally, so if I’m consulting someone and they say yeah, these are our five values, are you going to ask them for a story for every single one of that illustrates what the. Value is. Then we’ll. Probably adjust each value they listed. To be more specific and maybe I would even submit. If you have a spot on your website that where you do your do your values, which a lot of people do these days, particularly in the about page, I would even consider putting that story. Under each value so that the customer or the person on the website connects the story. Because here’s the values are abstract, they’re abstract, stories are concrete. It took me a while to make that connection. If you read the book stories that stick by Kendra Hall.

MHM.

All she talks about that in one of her chapters, the abstract and the concrete, and in your story it it helps people formulate concretely what’s going on. A value is a very abstract, abstract thing. So the story helps our it’s like it serves like a bridge between. The practical side of our brain and the abstract side of our brain. So so that is my assessment.

That test no questions.

If you’re going to do values, if you’re going to talk about values, consider finding a story in the history of your company or your founder that illustrates that value, and see if you can trim up the fat, so to speak, and specify. Make that more specific.

Is there anything else you want to add on that one today, or is that a better?

That’s it. I, you know, feel free to ask me some questions to keep that going if you want. But that’s kind of where I stand with that particular.

I think a lot of it is. We will have these values and we’ve all seen it. You walk into hospitals. Here’s a mission statement. Here’s our values and it’s like.

Yes, but what?

I mean, they’ll, I’ll post it. And it’s like, who cares? Like, show me some interest. And that’s where the story comes into is that shows you how is the value was arrived at. And I think that’s more important than the value itself sometimes.

Yeah, and I wish I had better examples for you today. And I I whipped on that but. You know, but that but yeah, story story will help people. You know, I live 2 1/2 hours from Saint Judes hospital. In Memphis, TN and they have some of the best commercials. I always say, if I have anything left. When I die. The money will probably go to Saint Jude Hospital and the Shriners Hospital because their commercials get me every time. But they tell these stories repeatedly of like the the child who’s got the problem and their parents come there to get the help and one of their mantras. I don’t know if it’s considered a value or what.

Yeah.

And they repeat this in their commercials is.

That.

They don’t charge anyone like anyone who uses them so that no parent has to worry about anything other than helping their child get better. And so there is a specific value I don’t, and I’m sure there is a story behind that somewhere along the way. And I and I, I just don’t have it, but that is repeated in their commercials. Then they never charge the parents so that they can focus on helping their child get better because all their patients are children who have cancer or some kind of. You know, disease, that’s internal that you know and the Shriners is all about the external issues like the arms and legs like that so. You know that’s a value that they have chosen to stand on. And I think part of you know, you understand when you see, you know, these parents being interviewed like. You know, they talk about their child. It almost chokes me up, right? The child was happy. And then suddenly something went wrong. And I, you know, I catch these on YouTube a lot as it almost. Makes me cry. You know, so that is a value. For whatever reason, they’re, you know, when you hear these stories, you understand that they don’t want the parent to worry about anything else but. Helping their child get better.

Yeah.

Hey, pat. Thanks holes for sharing. Going over to copy flight code website and figure out and get some help that Todd is really good at what he does and we appreciate you and you have a wonderful day my friend.

Thank you. Appreciate it.