Stop Promoting. Instead, Start Telling a Story Worth Sharing

by: Seth Godin

“Our biggest problem is awareness”

If that’s your mantra, you’re working to solve the wrong problem.

If your startup, your non-profit or your event is suffering because of a lack of awareness, the solution isn’t to figure out some way to get more hype, more publicity or more traffic. Those are funnel solutions, designed to fix an ailing process by dumping more attention at the top, hoping more conversion comes out the bottom.

The challenge with this approach is that it doesn’t scale. Soon, you’ll have no luck at all getting more attention, even with ever more stunts or funding.

No, the solution lies in re-organizing your systems, in re-creating your product or service so that it becomes worth talking about. When you do that, your customers do the work of getting you more noticed. When you produce something remarkable, more use leads to more conversation which leads to more use.

No, it won’t be a perfect virus, starting with ten people and infecting the world. But yes, you can dramatically impact the ‘more awareness’ problem by investing heavily in a funnel that doesn’t leak, in a story that’s worth spreading.

Read more from Seth here.

Download PDF

Tags: , ,

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Communication >

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seth Godin

See more articles by >

COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Related Items

  1. Great Communication, Part 1: Get Personal
  2. Say It Again: You Can Never Repeat Your Vision Too Much
  3. 5 Ways to Share Your Compelling Story
  4. Engage People and Build Trust with These Three 3 Preaching Ideas
  5. Creativity Needs Candid Conversations
  6. Church Communication Hero: Martin Luther King, Jr.
  7. Unfocused: the Distraction of Digital Device Living
  8. The Announcement Dilemma: 8 Reasons Your Congregation Tunes You Out During Announcements
  9. Developing a Tagline for Your Church, Step 4: Collaborative Awareness
  10. The Way You Use Words Determines the Culture You Create
Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
Read Article >
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
Read Article >
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Amen!!
 
— Scott Michael Whitley
Read Article >
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.