Beyond word of mouth (one of the most reliable sources for bringing in new clients) and a Yellow Pages listing in the local phone book (back in the day when the phone book was the gold standard for finding anything), the word ‘marketing’ did little more than cause me to break out in a cold sweat. I can’t begin to count the number of boxes of unused, outdated business cards that ended up in the trash. So much for good intentions.

Then two things happened: I was invited to join a small business group, and the Internet blossomed. Through the business group, I formed some meaningful relationships and discovered how those interactions would have an impact on my business. Simultaneously, the Internet became the go-to place for communication and finding out just about everything anyone would want to know. My views on marketing were turned upside down.

Oh don’t get me wrong. I acknowledge that we still need the hard stuff—the signs, the business cards, brochures, ads, etc. because those marketing tools continue to work for us around the clock in very tangible ways, even when we are sleeping or on vacation. What has changed is that now there are a variety of means for potential customers to find us 24/7 throughout the year and from just about anywhere around the globe, via the Internet through websites, email, blogs and social media. Because of the medium, we are able to provide unlimited detail about our enterprises in one convenient, easy-to-access place.

Given that, I began to see some order to this marketing universe. The infrastructure was in place and was beginning to make sense. With a web and/or blog presence, it became easier to understand the limitations and value of each of my other marketing tools and strategies. Because detailed information about my business was now available on the Internet, the rest of my marketing efforts could each do what they were best suited for and then refer the prospective client to the website for more complete information. No longer was it necessary to try to turn my business card into a brochure explaining my business. That card was simply a convenient reminder of how and where to contact me (including my web address, of course). It was given out as a reminder after making a face-to-face connection with another human being—hopefully a memorable interaction.

Such interactions were a major focus of the business group, though not as I imagined—learning to become comfortable chanting a rote message, so I thought. Instead, we learned to better understand what our businesses were about and what they meant to those around us, and to figure out how to communicate that. What we eventually learned was that spouting facts wasn’t nearly enough; we had to learn to tell our story, and better yet, make it interesting.

Finally, I understood why marketing used to cause me such anxiety. When I was fully engaged with a client, while working on a project, I was fine, because there were problems to solve and the positive feelings that came from satisfying a customer’s needs. However, throw me into a room full of strangers where I had to hand out a card and explain my business, and I would head for the exit.

Thinking of marketing as a form of storytelling changes all that. True, one aspect of that story is explaining what services or products the business provides along with a general history. But in fact there are as many stories within a business as there are experiences, also, there are many different ways of viewing a business, as a quick survey of customers might reveal. That’s a lot of material to draw on.

There are also stories that follow your products out into the world or that dramatize the impact your services have had on people’s lives. Listeners might not be enthralled by stories of the latest staff meeting, but the heart of most businesses is out in the world, not within the brick and mortar.

Stories are also told in pictures, moving or stills, and sounds. Your company logo tells a story, the way you answer the phone tells a story, your packaging, your ads, your signs, your website all tell a story.

Finally, stories can be pretty straightforward narratives or the point of the story can be made using humor, music or any other form of dramatization. Who will remember you better, the audience receiving all the facts as they doze in their chairs or the audience rolling in the aisles, unconsciously bonding with the storyteller.

There was a period of time when I was unable to commit to the business group meetings, but instead served as sub for other members on occasion. The rules were such that I could represent but not pitch my own business. So I threw myself into those presentations—everything from sketches, to standup, to singing and dancing (well, sort of), but never mentioning a word about my own business. I didn’t have to. Good, bad or indifferent, my presentations were at least lively and memorable, and that served the business I was representing as well as my own. I am still doing work for clients established as a result of those presentations.

Social media works much the same way. It allows us to maintain a presence, and if on occasion what we post is interesting, that presence becomes memorable, drawing folks to our websites and blogs. Social media is something like leaving the radio on around the clock but with one essential twist: we can call in at anytime and express our opinions. Now within a 24-hour period we might only be listening for a few hours total in bits and snatches, so we’ll miss a lot of what has been happening, and many others might miss what we posted. That leads us to the other important difference. We can go back through the archives of that day’s broadcast and even further than that or view a particular member’s page and view their posts, just as others can with ours.

Maintaining a presence reminds people within your community (however that gets defined) that you are alive, well, and doing business. It also gives you the opportunity to tell your story (at least some aspect of it) in the most interesting, imaginative and therefore memorable way possible. Everyone you know, everyone you meet and even many people you will never meet are your sales staff as long as they have learned some of your story and found it interesting enough to pass along, or better yet act on. So, what’s the story…