Ever wondered how to craft a launch campaign that your audience just can’t ignore?
Then, it’s time to harness the power of narrative design.
In this article, we’ll explore just what the heck narrative design is and how you can integrate it into your Go-to-Market strategies. Plus, we’ll look at some common obstacles and how to overcome them.
Let’s dive in.
What is narrative design?
In a nutshell, narrative design is like a mix of storytelling and positioning. It helps you tell your product’s story in a way that resonates with your audience. Done right, it sets the stage for how to build an awesome brand that customers will love.
To find out more about narrative design and its origins, let’s turn to Marcus Andrews, Director of Product Marketing at Pendo.io and absolute master of this strategy. As he puts it,
“Narrative design is a term used in video game development to describe how interactive stories come to life. It describes the work of the authors who create a world and the rules that exist inside them. It’s a perfect analogy for this new approach to telling stories in marketing.”
So how does this approach work? Well, by identifying major shifts impacting your customers and industry, and positioning your product as the answer, you can create a narrative that directly addresses the biggest changes and difficulties your audience faces – making your offering uniquely appealing.
As Marcus points out, HubSpot are absolute masters of this strategy, using it to create not one but two whole new categories in the minds of their audience: inbound marketing and the flywheel.
In the case of inbound marketing, HubSpot realized that people were becoming increasingly immune to traditional advertising, so instead, they turned their focus to attracting customers with useful and relevant content. They then created a story and framework around providing that content, which helped establish them as leaders in an emerging space.
How narrative design can supercharge your GTM
Narrative design might sound a bit conceptual and fluffy, but it can deliver major value for your GTM campaigns. Let's take a look at why it's so pivotal.
Firstly, it helps you stand out from the crowd. Today's markets are so crammed with competitors claiming to be the best that it all becomes background noise. Instead of trying to make yourself heard above the racket of your rivals, narrative design allows you to create and dominate a whole new category.
There’s another massive benefit, too – it allows you to forge emotional connections with your audience. By crafting a relatable journey from struggle to success, you show you understand their struggles and prove they can count on you to help.
In short, a solid narrative design is great for maximum success in your Go-to-Market strategy.
Sounds great, right? Now let’s explore how you can set about harnessing this powerful strategy for your organization.
How to design your narrative in five steps
Crafting an impactful narrative isn’t as daunting as it might seem. In just five straightforward steps, you can unlock the power of storytelling and inspire your audience to choose you.
Here’s how. 👇
Step one: The change
First, scan the horizon and identify a massive change that’s shaking up your target audience’s world. We're talking seismic shifts – technological, societal, environmental, regulatory – something that’s flipping an entire system on its head. This is the spark that’ll ignite your narrative.
Let’s say your customers are banks, and the rise of decentralized finance is a major challenge for them to navigate – that’s the basis of your narrative.
Identified your colossal change? Great! Now for step two…
Step two: The impact
So, you've spotted a huge change that's shaking things up for your audience. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper and outline the impact that change is having.
Get descriptive! Paint the implications in vivid technicolor. Harness people’s natural risk aversion by pointing out the dangers ahead. By showing you understand the struggles they’re facing, you’ll start to build a connection with your audience.
Coming back to our banker customers, decentralized apps built on blockchain tech represent an existential crisis for them. Show that it's adapt-or-die time for these dinosaurs!
Step three: Adapt
You've grabbed your audience’s attention by showing you recognize the challenges they’re up against. Now you need to gain their trust by offering your vision for not just surviving but thriving amidst the storm.
How should your audience adapt to this change? What kind of process or system should they implement? Like the video game creators who pioneered the concept of narrative design, you’re sculpting a whole new universe in the minds of your customers – and it’s up to you to shape the rules.
Crucially, you’ll want to give your process for thriving in this new universe a name – something sticky. Then, bring it to life through killer content – the more, the better. We’re talking blog posts, videos, whitepapers, courses – the lot!
Step four: Why it’s hard
Although you’ve offered a vision for adapting and flourishing in this new world order, chances are that your audience is still a little nervous – after all, change is hard!
You’ll need to show a little empathy here. Outline why adapting is such a challenge. When your audience feels reassured that you understand their struggle, they’re much more likely to trust you to guide them through it.
Step five: The solution
After validating your audience’s concerns about adapting, it’s time to present your product or service as the vital missing link that makes adapting to the new world possible.
Remember: the point of narrative design isn’t to make bold claims about how you’re (to quote Daft Punk) harder, better, faster, stronger than the competition – that kind of chest-beating belongs to the marketers of yesteryear.
Instead, show exactly how your solution will help customers navigate the massive change you identified back in step one. Highlight the tools, features, and processes that will enable them to adapt to this new world and, in doing so, outmaneuver their rivals.
And remember: you can’t do any of this in a vacuum. As you craft your narrative, be sure to talk to your cross-functional partners and colleagues, gather internal and external feedback, and keep refining your approach. Narrative design should always be a collaborative effort.
Integrating narrative design into your Go-to-Market strategy
So, we’ve covered the principles of narrative design and how to start building a narrative of your very own. Now, how do you tie all this into your GTM strategy?
Great news: while it’s possible to use narrative design as a more general branding exercise, it’s even more powerful when used to fuel a product launch or refresh. After all, you’re concretely presenting your product or service as the solution to your audience’s problems – that’s a great way to grab attention and pull in revenue.
As with all things GTM, the key is cross-functional collaboration. You need to share your narrative with the entire GTM team and make sure it’s woven into each and every part of your strategy, from marketing to sales enablement and beyond. Every launch activity must roll up to this overarching narrative.
Overcoming the challenges of narrative design
Hopefully, you’re feeling ready to deploy narrative design for GTM success by now. But what’s a good success story without some obstacles to overcome?
Here are two common challenges of rolling out this strategy, and how to conquer them:
Challenge #1: Getting executive and cross-functional buy-in
For your narrative to work, it needs to permeate not just your marketing messages but the entire customer journey. That means you need to get every GTM team on board to bring your narrative to life – and that can be a challenge.
If there’s one person in the company who can get everyone hyped about the new narrative you’re rolling out, it’s the CEO. So, work with your CEO to fine-tune your narrative and have them present it to the company. That way, you’re far more likely to get the buy-in you need.
Challenge #2: Maintaining a relevant narrative
The world moves fast. The challenges your customers face today aren’t necessarily the challenges they’ll be facing tomorrow. If your narrative doesn’t evolve with the market, you’ll lose your audience’s interest.
To stay relevant and avoid looking like a dinosaur, you’ll need to update your narrative from time to time. So, keep an eye on industry trends and tweak your story accordingly.
Key takeaways
Well, there you have it! We've covered everything you need to start using narrative design to craft killer GTM campaigns.
Let's recap the top tips:
🚀 Identify a major change impacting your customers.
📚 Map out your narrative across five steps: the change, the impact, how to adapt, why it's hard, and your solution.
✍️ Maintain relevance by tweaking your narrative as the market evolves.
💡 Get executive buy-in to drive consistency across all Go-to-Market activities
So, why not give narrative design a try in your next Go-to-Market campaign? It might just be the key to creating an unforgettable brand experience that resonates with your customers on a deep and meaningful level.
Ready to dive deeper into narrative design?
Get expert guidance from Marcus Andrews, Director of Product Marketing at Pendo.io, with Narrative Design Certified.
Including real-life case studies, awesome examples of narrative design in action, best practices, and more, it’s packed to the rafters with everything you need to create a repeatable process and propel your product’s growth.
