Storytelling & Digital Marketing - Takeaways from our Discussion With Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo
Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo is a Canadian-Ecuadorian entrepreneur, author, & digital marketing strategist. Above all else, he is an incredible storyteller. Matthew has a knack for relating complex ideas with real life situations, and articulating his thoughts in a digestible manner.
As an excellent storyteller, it’s only natural that Matthew has an incredible story to go along with his skill. Matthew started out in New Brunswick but is now based in Ecuador. He went to UNB, STU, and then went to Oxford university on a Rhodes scholarship. He has worked in Europe, North and Central America throughout his winding career path. Matthew has experience as a founder, a CEO, and has been a manager at Google, Twitter, and the World Economic Forum. He also writes about technology, culture, and politics, both in English and Spanish.
Matthew’s story, and experience playing numerous roles, has given him a breadth of knowledge that is incredibly valuable. Thank you Matthew for taking the time to share your insights with us! Here are our key takeaways:
1. Storytelling
The origin of Matthew’s marketing philosophy comes from when he was a teacher in Ecuador. On the long bus rides to and from work each day, people would try to sell the riders various items. Usually, the salespeople would have a story to go along with the small items they would sell, and they would often attempt to pull at heartstrings or drive an emotional response. The items became more than just simple things, they then were part of a story that a rider could relate to. This would often drive sales.
The stories behind the products proved that if you have a compelling story and a captivated audience, you get the opportunity to create a market. Depending on how you tell that story, and how relatable that story is, you can determine your market size, price, and potentially numerous other outcomes.
2. Lower Resistance to Buy
On the bus, the salespeople would often engage in a marketing practice by putting products they were selling in the hands of potential buyers, and then immediately following up with a story behind the product. Once in the hand, the resistance to buy was greatly diminished. Consider your own personal experiences where you may have become more invested in a product or service with the opportunity to get to get a demo or take it for a test drive. Now reflect on your own storytelling technique, and ask yourself, do you have your own “candy in hand moment”? What can you do to overcome customers’ initial resistance to potentially consider a purchase?
Even if you’re not a marketer, chances are you will be “selling” something at some point. The worst thing you can do is just try to pitch to a room full of apathetic people. Instead, start by asking for opinions from the people you hope to convince. This helps move a person from being an audience member to being a co-author. If you can get some people on your side and allow room for their contributions, then you will be working alongside someone who may just become a cheerleader for your solution within the organization.
3. Cultural Capital & Trust
A lot of people are hyper-focused on physical money as capital. However, an often overlooked aspect of doing business is social and cultural capital. You need to build legitimacy with a new market in order to get a foot in the door and have an opportunity to sell. Especially in lower-trust societies, consumers are far more likely to remain with brands they know if a new entrant to the market who may seem out of touch with their community.
By not investing in building legitimacy and establishing your brand in a new market, it will lack trust with prospective clients. Without this, any content published to increase awareness of your solution will potentially drive them to purchase from the leading brand instead.
4. Consistency is Key
In inbound marketing, potential customers are unaware that they have a problem until they are made aware of a solution. At any point in time, parts of your target market may not be fully problem or solution aware, so it’s important to often repeat your key messages. It’s crucial to remember that there will be people who start following your brand in the future who wouldn’t have necessarily heard all of your key messages.
Even if it seems repetitive, creating content and pushing out key messages consistently is an organizational muscle that needs to be constantly worked. Whether you are making blog posts for SEO or Instagram posts, if you’re aiming to be #1 on Google, you will have a couple years ahead of you throwing ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks when it comes to content. Just remember, the best digital marketers are consistent.
Thank you again Matthew for sharing your experience with us!
