Find and share you story as an electrician to add value to your business and customers!

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio (1,903 words). Names, numbers and the odd Aussie-ism may be off — check the audio before quoting.

Hey guys, James Rust here for Marketing Secrets for Electricians and today we're talking about story and how telling stories can increase the value and the money that will essentially end up in your pocket. So let's have a look. who are wanting to own a successful electrical business. How do we compete against the big guys who own the market share or the guys that charge peanuts for an electrical job? On top of that, we want to employ the best electricians so we can get off the tools and have plenty of time for other areas of life.

That's the question. Join me and follow along as we search for the answers. My name is James Rest and welcome to Marketing Secrets for Electricians. So stories have been around since forever, essentially, since humans were talking. So we're looking at how we can use them in our business because a story is a way that people grasp concepts, they understand, they get to know you, the person, the characters in the story, they build a relationship, at the end of the day, it builds a value to the person listening and you kind of take people off into another world when you tell a story and you if you can articulate it or express it in a way that makes sense and in a direction that works you can help create the experience that thereafter and essentially help the sale so This is how or what we're going to be looking at in today's episode.

Now, I don't know if you sat around a fireplace back before we had all this like Instagram and all this technology distracting us. We used to sit around the fireplace and tell stories and the originals in Australia, they've got dream time and all these stories. And that's the way we used to pass information. For example, I've done this on eBay. I had an object that was a boomerang.

doing that it's quite challenging to actually do a with a actual boring you've never tried but what I did on eBay for example I told the story the history the the how I came to come by it who painted it and say instead of getting like a couple bucks or whatever the price was just for this thing I got well essentially at the shop I think they sold it for seven dollars and on eBay by telling this story, I was able to sell it for about $20 because people brought into the story. They understood, added more value. They were willing to pay more. And this happens like celebrities. You get on eBay some dumb things like a lock of hair and people will pay stupid amounts because they like that singer or you like that rock band.

extra money to get the branded thing from that band, like the t-shirt, the cup holder, whatever that thing is, the merchandise you will pay more for, even though you could get the same cup for like a dollar, you'll pay 10 for it because you're attached to that brand because they've built a story, they've built a connection with you. So how can we do this in your business? It all starts with you telling your story and Getting good at it. So you're gonna get so tired of your story before your customers do because This is how they resonate with you and in previous episodes We've looked at the why so if you not sure of Why you're doing what you're doing have a think about this because starting with the why from everything I've seen is a Great way to start the story so people understand why you do what you do versus electrician there's much more value there and from there once you understand your why you need to start sharing your story how you became your or how you got into this position of being an electrician how you got to their doorstep how you all the hurdles or the triumphs all these things you can tell them but you don't have to tell them when you rock up at the door you can share stories there but there in my opinion should be different stories related to the situation where on the online world when people are searching for electrician you want to want them to find you and listen to your story and those that resonate with your story will find you more interesting and be more compelled to work with you there's another electrician who's just another electrician like how can they distinguish the difference of this person likes tennis football baseball I like baseball great or Metallica I love that band and this electrician I'm into surfing, they can connect with you other than that. And that helps build rapport and build a relationship with your customer.

So how do you tell a backstory, which is essentially how you add value for your first story, the very first story. And I did an interview a while back now with Parker and we went through and we told his story about how he became an electrician and what he had to give him. and this is to help him articulate and share his message with his customer base or his user base because he's wanting to help people become electricians whereas you're wanting to serve people who need electrical work however every person every electrician needs to first understand their story and then be able to share it in a way that's interesting so it's like you know you don't want to say I became an electrician I couldn't get a job and I found an ad in the paper and it said an apprenticeship, or not even an apprentice, it was like a helper, so I was helping the apprentice or helping the electrician and then that led me to If you're interested in electrical work, whatever the case may be, it's your story, which is unique and no one can copy it because it's yours. So there's a lot of plagiarism online and all this type of stuff. It's irrelevant.

Those people who copy your stuff will not go far because they will be found out. There's no truth to it. Just be honest, be raw, be real, be truthful and honestly tell your story as best you can. the more you refine it the better you get at telling your story the more sales like you can try measuring this you can split test this essentially which is an online term for you know doing one thing one way and doing one thing another you can get your website if it's possible with the website software or whoever does your web design whatever and you could have for example a page which you tell your story first and see if that converts better than a page where you just say what you do you know So you're testing out different material too. And this is the thing as a marketer, you need to verify what works for you.

So just because I'm saying, Hey, tell your story. You're like, okay, I'll do it. But will it work? Oh, you need to verify. And I'm giving you ideas, concepts and things that might work, but everybody's different.

Maybe you need to tell your story in a certain way. Maybe you, maybe you need to add more flair. Maybe you to pull back a bit. For your story to connect with your customers so make it will take the time to a come up with your story be Split test your story test different ways of saying it It's like one just because you've done it once may not be the best way and as you keep telling your story you're going to get better and better and Honestly, I find if you can tell your story at first live or in front of a customer or in front of your friends or You know, a friend just say, can you listen to this? Tell me what you think.

Get used to talking about it and refining it. And then you'll get it down to a fine art where you know your story will resonate with your people. But if you don't take action, if you don't take the first step, which may be opening up a document and just typing out your story, it may be just getting the phone while you're driving, put on the voice recorder and start trying to figure out what your story is. Just tell it to yourself and then back to you and see if you connect with your own story. Does that make sense?

Do I understand this? Like I don't really get that. And this is where over time you refine it to a point where it's, it's, it's a piece of art. Yeah. Your backstory is a piece of art.

And this is just one story. And I'm just focusing on this first block where to figure out your story, your backstory is critical for anyone in any business. And once you've got it, you need to start sharing it. It needs to be. There for your customers to see so they know who you are before You arrive at the door or even if you've got a team of electricians grab their story the more content you can produce and put out there the higher the chances are that you're you're gonna be found so for example the Dollar Shave Club they put out one video and that went viral chances of that happening a Slim like it's hard to do that.

It's possible for sure but it's a difficult thing to do. What you're better off doing is like Gillette Raises, they did a campaign where they constantly, they focused on the keywords, how to shave arms, how to shave legs, how to shave head, how to shave nose, whatever. They went how to shave and they went down that category. So they became kind of the category king of how to shave something. And this is how they got out there versus Dollar Shave who did a viral video.

However, the one that's easier to replicate is the one where you target keywords related around a similar topic and you keep going on. So I'm going to finish there because I think that gets the point across. If you're not sure or want help with your story, you can visit us in the Facebook group, Marketing Secrets for Electricians. You can go there by typing in marketingelectrician.com and clicking on the button to go to the Facebook group. That should direct you right there.

And I will talk to you soon. Are you an electrician looking to market your business? When I first started I didn't have a clue the trade school that I went to, they didn't really help. So over the years I've managed to find a way that it works effectively, scalable and you can basically put it on automation once you've set up your trade. If you're interested in implementing this in your business or discussing marketing in any fashion, come join us in the Facebook group.

You can go there by going to marketingelectrician.com and clicking on the Facebook button. See you in the group.