📝 A marketing storytelling framework

Hey 👋

In episode 192 of the CMO Moves podcast, Randi Stipes, CMO of IBM Watson Advertising & Weather, said that regardless of marketing discipline, the most important skill a marketer can have is…

The ability to tell a story.

Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. Here is why storytelling is important:

• The stories you tell your target audience is how you make them trust you.

• The stories you tell your team internally is how you drive influence within your organization.

Being able to tell good stories (and being an effective communicator) is how you drive influence and growth.

Next time you want to influence someone, think about it in this framework:

• DO: What do you want someone to DO?

• FEEL: What does someone need to FEEL to want to take action?

• KNOW: What does someone need to KNOW to feel and take that action?

This framework is generally known as KNOW-FEEL-DO, but we put DO at the beginning because it's important to start at the end and understand what your objective is.

Here’s an example when marketing externally:

• DO: Get you to refer a friend to Marketer Milk to unlock our guide (see the bottom of this email).

• FEEL: Feel inspired that you CAN grow a website’s traffic by 900% after unlocking our guide.

• KNOW: Know the process for how to grow a website's traffic organically.

Here’s an example when marketing internally:

• DO: Get your manager to give you a promotion.

• FEEL: Make them feel your passion around increasing your scope of work, and make them feel confident that you want to stick around for a long time.

• KNOW: Make them know the gaps you’ve addressed and the impact you’ve made so far to drive growth.

Following this framework will make it easier to craft an outline for your message — whether it’s for an ad, a landing page, or how you speak internally within an organization. The more clear your outline is, the more effective your words will be.

With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):

• Marketing news from the past week

• Bootstrapping to $20M ARR

• Making the most of your copy

• Google’s algorithm uncovered

• The choice paradox

• Ad from the past

• Website of the week

• Cool marketing jobs

• And much more

🗞 In the news

• Reddit just got a fancy, new rebrand from Pentagram. Will it get an upvote?

• Google search ads spotted in compromising placements

• TikTok ignited a frenzy for short videos. Now it wants longer ones

• Reddit adds new elements to its reply stream ad placements

🚀 All things growth & product

Bootstrapped to $20M ARR, guide on retaining users, and Leah’s product market fit guide.

✍️ Copy, emails, & ads

Making the most of your copy 14 cancellation email examples for SaaS, and a guide to Google Display Ads.

⚙️ SEO and content marketing

Google’s algorithm uncovered, SEO in an AI world, aligning keywords with search queries to grow traffic, and how Calm Business used SEO to win in B2B.

🎨 Branding, psychology, & sales

The choice paradox, using non-rounded discounts, and how to better convert leads from paid ads.

🦖 Extra stuff

📣 Ad from the past

💻 Website of the week

🏝 Cool marketing jobs

• SEO Specialist @ Victorious

• Field Marketing Specialist @ ThoughtSpot

• Growth Marketing Manager @ Greenlight

• Search Engine Marketing Manager (SEM) @ Yelp

• Head of Social @ Calm

Okay, that's it for now 💙. See you next Tuesday!

“Shifting your focus from getting to giving is not only a nice way to live life and conduct business, but a very profitable way as well.” — Bob Burg

Riddle answer: Add Words.