Bernadette Jiwa is one of Australia’s top marketing thinkers. Author of five books including Fortune Cookie Principle and Marketing: A Love Story. Her blog — The Story of Telling — was named SmartCompany’s best Australian business blog in 2016. Bernadette challenges us to look differently at how we do marketing. Today she joins the Brand Newsroom team to talk about putting a little bit more love into our marketing.

Here are some key take-outs:

• As old monopolies crumble, brands are starting to see the value in putting a bit more love into their marketing — and that includes getting better at telling stories.
• Don’t fall in love with your brand’s story first; fall in love with the customer first. Stand in the shoes of the person you’re telling the story to.

“The challenge for us is not to understand our product and how great the story is; the challenge is to understand why we made this thing in the first place, who we made it for and why it should matter to them.” — Bernadette Jiwa

• Effective storytelling doesn’t have to be written words; it could well be pictures. Some brands use Instagram very effectively to tell their story.
• Think about what you want each piece of content to do — not just for the brand, but for the client.

“Too often we’re so intent on saying what we want to say that we forget to listen and observe.” — Sarah

• Ideas for blog posts are all around you. Be alert to them.
• Don’t pad out your content. It isn’t a school essay — you don’t need to write for length. Be concise.
• You have to put the time into content. You start from a point of service — hoping people are going to come and read your stuff. Do it because you love it. If you start from that place, then you do better work.

“If you don’t like the work that you’re doing, it shows in your work.” — Bernadette Jiwa

Here are the links you might need

• Here’s Bernadette’s fantastic blog, The Story of Telling.
• You can also follow her on Twitter.

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic spoke to Content Marketing Institute vice president Michele Linn about the 2017 trend report for B2B content marketing.

And here’s a discussion with Jonathan Crossfield on how to avoid epic social media mistakes.

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For more information about the show, visit the Brand Newsroom website, where you can join the Brand Newsroom Community and receive exclusive content and opportunities to meet James, Nic and Sarah.