Are You Writing For The Right Persona?

Episode 394 - Courtney KlepschCourtney (00:02) I think the about page on a website is probably one of the only pages that a company has the ability, the allowance to humanize their brand. Ben Ard (00:33) Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Courtney. Courtney, welcome to the show. Courtney (00:38) Thanks for having me. Ben Ard (00:39) Yeah, Courtney, I'm excited. This is going to be a fun episode. I think it's a question that most people are asking themselves and have at least thought about to a little bit. And I think it's going to be a fun discussion. I think it's going to be a good episode. So Courtney, though, before we dive in, let's get to know you for the audience listening in. Share your background work history. Let's get to know you if you don't mind sharing. Courtney (01:02) Sure, so I have been in marketing and communications for at least 20, 25 years. I started in news media and on the East Coast and then basically worked my way through over to San Diego and the West Coast. And from news, I have done everything from online to digital to traditional marketing. And I have basically been in almost every single industry, it feels like at times. I'm currently in the staffing industry, I've also worked in real estate, biotech, healthcare, cheerleading, and youth athletics. So it's been quite a ride in marketing like most people have when they are in marketing. And so yeah, I'm really excited about this conversation. Ben Ard (01:42) I love it. This is so cool. With your experience, I'm sure you've seen the different phases of marketing myself as well, but it's interesting that now more than ever, we need to make our content and marketing relatable and human. So the focus for today is how storytelling can help us keep marketing human. Let's start off with like founder stories. I know that we were emailing back and forth before this, but founder stories. How does that keep a brand human? What are your thoughts on that right there? Courtney (02:10) Sure, think, mean, founder stories are, to me, are the epitome of most brands. If you can connect with the brand, and it usually resonates a lot of the times from the founder story, then you have the customer base that you want. And so I have a couple of my favorite founder stories that I think throughout the years, I didn't necessarily realize that they were my favorites until I really sat down and thought about it. And so I have a couple of folks that come to mind like Oprah Winfrey. she basically made conversation the subject matter today but she made conversation okay for people to be real and authentic and tell their stories and it's not always, you know, glitz and glamour and edited and produced. And although she might produce beautiful stories, you know, her story didn't start as beautiful and she was able to kind of bring that authenticity through and be able to connect with, I mean, thousands and thousands of people. I mean, I remember watching her when I was a little girl and actually through podcasts, I could still hear some of the podcasts, you know, the episodes from Beckton and they absolutely resonate and are still evergreen today. So that's kind one person I think of. And then kind of on the total opposite spectrum is Jesse Cole, the founder of Savannah Bananas. His story, he was a baseball player. He loved the game. Injury brought him out of it, but he still wanted to bring joy to people. if you've ever been to a Savannah Bananas game or have read anything about it or seen anything about it, I would absolutely say that he has achieved his goal of bringing joy to families across not just the United States, but across the Ben Ard (03:42) I love that. That's so cool. And as a part of this, you mentioned specifically in our email communication, and I want to dive into this because I'm so bad at this next thing. You have like this affinity for about pages and how that can help a brand tell its story. Walk us. I don't even have an about page on my website, so I'm curious, like how does that help you humanize a brand and keep marketing human? Courtney (03:55) I do. Yeah, I think the about page on a website is probably one of the only pages that a company has the ability, the allowance to humanize their brand. Most companies, their website, it's probably a brochure, it can be a lead generator, you know, but if you really want to tell your story, the about page is absolutely 100 % the place to do that if you're on the website. Yes, you could do it through social media. You have those platforms. Yes, you could do it in interviews, but the about page may be an in the news page where you're being featured, but you have to be featured, is the one place. And so, yes, you can tell the story about the company, what you do, who you serve, what you provide, but I think it's also a ⁓ unique opportunity for founders, no matter how big the company is, on how they got started. you know, sometimes maybe that's not a story that might seem extraordinary to the founder or to the person, you know, even, you know, starting the company. But I think in a lot of times that brings the connection between the company to humanize the brand to the consumer. And so I always appreciate when an about page has a little bit more about the company because it's like when you meet somebody and you don't necessarily know what you have in common. And then after the conversation that you've had with them, there's a connection there if you did connect on something. And so you might be more likely to answer an email from them or pick up the phone if they call or whatever it is. And so I think it's just like a little breadcrumb for consumers to kind of take a bite into what the company is that they're associating with. Ben Ard (05:42) Okay, I love that. So when you're building an about page and about us, let's say the company is established. It's a little bit old over brand. You want to humanize it. You know, I'm a marketer listening to this episode thinking, yeah, that's a good idea. How do you discover the story? Like how do you full like find and sleuth out the materials that are actually going to help people connect to the brand in general? Courtney (06:05) Well, I think there's probably multiple different ways, but the founder story is one of them. Maybe it's not just about the founder. It could be about the employees as well, right? Why the employees work there or why they were interested in joining the company. Really, it expands beyond the founder and it really kind of then also bleeds into more of a community-based in terms of the company. So. People like culture, that's how people connect. And so I think the About page is also just that opportunity as well to show the culture of the company. So whether it's the founder story or whether it's the company culture, not only from a consumer standpoint, but also to attract talent. So if you want to attract really good talent for your company, usually people want to go where they probably have a connection of some sort, whether it's the work that's being done or with the people that they're going to be working with, probably both. And so, know, using that about page is just an opportunity. Again, it's just a way to tell the story, whether it is about the founder, we've focused on the founder before, but it's also to talk about where the company is now and how they're growing and essentially bringing their community to life within the company. Ben Ard (07:14) Yeah, I love that. That's so cool. All right. Gonna have to make an about page. It's gonna have to be good. I like this. Courtney (07:19) Everyone will like your story, bud. Ben Ard (07:21) Okay, I'll try. I don't know about that, but I'll try. I'll tell it because it may not be interesting to me, but everyone else it may be. So when it comes to the actual marketing material, I feel like there is this trend because of artificial intelligence that people are trying to be a little bit more authentic and it feels like content is becoming more conversational instead of like a flat out kind of sales pitch. Are you seeing the trend? Do you agree with this? Should we adopt this? When, where, how, kind of what's your perspective on that? Courtney (07:48) Yeah, I I think I've always thought of sales and marketing a couple of different ways. And it's not anything that's probably new. One, think this is every marketer has said, they want to connect with the consumer at the right time, at the right place, and the right time of their journey. But I also think that, to me, sales has always been about, yes, it's transactional. But it can absolutely be relational in terms of what's your problem? How can I solve it? And I think the best salespeople are probably the ones who probably have the best relationships with their clients because they really are trying to help solve the problem. And the transaction happens because of that. so for like where we are right now in terms of artificial intelligence and these conversations, I get a lot of emails that they've picked something out about me to connect with me that maybe wasn't something I would share. You know in a conversation from the get-go there's lots of you know companies out there scraping information all of the things right and Because I'm a marketer. I know exactly what's happening. What's going on, but I do have an appreciation for it It might catch my attention I'm the mom of two baseball players, and if someone mentions baseball I kind of tilt my head and I'm gonna listen right so I think right now where we are is We're finally catching up to the you know, target the right client at the right time for many reasons, but also we have the ability as marketers and as salespeople to find that connection point that just might capture their attention, you know, to whether it's to generate the lead or to help, you know, with their pain point. So I think it's a really exciting time, but I do think that there is a very fine line between just driving AI and hoping that it works. If you don't have the I think the refinements have to happen. think that when you're using AI, if you're using it, whether it's for content production or whether it's ⁓ for ⁓ a pitch deck or there's a lot of, think they call it work slop out there where people are just going in, prompting, pushing, and then not really doing anything. I think there's still a huge need for refinement based on who your customer is. Ben Ard (09:56) Yep. I love that. That makes a lot of sense. Very cool. So we talked about the About Us page and humanizing a brand and marketing. In it all, kind of from that perspective, it's about us telling our story. But you also have the other side of the coin where the community can tell your story for you and their stories can build trust and emotion. How do you highlight those stories and how does that humanize what you're doing? Courtney (10:25) Yeah, I mean, it sounds way easier than it actually is. First of all, you got to find the stories, you got to get the buy-in. then I think the one thing about social media, think a lot of companies overthink it. I think that they want these beautifully produced videos and perfectly pitched stories, when in the end, you really don't actually need that. If you're telling a story that connects with someone somehow, it's going to get noticed. And I would authentic something is, I think the better because then you have created the, you kind of, the walls are down, the people can connect and there's a, ⁓ I didn't realize, you know, that, and I can't think of a specific brand in mind, but you know, I didn't realize that they did that. And now I feel a little bit maybe more comfortable connecting with that brand. Or maybe it presents a problem that you have in a way that absolutely resonates with you as a person or a consumer. I'm sure there's probably a gazillion stories and I kind of feel I feel like I see it more and more now with a lot of advertising that's out there but connecting with moms, know the kind of the trials and tribulations that a mom goes through back in the day it was like we had to be perfect and we had to look a certain way and we had to do certain things and we had our kids had a look at the way now everyone understands that you know and I'm speaking just from personal experience mommy good is know all unicorns and rainbows and sometimes the kids have you know mismatched shoes on and are older now they don't do that but you know there are absolutely you know I think that advertisers and marketers are getting smarter because they understand hey we got to connect with these folks And if you use your community, so whether it's an employee advocacy, whether it's a brand, know, advocates, athletes, NIL, any way to kind of get that story out and connect, I think is, it's a lot harder than it actually is, but it doesn't necessarily need to be as hard as we make it sometimes. Ben Ard (12:19) I love that. Going to where your customers are at, telling their stories. But I love that kind of call to action. Like there's a very specific mental picture of what a customer story needs to look like, especially when it comes to video and things like that. I love that you're saying we can break out of those norms, find the stories to be told and tell them in ways that may be more convenient, more easy to do. Courtney (12:41) Yeah, and I think, you know, it's really interesting when you think about all the different generations that we have, you know, the Booners and the Gen X and Millennial and Gen Z. You know, I would say that there's a different expectation depending on the generation, right? So maybe the baby boomers, they might have a different expectation, obviously, than the Gen Z would, right? I think that the consumers who are on the younger side, they're smarter. know when you know smoke is playing blowed and they understand I mean maybe not all the time but you know they're savvy they they understand when someone is not being authentic and really just is trying to get their money and that's fine there's a place there's you know that happens and there's a place for that right but I think if you really want to get that brand advocacy that that consumer buy-in that's going to be the person telling the story on your company's behalf You have to understand that there's a whole community there that wants to be connected to something and they're willing to tell the story for you as long as it's authentic and you're providing what they need. Ben Ard (13:47) And I also think that something that's interesting that I love that I think kind of pairs with this is your customers are more willing to tell the story and your network is willing to tell the story, but they probably won't come to that conclusion on their own. It's one of those things where it does need the prompting. It does need the little push in the right direction, the confidence builders, maybe the examples and everything. I think if we can reduce the friction for them. While reminding them how important it is, most of them are very comfortable participating. It's just not on their list today. And it's kind of our responsibility to make sure it hits the list in general. Courtney (14:23) Yeah, would say, know, Dave Ramsey does a great job. I don't know if you ever looked at his social, but he has, you know, how many like people are just pouring like they're they want to tell their story because what his company has done for their lives changed them. You know, I did work for a company where for real estate, where the founder of the company, his story resonated with a lot of real estate agents. You know, he basically built his company from scratch and he figured out a way to sit Ben Ard (14:28) yeah, lots of times. Courtney (14:50) and process what he did to help him grow. And the real estate agents that buy into his company, which is incredible, they adore this man and they love him and they will tell the story all day long. Ben Ard (15:03) And I think that that's important, giving those opportunities and that connection. If you know the people and they know your founders and your story, you know, they're 10 times more likely to share it. think that's so cool. Well, Courtney, we have actually run out of time. These episodes go by so quick. I love this. I think that more now than ever, it is important for marketers to humanize what we do. The behind the scenes, the customer stories, the founder stories, the about us pages. Courtney (15:17) Ew. Ben Ard (15:30) Believe me, I'm going to start clicking on those way more often now because I'm thoroughly curious and making it actually something worth consuming. know most, most pages are just here are the awards we've won, but if you can make it a compelling story to connect with people, there's a lot of value there. That's so amazing. Courtney for everyone listening today who wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you? Courtney (15:53) Well, they can find me on LinkedIn. I think it's just linkedin.com slash Courtney Clapsch. Just look me up there. My socials are private, actually, so can't really find me there. But LinkedIn is probably the best place to find me. Ben Ard (16:02) Okay. Great. Love it. We will link to Courtney's profile in the show notes for everyone listening. Courtney, again, thank you so much for the time and insights today. Courtney (16:13) Thank you.