Stop creating ads. Start revealing stories.

Recently, I've been approached by a few business owners, both at small business operations and at big corporations that all want videos. They usually want to "get the word out" on a new project or product and think producing a promotional video will do the trick. I wasn't in the freelance marketing game 15 years ago, but I have to assume this is what it felt like when business owners were asking marketers to build them new websites.

If you're a business owner and have a product worthy of peoples' attention, of course we need to get the word out. However, "getting the word out" isn't what it used to be. We can't blast people with ads. And as much as I enjoy creating videos, a video featuring your new product isn't going to necessarily cut through the noise.

In the past, marketers didn't need to rely on advocates as much. They could manipulate and blast facts on screens and radio waves to convince people to buy from them. Now that over a billion people have the ability to blast "facts" on screens and radio waves, consumers are even less likely to discover your wonderfully-designed advertisement.

The alternative is to spend less energy on creating video advertisements and more on revealing and highlighting the narrative unfolding around your brand every day. Next month, I'm running a "marketing seminar" for a few members of the Research & Development team at work. A few of them saw a copy of a booklet I helped produce and wanted to know how they could replicate it. While I can't exactly share the contents, I can let you in on what I think inspired them to give us a call in the first place.

It was the stories inside.

We loaded the booklet with rich media and relevant stories that, when sewn together, commanded the attention of our audience. The best part? We didn't have to make any of it up. Instead, we spent our time interviewing members of their teams, learning about how they spent their time and made their impact. Once we had all of this information, it was just a matter of stitching it together.

As you brainstorm how you might reveal and craft narratives for your own brand, consider what these companies have done with some of their more recent "ad" campaigns. No products mentioned. No big offers given. Only story.

While Dove invested in having a camera crew, hired a forensic artist and coordinated a number of women for their experiment, GoPro went in a more cost-effective direction.

All they had to do was compile some of their favorite footage submitted by their customers and add a really repetitive song to the mix. Not as touching as Dove, but still very effective in communicating their narrative.

For Dove, their narrative is about self-love and revealing who you really are. GoPro is about exploring the world and living a more fulfilling life.

What is your brand's story about?

In case you need a place to start, take one last tip from the two examples mentioned above.

Your story starts (and ends) with your customers.