AMA: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Head of Product Marketing, James Huddleston on Storytelling

I'm not sure I can point to specific techniques exactly, but I firmly believe that people buy based on emotion. They then use things like business cases and pricing to justify and validate their decisions. That's why storytelling is so critical. To reach our buyer on an emotional level, we need to tell a compelling story that makes them sit up and listen. Here's the framework I use to structure these stories: • Start with the big picture shift: I begin with a major industry or market shift that' ...Read More

This is where you need to embrace your challenger status and make it work for you. Since you likely don't have the brand recognition of established players in your market, you need to approach this with a challenger mentality and lean into that for the story you create. Here are a few strategies that work well: Ground your audience quickly: Since you're less well-known, it's important to help your audience understand what your product does right away. Don't make them work to figure it out. Use s ...Read More

I believe messaging should always be personal and human. At the end of the day, the person you're trying to convince to take some form of action, whether it's buying your product, using it, or engaging with your content, is a human being. That said, I think AI can be extremely helpful in the research and ideation phases: • Understanding your audience: I use AI for market research to really understand the market I'm going after and gain a deeper understanding of my buyer. What's their world like? ...Read More

This is a great question, because it hits on one of the most critical lessons I learned the hard way early in my marketing career. I used to spend hours and hours solo creating what I thought was the "perfect" story for a brand, product launch, or campaign. I spent time crafting every word, refining every message point, trying to make it flawless without any input from anyone else. Then when I felt it was ready, I’d take (what I thought was) the near final product to my stakeholders. I remember ...Read More

This is a great question, and the answer is: it depends. I think it comes down to where your company is in their journey and how well your audience knows you. If you're a well-known brand and your audience already has a perspective on what you do, you can afford to be a little more abstract and value-oriented in your headline. Think about how established companies can lead with outcomes because people already understand their offering. But if you're a newer brand or product and your audience isn ...Read More

I'd argue that the story should not differ internally versus externally. I've found that if you're using inconsistent terminology or language when describing your brand or product internally and externally, it ends up accidentally coming through to customers in sales conversations, marketing content, and presentations. This inconsistency just confuses your customers, which is really the last thing you want to do. Keep the story consistent both internally and externally, and make sure your entire ...Read More

I mentioned this in an answer above, but AI has completely changed my workflow. It's really sped up the process, mostly in the research you're able to do on your market segment, competitors, and, most importantly, your customers. Here's how I'm using AI tools most effectively: • Deep customer research: You can use AI to do comprehensive research into your customers, cutting down a lot of time you previously needed to spend diving into sales calls, customer research, and interviews. These can sti ...Read More

I believe the stronger the story, the more it will have legs and be consistently told once you release it to the market. If you have a very clear story with a clear value proposition, it will hold its integrity a lot longer than if it's overly complex, like having too many value propositions or differentiators competing for attention. The key is keeping it tight and focused. Think about the stories that stick in communities and get shared authentically: they're usually simple, memorable, and eas ...Read More