The way I was approached as a marketing co-founder is that I reconnected with a friend at our high school reunion. He was a highly technical founder who had run his business for a year but wasn't getting the results he wanted. He had no marketing expertise and offered me a majority equity share to come on board. It took me about a month of deliberation before I accepted, but I decided to accept because:

1) he demonstrated he was flexible and willing to change the business model based on my advice
2) he clearly showed that he valued my skills by offering such a high equity stake and
3) our existing relationship (we were very good friends all through middle and high school) put me at ease. I already knew his personality and liked working with him.

Don't underestimate the value of personal relationships. My networking strategy has always been to start with my existing network of people and ask them to introduce me to two new people. The strength of a personal referral is much stronger than bumping into someone at an event and your contact can often be a great source of research for you before you meet with your new contact.

The companies that rank best for customer service put the customer at the center of their mission and operations. Zappos does this incredibly well. Their mission is "to provide the best customer service possible," and they've made sure that every decision within the company maps back to that mission. They empower reps to use their best judgement and don't use scripts. While Zappos isn't ranked by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, its parent company, Amazon, is and scores highest among all internet retailers. (http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149&catid=&Itemid=214&c=Amazon)

I wrote a blog post recently that compares Zappos with the worst performer on the index, Comcast. You might find that useful for further reading. http://yourbrandvox.com/blog/2014/7/16/zappos-vs-comcast

I agree with Jason, 100% -- before you dive into the what and the how, it's critical that you understand the why and the who first.

Let's start with the why:
- what's the problem you're trying to solve?
- what are the business and personal goals that you want to fulfill?
- who else is talking about the same subject? What value are you adding to the conversation?

And looking at the who:
- describe the ideal member of your primary audience. How does s/he want to receive your message? Where are they already listening?

Finally, it's important to be honest about your own work style. One of my clients couldn't get jazzed about writing a blog, no matter how much the data said it was the right way to go. So we set him up doing video reviews of his products and he's been super successful because the process isn't daunting for him. Other people I know hate being on camera, so they podcast instead. And many people enjoy the flexibility that written blogs offer, so that works better for them.

I think you'd find a lot of value out of a Skillshare class I put together recently. It addresses most of these topics and more and is priced so it's affordable in any budget. http://skl.sh/1f08fmd

The best advice I can give is pick one thing you enjoy and keep at it. If you'd like, I'd be happy to chat with you for about 15 minutes or so to help you clarify your goals. Here's my free clarity link: https://clarity.fm/andreagoulet/howdy

Best of luck! :)

+1 Laura. Storytelling is key.

Keep in mind that a good story needs to be tailored to your audience, so understanding who you're selling to is really important. I find archetypes, or storytelling patterns, super helpful, too.

You also need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. You can't afford to be generic. Authors use a process called 'character profiling' to develop robust voices, and this technique works really well for developing your brand's voice as well.

I recently gave a presentation about these two techniques. Here are the slides if you want to learn more: http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/bijou628/engineering-effective-communications

If you have any questions, here's my link for a free call. I'd be happy to chat with you. https://clarity.fm/andreagoulet/howdy