Testimonials can be powerful when promoting your business. But, let’s go one step further and take a look at how we can use storytelling in many aspects of marketing.
Internet marketing gurus agree, even if you have great SEO and backlinks, you won’t get anywhere if people don’t want to read your content. So, how can we craft content that people want to read?
You can start by telling a story. I don’t mean a lie or a fictional story. I mean you should tell a true story that happened to you or one of your clients or customers; a story that carries the power of showing by example, rather than stating cold facts.
Why Storytelling?
Good copywriting works on people’s emotions to persuade them to agree with you about the product or idea you’re selling or trying to convey. Emotional manipulation is something no one’s a fan of. So then, why do people like to read stories?
Deep down, even on a subconscious level, they want to feel something. After all, emotions are one of the things that makes life enjoyable. It’s been shown that headlines that convey strong positive or negative emotions tend to get more clicks than the emotionally void.
We’re not creating false emotions here either, we’re telling a story that happened and letting people feel the emotions of the person who was there. Giving your audience a solid example of why something works or why they need it in a relatable style is one of the most effective ways you can market.
Show, Don’t Tell
Instead of telling people that you have a lot of happy clients, tell them about Spot, the dog who couldn’t eat commercial dog foods without breaking out in hives. His owners had tried almost everything before they found your organic, filler-free kibble. They wondered if they’d be throwing more money away on an allergy-triggering food, but decided to give it a try. Tell people about the owner’s surprise when Spot was able to gorge down as much kibble as he wanted- without any break-outs. In fact, his coat started to get shinier and healthier looking. He also had more energy to play fetch with the kids.
In a nutshell, show a struggle and a victorious conclusion. The more showing you can do than telling, the more engaging your content will be.
Ways to Utilize
You can utilize storytelling in almost every form of marketing you do. If say, you have a life coaching business, tell stories about the people who’s lives you’ve helped turn around via blog posts, emails, social media posts- even ads. You can verbally tell the story in a podcast or reinforce the story with a video. Obviously, you need the permission of the person who’s story you’re telling before you do this.
Stories make great evergreen content as well. There’s almost no inappropriate time to post about how, say, a struggling businessman got his time back and turned his business around.
Don’t Go Overboard
You needn’t write tacky stuff like: “This was so amazing! I’m so unbelievably happy with _____’s services!” Not only is this weak, unconvincing and honking your own horn, it’s also telling rather than showing.
Instead, show us the person’s honest struggle and surprise like: “I had skeptical questions for _____ about this business course. It seemed too expensive. She was very professional and had good points about conversion rates and increasing income. I decided to give it a shot. Three months later, I was blown away at how much better my conversion rate had gotten and how my monthly income had doubled! Thanks, ______! You’re the real deal.”
You can also tell a story that’s your own, such as: “I used to think that related keywords had nothing to do with your ranking on Google. Boy was I in for a shock!…”
The Magic Formula
The formula is simple. Just take one of your or your customer’s experiences and format it like this:
- The struggle/ problem
- The solution
- The results
Show what happened with active voice, transitional words and showing how the person felt before and after discovering your product or service. There’s nothing more powerful than the examples of success you can immerse people in by telling a story.
If you need some help telling your story or recycling it into different types of media, contact Catherine for a FREE 30-minute consultation on how to utilize one story in multiple ways.
