Getting seen, getting heard and getting paid in the online space in 2021 and beyond has many challenges.
There are many moving pieces.
Many tools and tactics that you have to learn.
However, if you become the storyteller for your business by focusing on story-driven online marketing, then you are going to solve many of the problems and challenges we face to get seen, get heard and get paid online.
Storytelling in your marketing will make it easier to be successful in finding your clients, capturing attention and making sales.
Here are the problems that storytelling solves:
1. Stories are NOT dependent on the platform.
This is excellent news.
Our clients, prospects, or potential customers are on different platforms so it is helpful to know that stories work EVERYWHERE!
Stories are versatile enough to meet your prospects and ideal clients on whatever platform they are hanging out on.
No matter what platform you are using as your means of communicating with your potential clients, you will find that you are able to use stories on that platform.
Whether it is in social media captions or a long form sales letters or sales videos or webinars or email marketing or websites or landing pages or funnels.
Stories can fit into any hot new tactics or trends of the day.
Whatever the platform, you will find that you are always able to embed stories in there. Your stories don’t depend on the platform. They work on every single platform as a way for you to sell anything to anybody.
2. Stories make people know like and TRUST you.
People have become automatically resistant to advertising. They are skeptical.
They’re resistant to people selling to them. They don’t want to be sold to. They don’t want to be tricked or coerced or even convinced.
They are bombarded with advertising all day long and they have learnt to ignore and tune out this kind of marketing and selling.
A good story, however would always break down those mental barriers and break down those walls of skepticism. You can move that much closer to the person by communicating with them through story.
This is because as humans we are naturally “addicted” to story.
So when you say “let me tell you a story…” instead of “let me sell you something,” people give you their attention.
Stories are a great way to build trust because stories are relatable. If you tell a story that your ideal client or your prospect can relate to, they see themselves in the story, they become invested in the story that you’re telling, they follow along… embracing, relating and interacting with the story.
This creates a bond that builds trust.
Benny Brown is an excellent storyteller. If you watch her TED talk where she talks about vulnerability and wholeheartedness. Her whole presentation was built with stories. It made her very relatable and unsurprisingly, caused her talk to go viral.
People could relate the things that she said about herself, even the those self-deprecating things that she said.
We followed along on her journey and heard her core message because of the stories she told. She keeps our attention and draws us into her world by telling us stories and those stories were able to help us to relate to what she was saying, to receive her message and understand it better.
She took us on a journey with her stories. That is just an example of a powerful storyteller in action.
If you tell your story with authenticity and vulnerability you will gain trust.
If you tell your stories like somebody who understands who they’re talking to you will gain trust.
If you build a world that your client can feel a part of with your stories, then you are able to build that trust.
Trust is a big problem in online marketing but storytelling solves that problem.
3. Stories make you stand out.
Now, this is one of the most basic but also one of the best things about stories.
No matter who you are, no matter what business you’re doing, there will be someone else doing something similar. This makes it quite difficult to stand out.
People say, “find your unique selling proposition” or “find a way to say you do things differently.”
Even this USP approach begins to look samey-samey — similar to others. After all, anyone can say “we are the best…” or “we are the ultimate…”
But…
One way that you can stand out is with your story.
By telling your story, you’re immediately differentiated from everybody else, because everybody is different.
Everybody has a different story.
By simply telling your story, you have immediately made yourself stand out — you are different and unique.
You’re not just that Web designer or that graphic designer. You’re not just that teacher, you’re not just that course creator. You have a story and your story makes you different.
Your story will make you stand out. It sets you apart, it makes you different from anybody else.
4. Stories help us build relationships and strong connections.
A mentor of mine many years ago taught me this, and it was one of the most important lessons I learned about selling.
What she said was people buy from people.
This is true no matter what you’re selling.
People don’t buy from your company. They don’t buy from your logo. They buy from people. So it’s not business to business. It is not even business to consumer.
It’s human to human. Person to person.
That is what the selling experience is.
The selling experience is an exchange of value between two humans, and that all starts from building a relationship.
Nobody needs to tell you about the importance of building relationships. Relationships are everything in business. That’s why we have networking events. That’s why people join Facebook groups. Business starts with relationships.
One great way to build relationships is to tell stories.
When you tell stories, you are inviting people into your world, you’re inviting people into the way you think. You’re inviting people into the experiences and the events of your life. You’re getting them invested in your stories.
When they hear your stories, they become invested in what is going on with you. You’re making them feel comfortable. You’re making them relaxed, and open to what you have to say because you have told stories that make them see you and stories that make them see themselves. You have told stories that make them see the world differently, stories that give them hope, stories that affirm their identity, values and beliefs..
Your stories connect with them at the heart level. You have told stories to give them insight, build belief and build trust. You connect by making them see that you are just like them and that you are there to help them.
So that is another thing that you get with stories. It’s a quick way and a very strong way to build connections. You build relationships through the stories that you tell and these stories will make them say and feel like: “this is my person.” Or “I feel as if I know this person,”.
5. Stories open hearts
The other day I was talking about Kim Kardashian in one of my storytelling workshops and I talked about how I had never really paid any attention to Kim Kardashian. It was always a name I struggled to remember. I had dismissed her and (in a very judge-ey way) I had put her in the category of “all these people that are just famous for being famous.”
But I watched her for the first time on David Letterman’s show where she told a story of how she was attacked in Paris. When people broke into her hotel room and stole her jewelry. She told the story about how she felt, the fear, the pain and the trauma. For the first time I saw her as a real person.
It was a revelation to me to see how my heart and mind could become changed towards her just by hearing that single story.
In the interview she had told that story and because I could relate to that story, she suddenly became more real to me. I’d never watched her show and to be honest, I turned up my nose at those kinds of things. But because I actually listened to her story, I was able to open my heart to her and see her as a person and relate to her. I didnt have to be forced or convinced. It just happened naturally simply from hearing her story.
That’s the power of storytelling.
Telling different stories about happy things, sad things, opening your world to people and sharing your stories. It doesn’t even have to be the private things, but just by being authentic, you actually create a way for people to draw closer to you. You created a way for people to be more open to you, to be more accepting of who you are.
And speaking of David Letterman. One reason he has always been a great interview host is that he makes people see his guests. He brings out the humanity in them.
You don’t need noise and flash to make people see you and pay attention to you. You need to tell stories.
Conclusion: Storytelling is a great way to SIMPLIFY your online marketing.
When you have something to say or something to sell online start with story.
Instead of thinking about copywriting, e-mail marketing, algorithms, sales pages, social media, webinars, websites or any of those other fancy tech-y things, start with story.
Decide what stories you need to tell.
There are many kinds of stories that you can tell:
Stories that give social proof
Stories that overcome objections
Stories that connect
Stories that build up or break down beliefs.
Stories that show your authenticity and your values.
Stories that talk about your products.
Stories about your customers.
And more…
The conclusion is that stories simplify your marketing.
If you concentrate on telling stories, you’ll find that your marketing is much easier, more authentic and less sales-ey.
Not sure where to start? Here are 5 Stories you must tell to build and grow your brand or business.
