Why a story-first mentality results in more sales and extra affinity
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood? Maybe it was “Alice in Wonderland,” by Lewis Carroll or “The Cat in the Hat,” by Dr. Seuss.
Mine was “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein. If you’re not familiar or don’t remember, it chronicles the story of a boy who befriends a tree that willingly gives her apples and trunks to help him gain success throughout life. In the end, the tree becomes a stump after the boy, who has since turned into an old man, took everything and gave very little in return.
As a child, I didn’t know the deeper metaphor at work, which some argue is how greed and selfishness can greatly affect the people and environments with which you interact. All I cared about were the colorful red apples and flipping through the pages to watch the boy transform into an old man.
The point is that it’s been at least 35 years since someone read that book to me, yet I still remember the bright green cover and the squiggly illustration of the little boy and his tree. I still feel sad thinking about the stump and the old man just sitting there on the otherwise blank page.
Why am I relaying this to you? Because the story was good enough to ingrain a lifelong affinity for Shel Silverstein. Good writing = learning, remembering, feeling, inspiring.
In all good writing, we have the opportunity to enhance our understanding of the world, learn to relate to others different from us and share this knowledge with others.
This is at the core of any type of writing, including the kinds you create for marketing purposes.
Whether you sell chalk paint at farmers’ markets or you make and sell your own custom neckties, good writing will make your product or service memorable and highly relevant when you tell your story the right way and get it in front of those key customers.
How to tell a great audience-driven story
Examine all the feels
Think of all your favorite stories. Whether they’re in the form of movies, scripts, podcasts, books or blogs, ask yourself what about these stories grab your attention.
What emotions move you?
Why do they move you?
Are you inspired to take an action or share the story with someone else?
These are a few (of many) questions you should be asking about your target audience, aka, your ideal customers.
What emotions move them?
Why are they moved by them?
What actions have they taken as a result of your messaging (your story)?
Did they share your story with someone else (ex., shared on social media, passed on a business card)?
The more you understand your customers and what moves them emotionally, the easier and more effective your brand storytelling will become.
Make the emotions matter
Say you’re selling chalk paint at the farmers market and need to unload a refurbished antique chair for $400.
Go beyond your fallback Instagram post with a bunch of hashtags attached to it.
Tell the story of the chair. Maybe it was a piece a customer received when her grandmother passed away and she remembers sitting in it as a child while she rolled out cookie dough at Christmas. Maybe it doesn’t have much of a story at all. That in and of itself is a story - one that activates the imagination and gets customers thinking about the chair, remembering it and relating with its mysteries.
When you tie an emotion to an inanimate object like our old, repainted chair, the more your customers will be drawn to it as an artifact of importance. Suddenly that hand-me-down is a sought-after relic of the past. A $400 story. A $400 sale!
Create an inspired call to action
A great call to action doesn’t have to start with the words “Learn more” or “Contact us.” Let’s go back to Grandma’s antique chair for a moment . …
Ask for interaction:
“Do you remember a special chair from your childhood?”
“What do you think about painting wood?”
Be direct:
“Pick up this one-of-a-kind at Apples to Apples Farmers Market this weekend.”
“Take our antique treasure home for $400.”
Create an urgency:
“My painter friend already called dibs on this chair, but I might be able to convince her it really belongs to someone else.”
“This might be your last chance because it’s our last weekend at Apples to Apples Farmers Market for the season.”
Need help telling a good story?
It’s not easy writing memorable messaging, especially if you’re doing it for your own business. You’re just often too close to it, which means you’ll get stuck and frustrated - a lot (happens to me all the time and I do this for a living!).
At lonna.co, there are so many amazing options to get your story right. We’ll help you build brand affinity along the way, which of course, leads to more sales and extra success for you!