7 TIPS FOR TELLING STORIES THAT SELL
The importance of providing the best experiences to our followers and potential buyers is being more valued each day.
That is why I will give you 7 tips to tell stories that sell. Because it is important to remember that although our content might be amazing, epic and impressive, if we can’t sell it, our firm will eventually close.
7 tips for telling stories that sell
- A storyline is needed. This is nothing new. Use the firm’s history, it’s values, the way everything started. Why was the company created? What does it offer? For example: João and his father went to the supermarket to buy razor blades for grandpa. All they found were shelfs full of dull and useless products. That was when they decided there had to be another way to solve this problem. A creative, cheap and customizable product.
- Sell an experience. Something like: “We want to give our customers all the tools and information they need to go out and speak their mind.”
- Use the right environment to create a state of mind. Everything needs to be planned according to what we want people to feel when they see what we have to offer. So, if you are thinking about the perfect landscape on which to record your commercial, don’t forget to think about who will watch it and what effect it will cause on them.
- Create moments. You can, for example, create a special day for your product. We have the example of razor blades, which have a national day (December 1st) and a month on wich men are asked not to shave – November, “Movember”. There was a big hype about it and at the end of this month, men needed a good razor blade… a need was created. A movement started and it turned out to be a good example of a successful marketing campaign. Why? Because a bunch of razor blades were sold thanks to it.
- Connect with your audience. It is very important to create content that will make us stand out from a never ending sea of messages, posts, tweets, snaps, intas… you name it… Suggestion? Big photos, strong, contrasting colors, and the best possible link between copy and image. Without ever forgeting to give the audience what they want and need.
- Plan a campaign that exposes the product in a seductive package, impossible to ignore or refuse… Let’s go back to the razor blade example. They use a normal image, picturing a normal guy, with a look that is… normal, with shaving cream on his cheeks and a coffee mug on one hand. Getting ready to do the most commun thing of many men’s daily routine: shave his beard in the morning. He just wants one thing: to shave the beard.
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Do not over overdo the story. It is vital that this does not happen, people can easily tell when a story is fake. It’s equally important to never forget: content cannot overtake the biggest goal of a company – to sell. A microhistory is worth much more than a fake one. Reality is always more interesting and complex than fiction. Thus, it’s capacity to trigger empathy and affinity with our target audience is considerably larger, or even unmatched.
To resume, I want to leave you some advices:
- Do not exaggerate the stories you are telling.
- Work (a lot) on the relationship you are trying to create with your audience.
- Sell experiences, the best ones you possibly can, without ever forgetting your product’s and your target audience’s nature.
- Last but not least, do not forget that any good story need a plot that engages with people and connects them with your characters. Without this, you won’t go far – you can even get everything else right, but the results won’t show up.
Your stories may be the best, but if you can’t manage to grab your audience’s attention, they will instantaneously loose interest and start feeling that you are making them loose their precious time.
Have in mind that this happens because people don’t care about us. So, tell personal stories that in some way, might feel relatable. Stories that induce the magical feeling that all creators and brands are looking for – the one that leaves the audience feeling that those stories could have been written for them.
“The most powerful person in the world is the Storyteller”
Steve Jobs