Lots of entrepreneurs and small business owners who are making marketing content for their audience intend to convince their potential customers to buy from them by simply sharing the features and benefits of their product/service. But, storytelling is the single most powerful way to attract loyal customers.
In a recent video on my YouTube channel, I shared about why storytelling in marketing works – essentially it is about making a strong emotional connection with your audience. When you tell the story of your business, it is like a magnet that attracts the right audience to pay attention to what you offer.
You don’t need to create an award-winning story. It takes time to make great movies like Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas. But, you do need to be able to connect with your audience in the way they wanted to be spoken to.
But here are the four parts of storytelling you need to know:
#1 – The customer is the hero
Effective storytelling only works if you can engage with your customer’s story. You have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes – remember they are on a journey towards greater fulfillment and you as a heart centered wellness business owner show up at just the right time to guide them on the right path aligned with their vision.
Now don’t read that the wrong way: You are the guide. The customer is the hero.
#2- Tell the right story
The right story will drive engagement and retention. The story you need to tell to engage your potential clients is about a main character who wants something. What is it that your potential clients want? How can you communicate what they want when you tell the story about your main character? Remember you are the guide and your customer is the hero. The right story illuminates how your hero needs to go on a journey and points out how you can help them get there. So, make sure you’re framing is correct so you can tell the right story.
#3 – Identify the problem
This is super important: the problem drives the story! Sit down with a pen and paper and identify the types of obstacles your customer faces: external, and internal. You need to talk about the problems they face that shows you understand the gap they are facing – what are they lacking? What do they need to have that you can offer to them?
#4 – Show them the path to succeed
In every great story, the hero meets a guide who helps them find a path to reach their goal. So, in order, for your customer (hero) to trust you as their guide you have to show empathy AND authority. After you’ve already talked about how you understand their frustration and have been able to identify the solution that is needed for solving their problem – you need to clearly state the path they need to take. Remember that every hero has resistance to their path – your customer (the hero) will be the same. But, once you’ve painted the picture in their mind of the path you can call them to action to setup a call or fill out a form to work with you.
So, those are the 4 steps you need to take when telling an effective story in your marketing.
Leave a comment below and let me know: what is the problem that you will solve for your hero (the customer)? We’d love to know.
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If you want to learn more in-depth information about creating your business story script from scratch, I walk through this in my course called “iphone Video Mastery” – you will learn how to create business videos with your iPhone.
