Whether you want to inspire someone, reach a new audience, boost your coaching business or boost your book sales, storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can use to attract attention and engage an audience.
We all want to be moved. We love a good story, and when it resonates with us or when we are moved by it, it can drive us to take action like nothing else can.
Think about it like this: would you rather read an interesting story, or a sales letter?
A week from now, are you more likely to remember a compelling story or a features and benefits comparison?
And are you more likely to buy a story you can see yourself in or a product that does x, y, and z?
If you think back on some of your more recent purchases, what triggered you to go and make that purchase?
Chances are you heard a story about someone who bought that product or service and it resonated with you which made you feel confident to go and purchase that product or service for yourself straight away.
Stories About You
You’ve probably heard the saying: I don’t care what you know until I know that you care!
And this: People buy from people they know, like, and trust.
The best way for people to get to know you, like you and trust you, and realise how much you care, is by either hearing your stories or hearing stories about you.
Your potential audience want to know how you came to be an authorpreneur.
They want to know what you’ve been through, what drove your decisions, and what lessons you learned along the way.
Your stories don’t have to be directly related to business to be powerful, either. That anecdote about the time you nearly got arrested for not having a valid driver’s license is the perfect lead into a blog post about better record keeping.
Or the story about how you accidentally seated two warring families together at your wedding reception? It’s just what you need to drive home a point about relationship building.
Stories show people you are human, and your values are reflected in the way you responded or reacted to the people and circumstances in your stories.
Stories About Your Business
How did your business come to be? When did you start and why? How has it grown? What challenges have you overcome in the business? Where are you going with it? What are your dreams and hopes for the future?
Stories About Your Clients
Case studies are so helpful in demonstrating who you are as a business person and what sort of impact your products or services have on the people you have served in the past.
Otherwise known as social proof, stories about your clients are incredibly useful in your marketing and branding strategy.
Testimonials, white papers, case studies and the like are all just stories, after all, and they showcase how you and your products have changed a life or a business for the better.
How powerful is that?
Stories About Your Products
Yes, even your products have stories to tell. Why did you decide to create a coaching program out of your book? How did your online course come to be? What will it help your clients achieve? Who is it not suited to? These stories and more can show your potential clients more about your products and services than any sales page ever will.
When you openly share your thought processes around why and how you have created your program, your target audience will instantly know if it’s a product or service that will benefit them or not.
Clearly, stories have a lot of power when it comes to branding and marketing. They also have a lot of power when it comes to educating.
Too much data feels like study and study puts many of us into a state of resistance.
Stories on the other hand engage us and open us up to all sorts of possibilities. That is the state of mind you want your target audience to be in when you invite them to join you in coaching or when you ask them to sign up for your latest course.
Just one thing though… There’s nothing worse than a chunk of text that’s seemingly dropped into the middle of a larger block of text, so try to tie your story naturally into whatever it is you are talking about so that it flows. That way you will be able to take your reader or your listener with you wherever you go.
Everyone loves a good story, so don’t be afraid to tell yours.
If you are just starting out on your author journey, I invite you to download our free ebook 7 Things an Author Must Know About Writing and Publishing a Book Before They Take The Plunge. It will help you get started with the right mindset and help make your author journey more enjoyable.
And follow this link if you would like to know more about our Authorpreneur’s Bootcamp. This is where we teach you everything you need to know about writing and publishing your book and we hold your hand through every step of the way.
And finally, if you would like to have a chat about your options for publishing, book in for a free information call. We’ll get you heading in the right direction.
That’s it from me for this week.
Bye for now.