How to use storytelling in your marketing messages so you can sell more stuff

I call today’s idea Tell Your Story, Sell More Products Methodology.

It’s so important to know how to sue storytelling in your marketing messages.

Whether it be fact or fiction, everybody loves a good story. As a business owner, it’s important you take the time to develop interesting stories to share with customers and prospects to get them emotionally engaged in what you have to offer, and view you differently from your competition.

Here’s an example of a simple fictional story about a farmer’s shirt from an old J.Peterman Company clothing catalogue:

“When a man puts on this authentic French farmer’s shirt, he may very well find that his hands look bigger. Is that woman over there giving him the eye, and nodding toward the haystack? Yes, and he knows exactly what to do.”

Telling your brand story is also a great way to build trust and remind people that at the end of the day, your business is managed and run by real humans.

So, here’s my 3-steps to my Telling Your Story, and Selling More Products Methodology:

1. Spend a lazy afternoon with a cheeky glass of red identifying all the parts of your business for which you could tell a story – this could include your product range, your approach to customer service, your why you exist story, and stories about each team member, just to name a few.
2. Start writing a story about just one of those aspects of your business. It doesn’t need to be long or hilariously funny. Just something that engages the reader enough for them to want more. And if writing isn’t your thing, then consider telling these stories on video or audio.
3. Publish each story in the appropriate places – on your website, in your brochures, counter cards, incorporate them in your new-business slide deck – where ever they will get seen.

Pro-Tip: Done well, storytelling is a game changer, so consider employing a copywriter to help extract these stories from the depths of your mind, and wordsmith them so that they pop off the page or screen.

That’s my 3-steps to Telling Your Story and Selling More Products Methodology.

Here’s some resources to help you bring this low cost marketing idea to life:

[Book] Stories For Work – An essential guide to business storytelling

[Blog] Storytelling – The secret ingredient of your marketing is missing

The Story Behind TOMS Shoes

As always, you’ll find more marketing inspiration in my popular marketing text The Boomerang Effect.

So, what have you got to lose?

WHYGTL