Powerful copywriting is based on persuasive copy. If you want to increase your readership, and implicitly your conversion rate, you need sticky ideas and a unique way of rendering them. Sticky ideas are ideas that stick, that hook the readers effortlessly, and stay with them. How can you make ideas stick? By telling a story. Why? Because the human brain processes stories more easily.
We’ve been telling stories for quite a while. Manny in Ice Age lived in cave paintings long before we learned to make him fit the screen of our 3 D home theater system. That’s why the way we perceive ourselves and how we experience the world is best described in stories. Stories make communication more effective and they get you straight where you want to go. Everybody likes a good story. It’s no different with Web content. You can use storytelling to make online marketing not only easier to swallow but tasty. Here’s a test.
What do you feel when you read something like: This-weight-control-product will help you lose weight fast by stimulating your metabolism and inhibiting your appetite? Compare it to: Maria is 38. Now a successful entrepreneur, she was on the brink of despair six months ago. She had recently gone through a painful divorce. She was overweight and depressed. Until one day, her friend gave her this weight-control product. It changed her life.
Are you stifling a yawn or mumbling a whatever mentally when reading the first example? Or perhaps your mind simply goes blank and you forget about it in a click. What about the second example? Which of the two is more enticing?
Stories Are Persuasion Tools
Why is that? Here are the main reasons:
• People can connect with what happens in a story emotionally.
• A story puts flesh on a message, including a marketing one, which makes it easier to digest than dry facts.
• Because of the two reasons above, the meaning of stories is easy to understand.
How can you improve the copywriting used in your online marketing with the help of storytelling? Here are 3 very old and common, but overlooked story frames that you can use to achieve this.
1. Make It Personal
If done right, personal stories or anecdotes work because they offer a guarantee of authenticity. How does it go? All you need to do is tell a personal story focusing on a challenge you faced or a problem you confronted with, and then show how you solved it. For instance, how you suffered from acne for a very long time, tried all there was on the market, but nothing worked, and just when you were losing all hope, you found the acne remedy, namely the product you’re selling. Remember, this works only if the problem in the story is their problem, too. By sharing your experience you build credibility, while at the same time offering proof. Evidence from personal experience is one of the most effective ways to raise trust capital. The key is to be truthful and always deliver what you promise. So, if your remedy does not cure acne, but only alleviates the condition or works only for some skin types or forms of acne, be sure to say so, otherwise you might lose your customers’ loyalty.
2. A Little Bit of History Repeated
Distilling historical bits in your story can legitimize it by providing justifying arguments, thus making it more impactful. What do we mean by that? Distinction and tradition enhance the aura of a product, making it more appealing. They can be a token of quality, taste, and effectiveness. Think about yoga and Zen meditation being combined with fitness as a way to reduce stress, improve health and keep fit. For some people, the association between these two long-established Oriental practices and exercise is more appealing than each of them taken separately. By incorporating historical stories or common and significant historical facts into your marketing narrative you can make it more appealing and persuasive. The results will show in the sales.
3. Put an Expert in Your Story
This type of story owes its effectiveness to the implicit guarantee of credibility it offers. The expert, the specialist or the guru are always powerful figures because of the authority they are invested with. How does this story work? You have a problem and look for a solution, but you can’t find an answer on your own. You meet a wise man who does not provide you the solution itself, but the way to find the solution. Your product is the way to the solution. Thus, people coming to you to solve their problem, which is the same as yours, are persuaded to try your product/service because it is approved by an expert. Again, using various forms of storytelling is not a way to encourage fiction understood as lying. Whatever you say, be transparent and honest, and support your claims with truthful facts.
These three types of stories can help you use the power of storytelling to create sticky copywriting that can turn readers into buyers. Because stories sell. It’s a fact.