How to use the power of storytelling to increase sales revenue…
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Wouldn’t it be great if you could achieve more sales for the same marketing time, same marketing effort and same marketing spend?
Increase the sales revenues from your existing marketing and your business grows without it costing you a penny more!
Here’s a bitesize business breakthrough you can start implementing today...
The storytelling industries speak for themselves .
In 2012 there were 1.36 billion visits amounting to £7 billion of film revenues and book sales totalled £76 billion.
Let me quickly explain…
You make more profit and generate more sales when you make every marketing pound you spend work harder for you.
You make your marketing work harder for you when your marketing messages put the power of story-telling to work.
Start with 4 helping hands here or read on for the full Bitesize Business Breakthrough. Use your device's back arrow to return to this point.
An old selling adage goes like this:
“facts tell… stories sell”
The insatiable human appetite for stories proves this.
Here's the proven solution for you...
Use more stories.
The big question is how to construct great stories in your marketing.
You currently spend time, money and energy on marketing your business – you use some (or all of) brochures, adverts, website, events, a sales team and so on.
Continue to use them as before, but use better words in a better way and you’ll get better results.
When you put the power of stories to work for you, your marketing results radically improve.
Most business owners fail to share powerful and valuable stories in their marketing…
preferring the safe harbour of facts and figures – even though facts tell and stories clearly sell!
‘Probably’ the best marketing SUCCES checklist in the world?
S = simple (and profound)
U = unexpected
C = concrete
C = credible
E = emotional
S = story
Write or tell your product or service marketing message as a Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Story. SUCCEStories work…
Now for two concrete examples using the SUCCES writing formula...
Every culture on this planet of ours has a phrase which goes something like…
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.
A simple statement, with something quite profound being communicated in a handfulof words.
Just 11 words.
Now for a world-beating commercial example:
“Piping hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or you don’t pay”
This is simple and profound too!
This phrase launched Domino’s Pizza into international business stardom. It’s also underpinning the meteoric growth of Domino’s Pizza in India now.
How could you share your marketing message(s) in such a simple yet profound way?
A simple statement, with something quite profound being communicated in a handful of words. Just 11 words.
Be unexpected…
The “bird in the hand” phrase has been around for thousands of years. It doesn’t necessarily tick the unexpected box as well as we would like, because it’s so well used.
But it does unexpectedly challenge our ‘want more’ urges.
Offering free pizza unless it’s piping hot and delivered in 30 minutes was unexpected in American and European pizza marketing.
It’s even more unexpected in India because of the difficulties of delivering anything in Indian city-centre traffic!
How can you build in ‘unexpected’ into your marketing message?
Be concrete…
When you use tangible, physical examples with your customers, like “a bird in the hand” - they get it.
It’s tangible, it’s concrete, it’s solid. No ambiguity at all.
“Delivered in 30 minutes” is concrete, unambiguous.
How could you use metaphor or concrete tangible ways of communicating your message?
Be credible…
Because the “bird in the hand” phrase is used so much, everyone is familiar with the phrase, it’s credible, it’s believable.
And we’ve all experienced the ‘moral’ of the message at some time. Build credibility into your writing.
For example, guarantees increase credibility – what’s your equivalent of “piping hot in 30 minutes or it’s free”?
How can you use guarantees, statistics and testimonials to build the credibility of your message?
Be emotional…
We recognise the emotion attached to actually owning something (bird in the hand).
And there’s the distress emotion of losing something in favour of chasing something you might achieve.
Connect with your customer’s emotions and you’ll get a better response too.
“Piping hot” has emotional value.
If you’ve got ravenous kids, a 30 minute guarantee has emotional power too!
©B.andD.Dudzinscy/Shutterstock
What sort of emotional reaction from customers do you want from your marketing message?
Tell a story!
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is a simple, concrete, emotional story example of SUCCES writing. It’s not a list of facts.
You can almost sense the speed of activity at Domino’s when you place your order. 18-20 minutes to take the order and make the pizza 10-12 minutes to deliver it.
How can you tell a story in your marketing message and powerfully connect your customers to your product or service?
Your guide for producing top-quality SUCCEStories...
STOP Every time you are writing or editing use the SUCCES checklist. You’ll find a SUCCES checklist in the supporting tools for this edition of Business Bitesize.
START Stop thinking you can write by ‘winging it’ or ‘making it up on the hoof’. Use this SUCCES formula and your marketing messages will be stronger and help achieve greater results!
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TIME TO DISAGREE
“It looks like it’s too time-consuming. I want results for my business now!”
Yes, following the SUCCES writing checklist means you’ll be writing slower to begin with, but as with anything, it will get easier the more you do it.
What’s clear is, continue to write in the same way and you’ll get the same results.
Instead, with a little time and effort (to begin with), you’ll get one over your competition.
“My business/my products aren’t simple, so getting a simple message is wrong for my business!”
It is tough to take a complex product orservice and make the message simple.
Chances are though, your customers are most interested in one or two core benefits of what you do.
IBM’s big corporate computing solutions are pretty complex.
In the 1980’s they shared a simple yet profound message which was worth its weight in gold:
“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”
This is simple and profound. It’s unexpected too.
Concrete, credible and emotional?
Definitely.
And it tells two stories – one if you buy IBM and one if you don’t buy IBM!
It pays to work on creating a simple and profound message in your marketing. What’s yours?
“I don’t want to be different, I don’t want to stand out. I might lose customers”
It is true, you can be too different. For example……
An accountant wouldn’t dream of dressing up as a clown because accountancy is a serious business to you as a business owner.
Nurses dressed up as the grim reaper in a children’s ward would be unexpected, but completely inappropriate.
Unexpected, being different, is about having a blend and a balance of being unexpected and fitting with the expectations your customers have of you.
Strike a balance.
“Getting concrete, tangible, physical messages is really hard in our business”
What a relief!
If it’s hard for you, it’s hard for your competition too!
It is worth the effort though.
It’s the business owner who communicates concrete, tangible, credible deliverables, who will cut through the masses of marketing clutter your customers are fighting.
Concrete and credible communication will make a big difference to the lead generation results you achieve.
ULTIMATE ARGUMENT:
“How do I know this will work for me and my business?”
Like anything else in business – you don’t know until you try.
Test it! Generate a new SUCCES marketing message and ask for feedback from a colleague or even from a customer!
See what they have to say!
4 helping hands for you…
Gather some core facts about your business or service and work out how to make them appear more concrete, less ambiguous or vague. Then ‘prove’ your facts are true using four sources of credible evidence –
1
Testimonials
2
Case studies
3
Statistics
4
Guarantees
IMPORTANT: Guaranteed delivery times aren’t concrete or credible unless there’s a payoff for non performance –
“It’s free if it takes more than 30 minutes.”
Your 'Make It Happen' checklist:
1
Make your message SIMPLE and PROFOUND
2
Unexpected
Same old, same old doesn’t work.
How are your and your competitor’s message different to each other?
If your message IS different from your closest rival, what is it?
How are both your messages different from other players in the market?
3
Concrete
Is your message ambiguous (vague, open to interpretation or imprecise) or concrete (tangible, physical, real)?
How would you score your competitor’s message?
4
Credible
To what degree is your competitor’s/your message credible (believable, authentic or trustworthy)? As opposed to questionable (doubtful, suspicious or dubious).
5
Emotional
How would you score your competitor’s/your message for emotional power? How well does this connect with the feelings of buyers?
6
Story
The components of a great story are: characters (heroes and villains), journey (problems overcome, opportunities grasped) and outcomes.
Want to know more?
Made to Stick
Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Chip and Dan Heath (best-selling business authors of “Made to Stick”) have researched the power of story-telling from a marketing perspective.
They created this world-class writing model to follow. Write your marketing material in a ‘made-to-stick’ way and you’ll improve your marketing results.
YOUR SUPPORT TOOLS ARE HERE:
Go to the link below and you'll find out how to make SUCCEStories work for you.
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