A great beginning:
Storytelling for your biz
If you’re the kind of person who prides yourself on being rational and logical #sorrynotsorry but I’m here to tell you it’s our emotions that rule our decision-making.
This is why you need to be savvy about the emotional journey you’re taking your client on if you want them to work with you.
And the best way to GET an emotional reaction?
Tell a good story.
Great storytelling actually affects our brain chemistry.
It triggers the release of hormones and neurotransmitters like cortisol which helps us pay attention and oxytocin which helps us feel empathy. (Remember I said empathy is the #1 skill for any marketer?)
But your story needs a dramatic arc if you want to inspire the release of cortisol and oxytocin.
Relaying events (this happened and then this happened and then this happened) ain’t gonna cut it.
We’re actually hard-wired to put ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist and our bodies react as if the story is HAPPENING TO US. (This is why I don’t watch horror movies.)
When it comes to your business…
Tell a story that’s REAL and TRUE and HONEST.
Tell a story you’re prepared to live and breathe.
Then, not only will you connect with your clients…you’ll also earn their trust.
Every great story has a great beginning.
Every great story (fiction or non-fiction) begins by engaging our curiosity…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
“It was a dark and stormy night…”
“We slept in what had once been the gymnasium…”
When you write for your business a great beginning is usually a headline or subject line.
Great opening lines all have one thing in common — they make us curious to know more.
You gotta know that 80% of your readers will never make it past your headline but instead of allowing that statistic to scare you, see it as an invitation to spend some quality time writing a great beginning.
If you want to make someone curious there are 2 things you need to do…
1) don’t give it all away
2) say something unexpected
Those are actually great tips for your body copy as well. Because once your reader has decided to move past your headline (or subject line) your job is to keep them reading ‘til the end.
Satisfy the curiosity you aroused with your headline WITHOUT giving away the ending. Instead, you want to build MORE curiosity about the next thing you’ll say.
So if we were writing a fairytale the great beginning might look like this…
“Once upon a time, there was a girl who was held prisoner by a dragon.”
We’re curious what happens to this girl? How did she end up the dragon’s prisoner? Will she escape? Giving it all away would be following up our great beginning with something like this…
“In the end, she would live happily ever after not because a prince saved her but because she found the courage and ingenuity to slay the dragon herself. Right now though, she’s still trapped.”
We know she lives happily ever after. We know the dragon dies and she saves herself. Do we really need to keep reading? Maybe. Maybe not.
It seems obvious in that example, right?
But we do it all the time in business. Here’s a less obvious business example I just made up…
Headline: 3 things every successful entrepreneur needs to master at any stage of business
Great beginning, your reader is asking herself, “what are these 3 things and do I have them and how do they show up at every stage of business? Giving it all away would sound like…
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in business a while if you want to succeed you must have absolute clarity on who you serve, a mindset that sees failure as an opportunity and a marketing plan that works.”
Our reader now thinks, “Cool I already know that stuff” (or they think they do) so they decide to move on and miss all your amazing insights.
Don’t give it all away. Applies to your headline AND your body copy.
To fix this I’d start with a personal story or an example from a client that ILLUSTRATES your first point. Not only will we connect more deeply through storytelling but we’ll want to keep reading to find out all 3 things an entrepreneur needs to be successful.
