Become so remarkable –others market for you! … 10 Hacks from Storytelling Experts
That’s the dream, isn’t it?
Whether it’s a secret or plastered across your bulletin board.
You’re striving for your remarkable product, creation or service to earn WORD OF MOUTH marketing.
To be the option that people shout out in a crowded Facebook group. Vote for on a viral Twitter survey. Inspire more true fans.
With soaring expectations and choices for customers, the desire to become so irresistible, they can’t reject you –consumes your resources.
But, sacrificing time and energy has a price.
Your marketing suffers. And so does sales.
Why not combine desires into one? …
Become so remarkable –others market for you!
First step… design and share a story that spreads.
To save months or years of trial & error, I’ve summarized 10 techniques from expert storytellers who I learn from. A way of hacking your storytelling learning to turn your marketing desire into reality.
10 Expert Storytelling Techniques
for influencing emotions, connections and actions
1. Focus on one PHRASE THAT PAYS.
Doug Stevenson advises you’ll get far better results by making one strong point per well-told story .
Because it’s not what you say, it’s what gets remembered that matters!
Telling someone your tagline, marketing message or pitch only enters their logical, rational brain area. If your message doesn’t stimulate people’s emotions, they won’t notice their emotional reaction. Thus, it doesn’t get solidified into long-term memories.
John had lots of experience with dogs. He told me to get some peanut butter and put a glob of it in my hand. Then he told me to hide the pill in the peanut butter and when my dog ate the peanut butter, she’d swallow the pill. Which she did. Voila…success.
Hide the Pill in the Peanut Butter.
Part two. I equate the “peanut butter” to the use of a story instead of bullet points, data and details. Like peanut butter, information contained inside a well-told story sticks.
At this point, I paint an imaginary story scenario of someone in my audience making a typical presentation filled with good information and data, but without story. Then I share some of the same data and information at the proper place in a story.
I show how you hide the pill in the ‘story butter’. –Doug Stevenson
2. Include the ELEMENT OF SURPRISE.
Paul Smith simplifies stories for his audience who value getting to the point, ASAP. One technique to accelerate story effectiveness is adding in surprise.
Surprise captures interest whether you begin with an unexpected or unusual event, end with something unpredictable, or leave out a story element for listeners to resolve.
A few minutes later, the boy came running back to Kristin, leaped into her arms and gave her an unabashed Koala bear hug as only a small child can do. The mother came trailing behind, with tears in her eyes. As Kristin put the boy down, she apologized, and asked if she had done something wrong. “Oh, no,” the mother said. She explained that her son was severely autistic and rarely hugged even his own parents. Getting him to accept and express love was a lifelong challenge. Somehow Kristin had helped him take a new step. –Paul Smith
3. Express EMPATHY for your target population.
People want to know you genuinely care about the people you’re helping, and why you care.
The God of Empathy, Jon Morrow steps inside the mind of his target audience –whether he’s writing, giving a webinar, coaching or providing a sales pitch.
He mirrors back what his target audience says and thinks. Letting them know he understands the business desire they’re striving to reach, and what burning frustration they’re struggling with.
Keep in mind, when people feel understood, they connect on an emotional level. If you’re struggling to get people to open-up and share their inner thoughts –model this.
Share your feelings and inner thoughts so people will trust you with theirs.
If we’re being honest, I think maybe that’s one of the reasons many of us start blogging. You could kick the bucket tomorrow, but your words will live on, teaching, inspiring, and taking root in the minds of readers for generations to come.
Or at least that’s the idea.
What really happens, of course, is that you pour your heart and soul into a post, and no one seems to care. No comments, no links, no nothing. Come on over, friends, and check out my blog. We’re watching my ideas die in real time. And it’s disturbing. –Jon Morrow
4. Remove the invisible filter thats blocking you from connecting with listeners or your audience.
Simon Sinek strives to connect with his audience when sharing story content that he feels.
He does this using unrehearsed ways to share stories. And, taking his time presenting so he can feel and convey painful and positive emotional content, embedded in his story. Thus, Sinek comes across as sounding and appearing like his authentic self.
Communicating as your natural self when sharing stories that you feel –entices people to trust you.
Summarizing, focusing on events, using formal, impersonal language, and presenting over-rehearsed, scripted content disconnects you from readers.
They miss out on connecting with the real you.
It looked like A Beautiful Mind if you walked into my bathroom. Every single tile was filled with crazy ideas. Some of them were disconnected. Some of them were just thoughts I thought were really, really interesting. I would never erase any of them. I would just stand there every night, brushing my teeth, and I’d be just staring at one of them. And then I’d make a connection and start writing on one of the tiles. There was madness in my bathroom, but that’s how it works for me. –Simon Sinek
5. SHOW, don’t tell!
Alex Limberg is a master at bringing stories to life, pulling readers into his stories.
Telling is easier for the person speaking.
Showing is easier for listeners to grasp the meaning of your story, and remember it. It’s hard for listeners to see, hear and feel stories that are told without sensory and emotional details.
The key to storytelling well is how it makes readers feel.
Somehow you can’t help but feel that he hasn’t grasped the magnitude of the teeth-crumbling, nerve-shredding course of your day.
He hasn’t seen you driving slaloms through rush hour traffic, one finger on the steering wheel, while arranging appointments on the cell phone, and wrapping a birthday present with your left toe. He hasn’t seen you creeping in through the front door on your gums at 11 PM, loaded with papers and shopping bags. –Alex Limberg
6. Feature your ideal customer as a RELUCTANT HERO.
Alaura Weaver’s strategy works best when writing or speaking with someone from your target population.
By choosing a relatable hero as the main character –you’re making it easier for your reader or listener to identify with the character. You personalize your story as if communicating with them as the hero of their lives. Raising their confidence and courage for tackling their challenge that’s featured in your story.
Through your story, it’s easier to visualize what could happen if people take action versus reluctantly do nothing. They compare how both options might turn out.
“Well, it’s called Double Dog, which is a kind of dare. So, I think the people who made the beer are daring the customer to drink the beer.”
“Yuck, beer. Why would they want to make their beer scary?”
“It’s daring the customer to take a risk and be brave.”
“So, monsters dare people to be brave?”
“Yes, bud. That’s why they exist. To bring out the courage in others.”
To which he replied, in his scary-wise-beyond-his-years way: “So, mom, monsters exist to make people into Heroes.” –Alaura Weaver
7. Clear up the mismatch of what your target population wants
Donald Miller stresses the importance of clearly defining what you sell, AND aligning this with a desire your target population is actively striving for.
It’s easy to mistake what you think the people you target want versus what they actually want. People often focus on their problems or symptoms versus on the cause or solution you have in mind.
Once you’ve cleared up the mismatch, clearly describe what ideal potential customers want through your compelling story.
As an example, people may not want to understand or learn the investing process. But, they want to know how to pay down their mortgage and retire sooner. Instead of focusing on increasing their understanding –focus on steps to take for getting immediate results.
If 12 minutes into The Bourne Identity the audience still doesn’t know exactly what Jason Bourne wants (that he has amnesia, somebody is trying to kill him, he has unique abilities, and he doesn’t know where he got them), they’re going to walk out.
If Jason Bourne wants to know who he is, to marry the girl, to run a marathon, to lose 20 pounds, and to adopt a cat –the audience will walk out for the opposite reason. –Donald Miller
8. Identify and address your target population’s top OBJECTION.
Jenika McDavitt teaches a priceless lesson.
No one’s buying until you address their top objection.
You discover this through either immersing in their world, or taking on their burning problem yourself.
Why the discovery.
Because people may not tell you their top objection, for many reasons.
Evidence of this irresistible technique.
McDavitt won an all-expense paid 8-week trip to Tunisia. Her story was selected out of hundreds of all-star, ivy-league student candidates. She was the only candidate who addressed the judges’ top objection, and overcame it through her story.
How An Essay About Chickens Landed Me An All-Expenses-Paid 8-week Trip to Tunisia
I knew my fellow applicants would have impressive things to say about career plans that included the UN and the Foreign Service, or research tracks that demanded future Arabic proficiency. I had none of this.While my cursor blinked on an empty essay page, I went back and looked at the program website. And something leaped out at me.
In offering tips for applicants, they seemed particularly shrill that students should be “mature, flexible, and dedicated,” willing to create a “positive” learning environment, even in challenging, foreign circumstances.
And suddenly, it was as if I could read between the lines:
What is the biggest problem these folks have? –Jenika McDavitt
9. Facilitates others to care and wonder
A great storyteller has the ability to create “caring” and “wonder” in the audience.
The challenge and conflict a main character experiences entices caring.
Wonder has an audience exploring options that expand their perception.
An epic story is
A character
Who wants something massive
And is willing to risk everything to get it
The real depth of any story is not whether the character achieves the goal but who they become as they face the obstacles along the path. –Conor Neill
10. Focus on what you stand for / WHY your purpose or cause matters.
Stories spread because they enhance how others feel.
They’re inspired to share it with others.
I often recommended that people watch how Casey Neistat shares stories in his videos. Think about why he captures memories of his life as stories, and why his target audience loves watching his video storylines.
Why are they inspired to keep watching and inspire others to watch, too?
Do What You Can’t –Casey Neistat
Storytelling for word of mouth marketing and selling –is an unfair advantage that you get better at.
If customers and referral partners find whatever you sell is remarkable –inspire them to attract more loyal customers, and so on.
And remember, irresistible stories are your superpower for inspiring others.
Your advantage begins by enhancing one expert technique, then another, and another.
Earn word of mouth marketing for your business story.
