Selling through Storytelling

Saturday morning at the AWAI copywriting conference got us thinking about using stories in our copy for more selling power.

It's a given that people like stories. It gets your audience's attention when you're talking - and when you're writing.

Creating your sales message around a story can help your letter overcome the barrier of too much information, make facts easier to absorb, and make your promises more real to the reader.

7 Sales Skills to Improve On holds some great tips for everyone who has to persuade or sell. And one of the tips tells us:

"Great presentations get the prospect's imagination involved. The best way to involve the imagination is through storytelling. Stories rich in descriptive detail get the prospect picturing them using your product and evoke that "I Gotta Have That" reaction."

John Forde presented some of the elements of a good story:

Relevance

Can start in the middle of the action

Has an underlying message

About people

Rich with detail

Shows an arc or transformation (begins in one place and ends in another)

Builds surprise, saves the best for last

Entertaining

Just long enough

Storytelling through Case Studies

One concept that wasn't covered in the presentation is the use of case studies. Of course the conference was focused on direct sales letters, but copywriters often have opportunities to write many, many forms of communications for clients. One opportunity to tell a good story is in a case study.

Case studies are used often as a teaching tool. (During my MBA, case studies were a huge component.) And the reason is that people can absorb information and concepts better through real-life examples.

Here's an article that outlines the basics you need to know about writing case studies: the 3 main sections, how to include the benefits, and more: How to Write a Case Study

You can see a short case study about one of SEO Advantage's clients here: http://seo-max.com/case-study-waltersbuildings.php.

By the way, John Forde produces an online newsletter that I recommend to every copywriter. Sign up here: http://jackforde.com

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