How can you stand out from the noise in a crowded market and get your important message heard?

How can you double or even triple your monthly revenue?

How can you instantly turn strangers into buyers who are happy to pay twice the market rate for your products or services?

It’s easier than you think. The way to get there fast is through the Awesome Power of Story.

Discovering the power of story…

As an absolutely horse crazy teenager, I first discovered how powerful story could be in my business when I started using it to sell horses.

By giving my clients a detailed background story of each horse I had for sale, they became personally attached to them and felt like they were buying way more than just another horse.

I told stories about where the horse was born, how it got it’s name, who it’s parents were and their family history.

I talked about the interesting history of the breed, what they were known for and how they had evolved over the years into the horse they were buying today.

Many times the buyers would become so attached to the horse they learned about that they were willing to pay more than double what other horse breeders were charging for their horses.

Through the power of story I made buying a horse from my farm an exciting adventure.

My buyers weren’t getting just another horse. They were purchasing a valuable piece of history, adventure and romance.

Story saves the day…

My next experience with using story in my marketing was in the 1990’s when I used story to turn my struggling bath & beauty products company into to an incredibly popular luxury brand.

That would never have happened without using the power of story to make my products stand out from the crowd.

When you stop to think about it, bath soap is as uninteresting of a commodity as there is.

By adding story to my marketing, I was able to make my customers feel as though they were getting a little piece of family history and tradition.

Keep reading and I’ll explain how I saved my bath & beauty products business by telling you a … you guessed it … a story 🙂

(Note: To Calculate how many new clients you need each month and how much money you could be earning when you start using the power of story to sell you course or program offerings, click here and use the Reverse Engineer Your Income Calculator™ absolutely FREE!)

Tap into the Awesome Power of Story

The origin of the power of story dates back to when humans first used art to share stories by painting on the walls of caves.

We’ve been using story as an effective tool to increase the perceived value of goods and services dating all the way back to when the first trade and sale was made.

When you tap into a story that resonates with your audience, you instantly increase your know, like and trust factor.

Your prospects become attached to you, your brand, your products and services.

As a result you greatly increase the likelihood of not only completing the sale but also developing a long-term relationship and repeat sales.

Not only that but because no two stories are the same, you instantly create differentiation in the market place.

No one else has your story.

No one tells a similar story in quite the same way. Therefore no one else has your exact product or service.

Use story effectively and you’ll have no competition, and you can name your price.

In a commodities market where many products and services are viewed as the same (like soap!), differentiation is critical to success.

You could try to increase the value of your product by lowering the price or increasing the level of service you provide along with the product.

Or you can stand out in the crowd, rise above the noise and get more customers, charge more, profit more and dominate your market.

Facts Tell – Stories Sell

Chances are you don’t remember a single fact or figure that were presented to you at the last webinar, live event or meeting you attended.

However, if the speaker told an engaging, relevant story, you probably remember most if not all of it. According to Made to Stick by Dan & Chip Heath, after a presentation, 63% of attendees remember stories but only 5% remember statistics. (Source: Made to Stick by Dan & Chip Heath).

There’s an old marketing adage that says facts tell, stories sell. And if you want your prospects and clients to remember you, tell them an engaging story that they can relate to and resonate with.

Don’t bore them with statistics.

Entertain them with a story.

Even better, entertain them with a story that leads them to take a specific action you want them to take… like clicking on a link, subscribing to your emails or purchasing a product!

(Note: To Calculate how many new clients you need each month and how much money you could be earning when you start using the power of story in your course and program offerings, click here and use the Reverse Engineer Your Income Calculator™ absolutely FREE!)

Not Just Any Story Will Do

How do you know which stories to include in your marketing and sales processes?

Do you want to share a story about what happened to you at the grocery store the other day…?

Well, no. Probably not…unless something extraordinary happened.

The best stories involve genuine emotion, some vulnerability and a high level of engagement.

Get your target audience deeply involved in an emotional story that resonates with their heart and soul and they are yours for life.

How to make your marketing stories engaging.

Joseph Campbell, a famous anthropologist, developed the monomyth. You’ve probably heard of it commonly referred to as The Hero’s Journey.

Campbell found certain stages and steps that ALL of the most enduring, powerful, engaging and beloved stories have in common.

A great story will have many, if not most, of these steps. You’ll recognize these elements repeated over and over in stories like:

• Star Wars
• Lord of the Rings
• The Hunger Games
• Rocky
• The Story of Buddha
• Biblical Stories

3 Stages of the Hero’s Journey.

The main pieces of the Hero’s Journey are Separation, Initiation and Rebirth. These represent the broad strokes of a great story.

Within these 3 stages, there are a total of 12 steps in a great Hero’s Journey.

These are the 12 steps I use from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to help uncover my client’s marketing stories:

1. The Status Quo – Where you were at the beginning of your journey.
2. Call to Adventure – Your awareness that “something has got to change”. Often a crisis happens to reveal this.
3. Refusal of the Call – In the most compelling stories, the Hero (you) feels fear at first and refuses the call to adventure (change).
4. Assistance from a Mentor / Guide – This takes many forms.
5. Crossing the Threshold – You have fully committed to the journey.
6. Trials – Tests and experimentation of what the you are learning and the revealing of allies and enemies along the way.
7. Approach – You discover special strengths and gifts you didn’t even know you had, in preparation for major change.
8. Crisis – Your darkest hour, where huge internal changes are taking place. Your first huge failure in this venture usually occurs here. This is the hardest and ultimately the most rewarding work.
9. Treasure – You accept the lessons learned and the new gifts and talents revealed from the journey.
10. Return – This is the road back to normalcy. This is also a time of rededication to learnings and using your new gifts.
11. New Life – This is total death of the old (old habits, old fears, smaller self) and complete rebirth into your new identity.
12. Return with Your Gifts – Mastery of your new gifts, used for your good and the good of other people.

Adding story into your marketing and sales processes makes everything more memorable. This helps your email list building, your “know, like and trust” factor and of course, your sales and profits!

3 of the most effective stories to use in your marketing

Your business origin story.

In this type of story, you’re sharing how and why you began your business. These types of stories help your ideal prospects connect, relate and identify with you.

Many times, when you are a content expert, you are exactly like your ideal prospect. This means your ideal prospect will totally identify with your particular business origin story. They’ll feel a special bond with you as they see themselves in the story you tell.

You may not think your story matters, or it isn’t very interesting. That’s because you’re so close to it! Your story DOES matter, and it IS unique.

Start testing using your stories in your marketing and see what happens.

Client success stories.

Client success stories are powerful because they show what your products and services can do for people. Wrapping social proof into a story is one powerful marketing package.

The best client stories are when you tell what life was like for your client “Before Your Product or Service” and “After Your Product or Service”.

Be sure to include some of the doubts your clients had about your product or service before they decided to purchase and then how it exceeded their expectations.

Teaching stories.

These best type of teaching stories are other people stories like ancient parables, modern stories or fables.

I use parables and other types of teaching stories in several episodes of the Easy Online Marketing podcast. I use an ancient parable from the East in the opening episode to inspire listenership.

There are all kinds of ancient stories from the Zen tradition I’ve used in webinars, in paid courses and on sales pages that inspire different types of actions. Some inspire people to take a chance, others to drop their past history, and still others to believe in themselves.

(Note: To Calculate how many new clients you need each month and how much money you could be earning when you start using the power of story in your course and program offerings, click here and use the Reverse Engineer Your Income Calculator™ absolutely FREE!)

The Story of Luxury Soap

Since we’re talking about stories, I thought it would be a great idea to end with a story.

This story happens to be the perfect example of how powerful story is when you use it in your marketing.

It’s the story of taking a commodity, soap, and turning it into a luxury item people want.

This is a story about beauty, tradition, Colombia and passing down family secrets from one generation to the next.

This is a story about my company, Generations Bath & Beauty Products, and how I used the awesome power of story to turn just another soap company into an incredibly popular luxury brand and a huge success.

I started a bath and beauty products business back in1990’s and had a line of bath soaps, bath salts, body lotions, and lip balms but wasn’t making any significant sales.

I had a website and was making a little money here and there, but I really wanted to branch out and hit it big. I wanted to make an impact in the market, and I desperately wanted to have the kind of success that would validate my business idea and all the effort I had been putting into my company.

The best way to generate the kind of repeat business and revenue I wanted was to get my products into boutiques and salons, and the place to get that kind of business was at the Dallas Market Center during the Bath & Beauty Show.

I had a line of what I thought were great products. So all I thought I needed to do was show up, put them on display and I’d be set.

Without story…

Well, I rented out a booth, put everything out on display and then spent the next three days watching people walk by and not buy anything. Sales were dismal.

I was crushed.

I couldn’t understand what happened. The products were great. Everyone said they loved how they smelled and felt on their skin. But they didn’t buy them.?

It felt awful and wanted to give up. I cried most of the way home.

But then suddenly something flipped inside me. I couldn’t quit. I never quit. I had to make this work. I promised myself I would figure this out if was the last thing I ever did.

Thinking back on the most successful day I had selling, which was at a friends baby shower. Everyone there was really excited about, not just the products, but the stories behind their creation.

I told them about how my grandmother had shared with me what she learned about the different recipes for the soaps and body scrubs when she was growing up in Colombia.

I told them stories about how my grandmother would go out into the fields near her home and hand pick the different flowers and herbs she would put into the recipes.

I explained how her grandmother had told her what to use for this product and that product.

I explained how everything I sold was a gift passed down from generation to generation.

The women attending the shower loved the story of family and felt as though they were a part of the tradition and heritage too.

They identified with the stories and loved how using the products made them feel as though they were sharing in a beautiful family experience. 

And that’s how the Generations brand of bath and beauty products got its story and it’s start.

With story…

For my second trip to the Dallas Market Center, I wrote down the generation story of each product’s creation and put it right on the packaging.

I went back through old photo albums and found black and white pictures of my grandmother and her family back in Colombia and put them right on the label too.

I even used a photo of my mother with her tiara on her head and scepter in her hand from when she won a beauty queen contest. That photo became part of the packaging for the coffee body scrub along with a story about her becoming Ms. Colombia.

Needless to say the next time I went to the Dallas Market Center, my Generations Beauty Products line was a huge hit.

I sold out of everything I had in inventory the first day and was taking order after order for the next two days straight. I was able to place the product line in luxury spas and boutiques around the country.

This time on the ride home I spent the entire trip on the phone smiling and coordinating everything I needed to fill all the orders I had just received.

And the orders keep coming in until I finally decided to sell the business a couple years later for a very handsome profit!

Story helps you cut through all the noise…

Having a great product, service or expertise isn’t enough.

When you can tap into your unique story, attach it to your product or service and weave it into your marketing, you’ll finally get the results you’ve always wanted too.

(Note: To Calculate how many new clients you need each month and how much money you could be earning when you start using the power of story in your business, click here and use the Reverse Engineer Your Income Calculator™ absolutely FREE!)