WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO TELL YOUR STORY WELL

When lockdown is relaxed and we are allowed to meet up with friends again, what form will our communication take?

We’ll tell each other stories. We’ll relate how the extraordinary events and implications of the last few months have affected us.

We’ll do it in story form because that’s how most communication is conducted between people in all contexts. Personal – and professional.

We won’t reel off a list of cold facts. We’ll bring our experiences to life by illustrating what has been happening to us. We’ll do this because people are hard-wired to express ourselves in the form of stories.

At a time when there is an awful lot of noise out there in the digital space, telling your story well can make a real difference to the degree to which it resonates with your audience.

Time for a quick reality check. You aren’t the only business trying to win favour with your potential audience. Inevitably, your competitors are out there too, jostling for attention, some shouting louder than others.

So how do you make sure that your story has maximum impact?

The impression we want all our future clients to get is that we are professional, capable, reliable and trustworthy. Every word of your messaging – website copy, blogs, articles and more – should work towards doing just that.

I’d suggest there are four main tips to follow to ensure you hit the mark consistently:

1/ Make sure your story is told professionally

It’s essential that the story of your business, of what it does and how it helps people, is told as compellingly as possible.

Does that include spelling and grammar? Yes, absolutely. I’m not saying that simply because I’m good at them; I have lost count of the people I have spoken to who have gained a negative impression of a potential business partner because their content was littered with mistakes.

More than that, your words should be engaging, easy to read and with the right rhythm. To ensure this is the case, read out loud what you write. If it flows like music, it works. If you find yourself tripping over words or clauses, revise them. 

2/ Create an emotional connection

Many websites are very good at telling their audience what they do. There is plenty of technical detail, lots of credentials and certificates and a huge list of services they provide.

The trouble is, this is like answering one question on an examination paper really well and leaving several others untouched.

It is worth reiterating that all business is about relationships, that people buy from people and that business decisions are as much about emotions as they are about economics.

It is essential that you make it clear right from the start that you know why a potential client is looking at your products and services. You get what drives them, you understand the pain they are trying to ease – it’s a short step from there to the benefits you carry that will improve their situation.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

I am fairly sure that Maya Angelou did not have business communications in mind when she wrote this, but I have yet to find a sentence that sums up the importance of good story telling in a commercial setting any better.

3/ Tell stories about people just like your potential clients

So you’ve made that emotional connection. Your copy is pin-sharp. What’s the next step?

I worked with a client recently who had several dozen testimonials on his website. Every customer who had contributed told the story of how he had helped them and described in vivid terms their utter satisfaction at the excellence of the service he had delivered.

The cumulative effect was so powerful that, by the time I had finished writing his new copy, I was persuaded that when I next need the service he provides, his is the first number I will ring.

People like to be reassured that someone just like them, with a problem just like theirs, has benefited from a service. Well-written case studies and testimonials are a persuasive tool that can give your would-be customers a firm nudge in your direction.

4/ Ensure you can be found

If you are using your website as an acquisition tool, it is essential that you can be found by as many people as possible.

I work with many experts in SEO (search engine optimisation), and the ever-increasing sophistication of Google means that their instructions to me are simple: You make the copy as good as it can be and I’ll do the rest.

The days of trying to trick the system by methods such as keyword stuffing – which had the unfortunate side-effect of making the copy utterly unreadable – are long gone.

Instead, plenty of optimisation takes place off screen in areas such as tags and metadata, while Google rewards copy whose stickability and readability are proved by the time people spend online consuming it. 

This is the ultimate virtuous circle. The better your story-telling is, the longer people stay on your site, which means you will rank higher on Google, which leads to more people reading your story…

Ultimately, telling your story is a great way of emphasising the benefits of your service to your target audience. Do it well and you’ll have a decent chance of living happily ever after.

And if you want some help making sure your story is as exciting and compelling as you need it to be, please get in touch.