Stories Sell

Stories are one of the easiest ways to sell...

In copy, in person, it doesn't matter. But before you go out and tell stories for the sake of telling a story, it's smart to take a minute to understand why they work so well.

It starts with grabbing and holding attention.

It's easy to suck in a reader with a good story.

Once you have a reader hooked, if it's a good story, they're going to read all the way through to the end. We're hard wired to see stories through until the end. It's why you tune into your favorite shows every week or sit through a 3 hour movie.

Stories are very emotional. It's a lot easier to make a point through telling a story than it is to come right out with the lesson...

People are going to relate to a story about an underdog who fought the odds and came out a winner - That's going to resonate with people a lot more than if you just come out and say "you can fight the odds and be successful!"

A story allows your copy to do all of the stuff good copy needs to do...

It's going to suck the reader in.

It's going to spark curiosity and keep people reading...

Done right, they can change beliefs, shift mindsets and compel people to take action.

One of the most successful ads of all time was called "A Tale Of Two Brothers", a famous ad written for The Wall Street Journal.

It told a story of two brothers, one brother worked for the company, the other owned the company.

The only difference, the successful brother read The Wall Street Journal.

The story allowed them to illustrate their point, as opposed to saying "if you read our paper you can become rich and successful".

If you dig deep enough, you can almost always find a good story you can use to illustrate a point for you.

No ninja-NLP-guru copy tactics here...