Want to know the most important and powerful marketing phrase of all time?
The most important and powerful marketing phrase of all time is “Let me tell you a story.”
Edward Bernays, nephew to Sigmund Freud and one of the founders of public relations, once said, “Don’t send out news releases, send out news stories.”
How did Jesus Christ go about teaching his disciples and followers? Was it through a corporate memo from the big man upstairs or was it from Parables and stories that ring as true today as they did when the carpenter from Nazareth told them some 2,000 years ago.
When we were all children, we lived for story-time. Stories captured our attention and ignited our imaginations. Stories were how we learned about so many different aspects of life. Stories were how we were persuaded to do and believe certain things.
Now that we are all grown up and have become successful business people, we often believe we are too mature and sophisticated for stories. We want our friends, families, colleagues, and peers to perceive us as big and tough business people, not kindergarten teachers. “Don’t tell me a story. Just give me the facts and figures.”
In many ways, we have all turned into Joe Friday. “Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.”
The more I study I adult behavior, the more I realize we were all better off when we thought like children.
The reality is your friends, families, colleagues, and peers don’t want to be treated like robots, who simply input and process information. They want to be treated like children. They want to be told stories about your product, service, and company. They want you to capture their attention. They want you to ignite their imagination. They want a good reason to believe in your product, service, and company.
Story telling has always been and will always be the most important marketing medium in the world. If you ignore it, people will most likely ignore you, your company, and your product or service.
If you need to retrain your adult mind and relearn the art of storytelling, here is a great article marketing guru Seth Godin wrote for Ode Magazine (emphasis mine):
Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.
A great story is true. Not necessarily because it’s factual, but because it’s consistent and authentic. Consumers are too good at sniffing out inconsistencies for a marketer to get away with a story that’s just slapped on.
Great stories make a promise. They promise fun, safety or a shortcut. The promise needs to be bold and audacious. It’s either exceptional or it’s not worth listening to.
Great stories are trusted. Trust is the scarcest resource we’ve got left. No one trusts anyone. People don’t trust the beautiful women ordering vodka at the corner bar (they’re getting paid by the liquor company). People don’t trust the spokespeople on commercials (who exactly is Rula Lenska?). And they certainly don’t trust the companies that make pharmaceuticals (Vioxx, apparently, can kill you). As a result, no marketer succeeds in telling a story unless he has earned the credibility to tell that story.
Great stories are subtle. Surprisingly, the fewer details a marketer spells out, the more powerful the story becomes. Talented marketers understand that allowing people to draw their own conclusions is far more effective than announcing the punch line.
Great stories happen fast. First impressions are far more powerful than we give them credit for.
Great stories don’t always need eight-page color brochures or a face-to-face meeting. Either you are ready to listen or you aren’t.
Great stories don’t appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses. Pheromones aren’t a myth. People decide if they like someone after just a sniff.
Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone. Average people are good at ignoring you. Average people have too many different points of view about life and average people are by and large satisfied. If you need to water down your story to appeal to everyone, it will appeal to no one. The most effective stories match the world view of a tiny audience—and then that tiny audience spreads the story.
Great stories don’t contradict themselves. If your restaurant is in the right location but had the wrong menu, you lose. If your art gallery carries the right artists but your staff is made up of rejects from a used car lot, you lose. Consumers are clever and they’ll see through your deceit at once.
Most of all, great stories agree with our world view. The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.
Timeless Lesson: Tell stories
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