10 Steps to Turning Your Product or Service Into a Compelling Story, Part I

Getting your prospects to read your promotions is always a challenge, especially in this day and age. Between the recession and all the distractions people have for their time, your promotions need to be exceptionally powerful if they are to attract and hold the attention of your potential customers. And the best way to do that is through a selling story. Below are 10 ways to turn your product or service into a compelling, selling story that will hold your prospects' attention all the way to your offer. 1. Introduce a “Hero”.  The “hero” of your promotion is simply a focal point for your audience, a single person your target market can identify with.  Ideally, it is your perspective customer, but the hero can also be you or the person selling your product or service. Coming up with a hero for your reader to root for comes down to basic market research.  Find out everything you can about the target for the product.  Learn their hopes, their dreams, their fears.   You can do this by visiting your local bookstore and reading books and magazines that they read, or browse online forums that cater to these groups, reading their posts until you get a sense of who they are.  Then create one single person that embodies these components of your target market.  If your target market is 55 year-old executives who make $100,000 a year and are worried about their dwindling retirement, create a character that fits that description.  If you went through some problem you created a product to solve, the hero of your promotion can be you.  Your personal story can be a great lead into your sales copy. Here is how copywriter Bob Bly made himself the “hero” in an email promoting a PR course he offers: “About 10 years ago, when “gigapets” were popular, I bought one for my son Alex, who was just 7 years old at the time. A gigapet is a little electronic device, about the size of a watch fob, displaying an electronic animal or “pet” on the screen. As the owner, you have to take care of your “pet” – feed it, water it, walk it – by pressing certain buttons on the device. If you don’t take care of the gigapet, it “dies.” Anyway, Alex was so excited about getting his new gigapet, within minutes, he took it with him to the bathroom … and promptly dropped it in the toilet. I quickly fished it out. But the water damaged the electronics, and the device was ruined. Upon seeing this, Alex burst into tears. “Don’t worry, Al,” I told him. “I’ll buy you another.” “C-c-can we b-b-bury this one?” he asked me tearfully. Being a soft-hearted dad, I immediately took him to the back yard -- and with a shovel, we buried his dead electronic pet, using a brick for a headstone. Not one to waste a good PR opportunity, I went upstairs to my PC and quickly dashed off a press release about the event, with the headline: “ Microchip Gardens , World’s First Gigapet Cemetery , Opens in Northern NJ .” I sent it off to the local daily newspapers. My cost: a 32-cent postage stamp. A day or so later, a reporter from the paper called. He wanted to come see the “cemetery” in our back yard and interview me for a story. He did, and that weekend, on the front page of the feature section, was a large article about me and Microchip Gardens.” This promo works so well because it immediately tells a touching, entertaining story that establishes Bob as an expert without sounding salesy.  Note also his use of dialogue between him and his son, just as you would use in a work of fiction. 2.  Introduce a “Villain.”  Depending on what you’re selling, you may want to create a villain instead of or in addition to a hero, someone or something concrete for your target audience to focus their ire.  If you’re writing a promotion soliciting money for a political candidate, your villain can be the other party.  If your offer is a business opportunity, your villain can be your prospect’s skinflint, slave-driving boss. 3.  Give Your Hero a Problem.  This problem, of course, is the same problem your product solves.  Show your hero struggling with the problem just as your target market is struggling.  This makes your prospects feel the negative emotions associated with their problem and identify with your hero.  It also builds suspense—they want to keep reading to find out how your hero finally got out of his or her predicament.  Just like in a good short story or novel. 4. Do Your Homework.  Sometimes the product’s story won’t be readily apparent, so you’ll have to do some digging to find it.  The famous copywriter John Carlton was hired to write a promotion for a golf instruction video.  The video offered good information, but it wasn’t exactly exciting stuff.  So Carlton did a little digging, and found out that the content of the video was inspired by a one-legged golfer.  He then came up with the now famous headline: “Amazing Secret Discovered by One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices… And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!” Every product or service has an interesting story behind it that will grab your reader’s attention.  You just have to do a little research to find it. 5.  Engage the Senses.  The best stories are those that engage all five senses.  Everywhere you can, let the reader see, hear, touch, taste and smell what you are talking about.  Tell her about the butter soft leather of the designer gloves, the whisper quiet hum of the luxury car’s V-8.  Show the reader how it feels, smells, and tastes.   Next up: we'll look at <a href="10-steps-to-turning-your-product-or-service-into-a-compelling-story-part-ii">the remaining 5 tips</a>. 2009-01-11T18:25:50Z

2009-01-12T20:26:46Z

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10-steps-to-turning-your-product-or-service-into-a-compelling-story-part-i

2009-01-12T20:24:14Z

How do you keep your prospects from turning away from your promotions and ignoring what you have to offer. Copywriter James Palmer gives us 10 tips in this first of two articles.

10 Steps to Turning Your Product or Service Into a Compelling Story, Part I

2009-02-24T09:48:25Z