No One Ignores A Good Story

I never really understood the power of storytelling until I experienced it first hand.

I’d stumble on several blog posts about why you should always tell stories in order to attract attention and drive action, but it really wasn’t making sense.

Perhaps the reason was because those blog posts that advised us to tell stories weren’t even telling stories. They were just a bunch of tips with the major one being “tell stories”. The ones that made the most impact were those that had a story and used that to drive home the storytelling message.

Marketers and online content creators need to follow their own advice.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to do a couple of interviews on my business blog a couple of months ago. And instead of publishing them as just interviews, where there’s a question and then an answer from the interviewee, I tried a different method.

I changed the whole thing into stories with a beginning, middle and end.

The result? The interviewees shared the heck out of the articles, promotion took a life of its own and the site got the most traffic during that period than it did in previous years.

That’s when I understood what I had been reading.

No one ignores a good story. Most of our best memories are often wrapped into one story or the other. It’s the reason why here in Africa, elders infuse life lessons into folklore and tell it to youngsters so they can remember and learn.

It’s an intentional tactic and perhaps has its roots in human psychology. As long as you point out the life lessons in the tale, you’ve done a great job.

Whether you’re trying to sell something, give some advice, create a memory, do a presentation or learn something, wrap it in a story. Could be a real life experience, or fiction. It doesn’t matter.

As a result of those interviews, my subscriber list grew and I got some of the best students into my training program.

So I guess I just told a story eh? Maybe not a jaw dropping one, but you get the gist anyway.

And if you’re looking for good stories or some plot ideas to “borrow”, just check the Bible. I’m not about to go all Jesus on you, but there are stories of war, peace, romance, death, life, betrayal, and even some Sci-Fi. It all depends on how you choose to interpret it.