Part of promoting your business is to learn the ability to tell your brand story in a multitude of ways to a lot to different segments of your audience, in a way that causes people to want to take action and get something done. Since humanity began, the way we get motivated to accomplish things is through storytelling. Stories keep us going. Just look at TV, books, magazines and movies to see the proof of that. We like stories so much that even fiction motivates us and pulls at our emotions.
In order to accomplish more in terms of sharing with your audience, it’s important to master the art of storytelling. This will help make all the content you put out better – whether it’s a blog post, a book, or a sales page. Telling your story or any story doesn’t have to be difficult either. Follow these tips and you will soon master the art of storytelling.
Keep It Simple
Most stories actually create themselves, because they’re based on something that actually happened that you weave through your message. No need to add too much detail or flowery words to your story, since it’s true. Simply tell it like it is, what it meant and why it’s important.
Bring Others On Board
Sometimes, letting others tell the story is an important way to change it up a bit. For example, if you’re a life coach that has a story of how you became a life coach, perhaps you also have a story from someone you helped that adds to your why in a tangible way. Not only can you add their story to yours, but you can also encourage them to tell their story as another way to get your message heard.
Have a Reason for Telling the Story
There always has to be an underlying reason for sharing any story. There should be a core message that you want to get across to the people who are ingesting the story. Do you want them to act on something or take some action? Make that clear within the story.
Don’t Get Stuck in Details
This is important because when a story is true, sometimes it’s easy to get too detailed about a particular aspect of it. Try to pinpoint only the most important parts of your story to share. If the way the sun felt on your face that day is important to the meaning of the story, share it; if not, leave it out.
Personalize Your Story
If you can add actual dialogue to your story, it will help make it even more personal. Remembering what someone said at a particular time can add a lot of drama and interest to the story you’re telling and make it feel less practiced and stiff. “He told me he simply could not bend down anymore to get the laundry out of the dryer.” I felt his pain, so that’s why I created the gizmo.
Create More Than One Story
More than likely you have more than one segment of your audience to tell the story to. You don’t want to bore them or yourself, so think of different ways you can tell the same story by including different events and features into the story. This helps bring your message home based on who the audience is.
Practice Makes Perfect
Not only do you need to continually work on and practice your story (told in different ways, including different aspects of the story for different audiences), you also want to practice by reading great stories and watching great speeches. Even if you don’t agree with a particular speaker, hearing how they weave their story can do wonders for your ability to weave a great story.
Be Consistent about Your Message
It’s important to learn the stories so well that they become second nature to you. This will enable you to keep your message consistent across all channels of communication, whether it’s in person or online, your blog “about me” page, or your LinkedIn profile page.
If you can get these points down pat, you’ll soon be an expert storyteller. After all, a story actually creates itself; all you have to do is retell it. You don’t have to tell it exactly the same each time like a bad high school speech. Instead, you can change it around a little bit, keeping the story and message ultimately the same.