5 Tips for Intentional List Building Using Stories
We’ve been telling stories since the days of sitting around a fire in a cave. Whether they’re happy ones, sad ones, dramatic ones or just simple homilies, people love them. In fact, it’s your story more than anything that will bring people to you and help you build your list.
Why? You can’t always win using the cold hard facts. There’s always going to be someone around who can do things better, faster, smarter or more cheaply than you can. What you do have that no one else has is your own unique story.
For a perfect example, take a look at well-known blogger Jon Morrow and his story.
Jon has an amazing story. How can you make use of yours to construct a killer email list? Here are some tips:
- Believe you have a story to tell. Many people look at their lives and think they don’t have anything interesting to share. That’s not true. Everybody has something worth telling. Did you have an eccentric aunt? Work a weird job during the summer before your senior year? Survive a brutal car accident? Take a look at your life and ask what about it makes you unique. Now share it! It’s your story. It’s worth telling.
- Look to the everyday. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen so many movies, but oftentimes we think that unless there’s Shakespearean drama or award-winning special effects, a story’s not worth sharing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Stories about everyday events are still powerful. In fact, it’s these stories that can have the greatest impact on a listener, because it’s something they can relate to or something that might happen to them.
- Be human. Often we feel uncomfortable talking about ourselves so we resort to distant unemotional report writing. That’s actually the opposite of what you should be doing. Your life isn’t a business report. It’s complicated, messy and doesn’t always follow proper grammar rules. Be yourself. Tell your story in a natural, believable way. Be a real person, not a news bulletin.
- Talk about the ‘why.’ If you’ve ever watched Dragnet, you’ve probably heard Joe Friday’s deadpan “just the facts, ma’am.” That might be fine for a police report, but to engage your audience you’ve got to go beyond just the cold, hard facts. Tell them why something happened. What was going through your head? Why did you make that decision? Put your situation in context for them. Why someone did something is often just as important as what they did.
- Don’t forget your customer’s story. Just like you have your story, each customer has theirs. Finding out that story gives you a unique chance to connect with them. What makes them tick? What’s important to them?
Sharing stories is the way we bond as human beings. It’s a way to get to know someone, and marketing research has shown we’d rather buy from someone we know. Your story is more than just a summary of your life. It’s a way to build bridges and take your list building to a whole new level. Sure, it helps to be a good storyteller, but you don’t have to be William Shakespeare to make a connection.