What are the best storytelling techniques to engage your prospects and customers online?

Storytelling is a powerful way to connect with your prospects and customers online. It can help you capture their attention, build trust, and persuade them to take action. But how do you craft compelling stories that resonate with your audience and align with your goals? Here are some of the best storytelling techniques to engage your prospects and customers online.

Key takeaways from this article

Use the hero's journey:

Craft your stories around the classic 'hero's journey' narrative. Position your product as the key to overcoming challenges, leading to a transformative experience that resonates with customers' goals.
Be authentic and relatable:

Share genuine stories and experiences that reflect your brand's authenticity. Use client testimonials for social proof, building trust and demonstrating real-world value to engage your online audience effectively.

This summary is powered by AI and these experts

1 Use the hero's journey

The hero's journey is a classic narrative structure that follows a protagonist who faces a challenge, overcomes obstacles, and achieves a transformation. You can use this framework to show how your product or service helps your customers solve their problems, achieve their desires, and become better versions of themselves. Start by identifying your customer's pain points, goals, and motivations. Then, show how your offer can help them overcome their challenges and reach their desired outcomes. Finally, highlight the benefits and value of your solution and how it can change their lives for the better.

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Neil Tucker

Health Education Maverick, Key Note Speaker, Savvy Presenter, EMT, Contact Coach working in the Overdose Prevention and Recovery Wellness space, Qigong Practioner and body mind development champion.
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Another perspective to consider is this. Try to learn your customers personal story and integrate those storylines into your sales pitch. If you are drawing from archetypal references aka the hero’s journey, the wounded healer, or even biblical characters. Make sure they relate to your current customers situation.

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2 Appeal to emotions

Emotions are a key driver of decision-making and behavior. People are more likely to remember, share, and act on stories that make them feel something. Therefore, you need to appeal to your audience's emotions and make them care about your message. You can do this by using sensory details, vivid language, metaphors, and anecdotes that evoke feelings and emotions. You can also use contrast, suspense, humor, and surprise to create interest and curiosity. Moreover, you can tap into your audience's values, beliefs, and aspirations and show how your offer aligns with them.

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Leonard Corbosiero

Sales and Marketing
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It’s all about reading the room and knowing your customer base. For instance, if they have low attention spans and think their time is more precious, the way to work your way in. It’s a bad look if my customer is in a bad mood cause just lost a key employee, and I’m whistling Dixie, he will forever hold a resentment. I put off future gains for instant gratification. My selling philosophy stems from my relationships. Relationships build trust, and with trust, we ultimately build residual business for years to come together.

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3 Be authentic and relatable

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. That's why you need to be authentic and relatable in your storytelling. You need to show your personality, voice, and style and avoid sounding too formal, salesy, or generic. You also need to show empathy and understanding for your audience's needs, challenges, and emotions. You can do this by sharing your own stories, experiences, and insights that demonstrate your credibility, authority, and expertise. You can also use testimonials, case studies, and social proof to showcase your customer's stories and how they benefited from your offer.

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Matthew James Frank

CEO @ In-Network Studios I Creative Director I Marketing Strategist I Senior Design Specialist I Entrepreneur
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Captivating your audience through storytelling is essential for building connections online. One of my favorite techniques is using a narrative that resonates with my prospects and customers. For instance, I recently launched a campaign that shared the story of a small business owner who overcame challenges to grow their brand. The story was genuine, relatable, and showcased the transformative power of our services. We combined this with client testimonials, providing social proof that reinforced the message. By being authentic and tapping into our audience's emotions, we established trust and demonstrated the value of our offerings. Remember, genuine storytelling can be your most powerful tool for engaging prospects/customers online.🔥

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4 Use different formats and channels

Different formats and channels can help you reach different segments of your audience and convey different aspects of your story. You can use text, images, videos, podcasts, webinars, live streams, blogs, social media, emails, and more to tell your story in different ways and appeal to different preferences and learning styles. You can also use different formats and channels to create a consistent and coherent story across your online presence and reinforce your message and brand identity. However, you need to make sure that your story is relevant, engaging, and tailored to each format and channel and that you follow the best practices and guidelines for each one.

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5 Have a clear purpose and call to action

Every story you tell online should have a clear purpose and a clear call to action. You need to know what you want to achieve with your story and what you want your audience to do after hearing it. Your purpose could be to educate, inform, entertain, inspire, or persuade your audience. Your call to action could be to sign up, subscribe, download, buy, contact, or share your offer. You need to make sure that your purpose and call to action are aligned with your goals and your audience's needs and interests. You also need to make sure that your purpose and call to action are clear, concise, and compelling and that you provide enough value and urgency to motivate your audience to take action.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Randy Akers

Key Account Manager - Caterpillar USA
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I was trained fresh out of college by Xerox. Story telling and intertwining with closing was a strong technique taught. One that was successful was the "Abe Lincoln" story and close . If your customer is struggling with their decision we would say "You know what, Abraham Lincoln used to do whenever he had an important decision to make? He would take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and put a "plus" at the top on one side and a "minus" on the other side. And he would list out the pros and cons of his decision. Could you and I do the same? *pull out paper draw the line and the + and - and say let's do the pros and you wrote down and contribute if customer misses to state any. Then when you go to minus side you contribute 0!

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What are the best storytelling techniques to engage your prospects and customers online?

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1 Use the hero's journey

2 Appeal to emotions

3 Be authentic and relatable

4 Use different formats and channels

5 Have a clear purpose and call to action

6 Here’s what else to consider

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