How does a great marketing story look like? Unlike ads that you see on print and TV that make use of a lot of eye candy, a compelling marketing tale is one that paints pictures using words.
Well, it’s easy to tell a tale. You can discuss a subject at any time you please. The question is, can you convince an audience with your story?
The key element of every great marketing story is that your audience ends up believing in it. Your entire story doesn’t have to be true in every sense of the word, but it has to compel them to believe it, to the point that they’ll share it with the people they know.
According to experts, as well as Singapore copywriters, there are five must-haves to every great marketing story. These are:
- A hero.
If you are fond of reading, you know that all the good stories revolve around someone. They have the main character, someone who will come to the rescue and make everything turn out fine so everyone can live happily ever after. The same goes for copywriting, except for one major flaw: they think that their business is the one who saves the day.
While this is common in a lot of advertisements that focus on insecurities (e.g., try our weight loss program or else you’ll stay fat), the slant of such stories makes the brand the hero. It may be true to a certain extent, but the messaging tends to be self-centered, making audiences ignore the story at first glance.
To come up with a convincing story, you should shift your perspective to your customer as the hero. Besides, whose life is transformed into the tale? Not the brand or its business, but its recipient -the ordinary man who, through the product, becomes someone extra special.
- A goal.
The second element in any convincing story is a goal.
Stories are about journeys of people reaching their dreams or fulfilling a task. They set goals, and they work their way to achieve them. Your marketing tale should have one too.
According to Singapore copywriters, to come up with compelling content, you need to know where your customer is right now and where they want to go. This goal or destination tells you what kind of transformation your audience wants to go through, and this is the map you have to give them via your story.
- An obstacle.
What keeps your customers from reaching their goals? What prevents them from undergoing their much-needed transformation? You might say, money, time, insecurities, fears, etc.
All these are correct, and collectively, they are known as obstacles.
Obstacles make your story truly worth reading. People will read you not only because you offer a solution, but they want to know exactly how they can overcome the obstacles they face through your product or service.
Remember, they may be after the results, but people trust the process more.
- A mentor.
If you make your customer a hero, then what should be your brand’s role?
Since your product is instrumental to your customer’s transformation, you may want to project the business to be something the hero would turn to for advice and further learning.
Yes, the role of your business is to be the hero’s mentor.
While indeed, the brand or business you are promoting offers a solution to the customer’s problem, but the story doesn’t end there. Remember, your audience will always look for something new, and you will lose them if they don’t get that from you.
You may not be offering a new product version every time, but you can offer new lessons for them to take. Give them a reason to come back. Be their guide.
- A spelled-out lesson.
Most of all, the most convincing marketing stories of all time offer a key takeaway, and that would be a moral lesson. Share your lessons for them to learn from because, after all, you are their mentor.
Aside from teaching them stuff, but with a key lesson, they’ll come back to you to ensure that they are doing their lesson right.
