FADE IN:

INTERIOR/DAY: A crowded office

(Actually, there are only two people in the roomy space, but it feels “crowded” to them.)

They TYPE on their notebook keyboards.

Looking up from his task at hand, RICK (50ish) stares down JEFF (50ish-er, beard).

RICK
You know what? You should post something on the blog.

JEFF
(not looking up)
Sure. After the 32 things I have to do next…

RICK
No, really, you should post something on the blog – I’ve got a
thread going about “stories” in marketing. Right up your alley.

JEFF
(stops TYPING/looks at Rick)
C’mon, you know I’m super busy with -

RICK
Like I’m not – and I still blog… Go on, post something, will you?

JEFF
Fine.

RICK
Okay, fine.

JEFF
Fine.

They resume TYPING on their keyboards.

FADE OUT:

Hi, everyone – Jeff here.

I could have just begun this post by writing something like:
“…Rick asked me to post to the blog, so here I am.”

But, which method gave you more info?

Which held your interest more?

Chances are, even if you did not particularly enjoy the quick little scene above, you paid attention to it – if for no other reason than it was different from a typical, declarative statement.

The same holds true in marketing communications: a story-based communication method trumps standard announcement, declarative methods. Certainly I’m not advocating that you change your communications into screenplay format; but I do suggest that you start to work storytelling (in narrative form) into your marketing mix. Why?

Why you should try story marketing

Stories can help you reach more of your audience and motivate them to buy. A story-based communication or campaign sequence can increase email opens, click-through rates, opt-ins and conversions – and drive more leads into sales – by using stories that are truly interesting and useful to your readers, subscribers and customers – and turning those stories into powerful email marketing campaigns and site-based communications that produce above average results.

(BTW, If you missed Rick’s two recent posts/videos on using stories to effectively “break through the marketing noise” and get your message through to your audience, go here to catch up, or to review the videos again – it’s good stuff).

Why story marketing works

At any given time, a large percentage of the marketplace is in a “tuned out” state.

This explains why simply turning up the “marketing volume” typically provides diminishing returns; i.e., “yelling” louder in your communications and becoming more assertive only serves to cause people to tune out even further, increasing their “sales resistance”.

But, a story-based approach avoids triggering people’s resistance and self-defense mechanisms associated with more traditional email marketing, advertising and selling.

In fact, it leverages peoples’ natural interests and gains their attention and involvement, so it can enable you to reach that portion of the market that is tuning you out today.

Now, I’m not claiming that we are the only marketers to have figured out how powerful storytelling can be when properly applied – here’s an excerpt from Amazon.com regarding Seth Godin’s book “All Marketers Are Liars“, an interesting and entertaining work by one of today’s foremost thought leaders and authors in advanced marketing:

–
“After having fun with his opening salvo (“I have no intention of telling you the truth”) and beating the death out of his sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek point that marketers always lie, Godin makes a strong case that telling stories is your best bet to breaking through the clutter.” – Amazon.com
–

So, don’t just take my word for it. Why should you try mixing-in stories into your marketing motion? Because they work, that’s why.

And, for those of you interested in getting some specific, step-by-step, how-to info for constructing story-based campaigns, AND examples, templates and go-bys, too, check this out.

For those of you who would rather be doing (almost) anything rather than composing a story-based campaign, but still would like to experience increased sales conversions for your online business, go check out the Professional Services page on our site to learn the various ways we can do the work for you (if that’s not too much trouble)…

THE END

(Jeff Sulma is SVP Marketing for WinningWare.com. He likes a good story.)

Related posts

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (2)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (7)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (11)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 1 (8)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (4)

In part 1, we discussed the concepts on how NLP can be used to amplify the power of storytelling to sell virtually anything. Now it’s time to look at the different kinds of stories to use and how to design them so they produce the desired results.

Watch the rest of the videos and download a set of templates and step-by-step instructions for creating your story-based campaigns.

Related posts

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (7)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (11)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 1 (8)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (4)

In the past, I have written about how powerful storytelling can be at breaking through the extreme market noise and clutter to get our marketing message through more effectively and generate more sales.  In this multi-part series, I am now going to share concepts on how NLP can be used to amplify the power of storytelling to sell virtually anything.

These techniques have, for example, been used in several launches that generated more than $23.8 million in sales – in less than the first 24 hours! (so this stuff works and is well worth your time to learn and apply)

The next installment will cover how to apply the concepts discussed here in the design of effective stories that sell.

The Precision Marketing System is a set of tools for creating story-based campaigns.

Related posts

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• The Power of Story in Permission-based Marketing (3)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (11)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (2)
• Creative storytelling – A savvy marketer’s competitive edge (1)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)

RECOMMENDED READING

I awoke early yesterday morning to re-runs of Larry King Live and the Glenn Beck show at 4 a.m.  Sometimes fate steers us in the right direction (esp. when we say our prayers the night before – something I try to remember to do).

These days, I can only seem to take about 30 to 60 seconds of Glenn Beck and his erratic, “political historian” stammering and posturing, so I very quickly ended up on CNN – while my brain rebooted after Tex-Mex and margaritas the night before…

Larry King was interviewing Jerry Weintraub, a famous Hollywood producer and serial entrepreneur.  I was soon absorbed and mesmerized by the short stories of Jerry’s amazing success promoting stars like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, George Clooney, John Denver and many rock bands including Led Zeppelin – among so many others.

I could quickly tell from this interview that what I was seeing was merely the tip of an iceberg – one that went much deeper beneath the surface – someone I simply had to know more about…

In the interview with Larry King, Jerry talked about how he learned from his father how to take seemingly regular things and “repackage” them into something special, then promote them effectively to the masses as an “event.  Well, as a product launch guy, this repackaging and event marketing stuff hooked me right away. I definitely had to know more – a lot more…

Jerry talked briefly about how he came back from the brink of death one day, and decided it was time for him to share his life story while he was still able, so he recently published his autobiography.  I was hoping Amazon.com had the Kindle e-book version available for download, so I could check it out while it was still fresh on my mind.

Fortunately, they did.  So I bought the e-book for $12 and downloaded it to my PC moments later (I don’t have an actual Kindle, just the free Kindle for PC and iPhone readers, which I like just fine).  I grabbed another cup of coffee and before I knew it, I looked up and it was almost 9 a.m.

I had already spent 3 and a half hours reading one of the most fascinating success stories around – a kid who went from the Bronx to the top of the world, creating movies like Oceans 11 through 13, Oh God!, The Karate Kid, Vegas Vacation and many others – and who discovered and made stars like John Denver and many others what they became (among hundreds of other success stories).

One of the most important lessons in business and in life Jerry sums up toward the end that is absolutely true:

“Most important, I was never afraid to fail, which meant I was never afraid to try.  I was never afraid to look silly, which meant I was never threatened by a new idea.”

Jerry exemplifies these statements when he describes how he managed to go from being a relative “nobody” to taking Elvis on his first cross-country national tour – and after that six-week tour, became a self-made multi-millionaire and launched his career as a world-class producer.  After being told No, in no uncertain terms, for 364 days straight – every single day by Colonel Tom Parker – he finally got a call back saying Yes – and the rest is history…

I wonder how many of us could believe in ourselves and our vision of what is possible enough to be told no that many days in a row, and wake up the next day, looking forward to being that much closer to getting the Yes we know we need.

I highly recommend you take a moment to download and get your own copy of Jerry’s latest autobiography and learn from his experience, persistence and ability to forge lasting, profitable relationships and sell almost anything.

Believe me, it’s the best $12 investment I have made in a very long time.  I finished my first reading in just two sittings – probably a record for me lately.

One of the things I like most about Jerry is his fearlessness, his belief in himself and an impeccable tenacity for success – traits that are absolutely essential for anyone to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world.  His life is filled with a series of tremendous successes, along with some failures, that were all predicated on his ability to establish new relationships, and then leverage and monetize those relationships to the maximum extent possible, while at the same time forging real, lasting friendships.

Jerry’s Lifelong Success Formula: (my interpretation)

1. Clarity of Vision - Having clarity of vision around what can and needs to be accomplished (that others often cannot see themselves as clearly)
2. Identifying the Path - Figuring out who holds the keys to the stepping stones for fulfilling that vision
3. Leveraging Relationships – Breaking through all obstacles to establish the relationships with key decision makers and influencers, which provides the necessary leverage to cause and sustain profitable change
4. Communicating a Shared Vision – Making clear, bold statements about what can be done to help the other party accomplish and achieve a shared vision (once in front of the decision maker)
5. Telling Persuasive Stories - Using master storytelling as an effective persuasion tool to sell the vision
6. Packaging – Effective “packaging” – positioning and naming things so they have extremely high perceived value (even when the intrinsic value may be very low)
7. Launching – Turning opportunities into “events” and then promoting those events effectively as a launch
8. Delivering – Doing whatever it takes to actually deliver the promised results as expected
9. Disruptive Innovation – where appropriate, changing the way things are traditionally done by replacing the “old way” with a new, improved approach that better serves customers (business models, distribution models, pricing models, etc.)

It’s easy enough to understand, but a formula that takes courage, relentless persistence and a healthy dose of creativity and a willingness to “do whatever it takes” to succeed and win – that should be every entrepreneur’s credo.

Finally, and perhaps most important, Jerry is a master storyteller.  Stories provide the carrier wave for our messages that people will actually listen to, absorb and internalize – then make decisions upon.

Packaging the story up and then selling it as an “event” is the vehicle for actually delivering the end sales and generating millions in sales.

Much of what Jerry is actually a master at doing is what we now commonly refer to as “launches”.  Instead of launching products or websites, he launches and builds the careers of stars, movies and performers like bands and musicians.

Boy – just when you think you know a lot about something like launches, you find out just how much more there is to learn…  I’d sure like the opportunity to meet Jerry and learn even more about his fascinating journey someday.  I wonder if I can break his record of 364 days?

Related posts

• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• Your Relationship Development System – Profiting or Costing You? (3)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• It’s good to be King (3)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (2)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (7)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (11)

I woke up this morning to a fascinating phenomenon that was happening on this blog and in the Twitosphere… one of my blog entries had gone viral literally overnight!

I try to keep an eye on our website conversions, as any concerned online marketer does with the “gauges” of their online business’ engine.  Last night I noticed what seemed like a sharp increase in opt-ins for our Launch Report.  At first I assumed there might have been a surge in Google Adwords or organic search and just went to sleep…

This morning, I noticed the same upward trends.  Upon further investigation, I discovered the true source of this sudden explosion in traffic to my blog (and correspondingly, to our product site).

In a span of 12 hours, an article I posted back in January 2010 on the “Psychology of Storytelling in Product Launches” suddenly took off and went viral, producing an above average number of ReTweets (record RT’s for my blog) and a big surge in traffic.  So I decided to go back and try to understand what the heck just happened…

From what I can tell by looking at the original Tweet thread, it started with a single ReTweet by KelsieNguyen, a “Communication and New Media Student at National University of Singapore”, who at the time of this writing has 114 followers.  Her RT was storytellin, who has more than 5,000 followers who are interested in storytelling.  This appears to be the first viral inflection point…

Then something amazing happened.  Four RT’s into the first-generation, emmanuelulloa issued this RT:

emmanuelulloa: RT @guykawasaki Psychology of Social Product Launches –Part 3, Storytelling http://om.ly/?oMLK

Note that this RT began a 2nd-generation viral outbreak.  Guy Kawasaki is a well-know social media guru with more than 250,000 followers and the AllTop social media news site.  These two posts created a huge flurry of additional RT’s:

alltop: How to use storytelling for a product intro http://om.ly/oKmm

guykawasaki: How to use storytelling for a product intro http://om.ly/oKnT

Guy Kawasaki renamed the thread slightly into the new title you see above “How to use storytelling for a product intro”.  This apparently resonated even more, as you can see from the five+ pages of ReTweet’s that have taken place.

At the time of this writing, the RT’s are continuing to pour in!

I am intrigued by how powerful and rapid this process was.  Perhaps it happens to other bloggers every day, but it’s not something I’m accustomed to seeing.  After several years of investing in my blog, it’s great to see I’ve finally struck a chord and people are excited about incorporating storytelling into their marketing. It definitely works!

Many thanks to all who RT’d that post.

So, why am I posting about this now?  Well, it seems like an opportunity for an interesting case study on what causes a blog post and Tweet to suddenly go viral.  I mean, the original blog post took place in January, and last night it suddenly went viral … this definitely tweaks my curiosity

I’m going to analyze this more (once it completes, as it’s still apparently in-progress) and do a “post-mortem” to understand the dynamics involved  better.  On the surface it appears the ingredients might be:

1. Relevant, quality content on the blog

2. A audience who is passionate enough about a topic (e.g., storytelling) to ReTweet it to their “influencers”

3. A major “gateway” influencer, such as Guy Kawasaki, taking note of it and elevating the RT to a much broader audience

4. Striking a chord with the audience by delivering value they (apparently) feel warrants  being shared further.

Interesting how the marketplace grabs and idea and just runs with it – on its own merits and on its own timetable…

Related posts

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (2)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 1 (8)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (4)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (7)

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about fishing.  I recently realized just how much marketing and fishing actually have in common…

One of my favorite ways to unwind is to hop in my boat and head out from my lake house into the lake to enjoy a few hours of bass fishing.

For me, it’s helpful to get away from business and technology to enjoy some quiet time and the beauty of nature.  I have been fishing since I was old enough to hold a rod and reel, when my grandfather used to take me saltwater fishing from bridges in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.

Growing up, we lived on Greens Bayou in east Houston. I had an aluminum boat with an old beat up 9 horsepower Mercury engine. I would hop in my boat as a youngster and head upstream a few miles then park my boat and cross over the bank from the bayou to a small pond out in the woods – miles from civilization back then.

I would carry my tackle box and a couple of rods and reels to my little private piece of heaven and escape the rest of the world – to go fishing.  Over the past forty-plus years of fishing, I’ve had a lot of experiences.  In my twenties and thirties, I even enjoyed competitive tournament bass fishing clubs and money tournaments around Texas.  Fishing teaches us a lot about life, values and finding solutions to complex patterns and problems.

Fishing requires patience – a lot of patience. So does marketing.  If we constantly change advertisements, positioning, messaging and get impatient for results, we’re very likely to fail.  Marketing and advertising programs require many exposures to have their full effect, yet as marketers we often lack the patience to stick with it long enough to succeed.

Fishing requires belief. Marketing requires belief – in your understanding of your buyers, your products and your marketing strategy and plan.

Fishing requires the confidence – to choose the right place to fish, the right bait to use, the correct presentation of that bait and to stick with it long enough to achieve results.  Marketing requires the confidence to choose  our positioning, messaging and then invest in advertising and marketing programs and give these programs the time they require to succeed.

When you’ve been fishing as long as I have, you understand that some days you’re going to come home with great stories about how many fish you caught, a huge stringer and bragging rights for your accomplishment.  You also fully understand the realities of coming back from your fishing trip empty-handed (called getting “skunked”), with nothing to show for it except a sunburn and sore muscles. And on a really bad day, perhaps a hole in your boat.

This is the reality of fishing.  It’s also a reality of marketing.

With fishing, it’s not as much about the results of the catch as it is about getting away and doing something you enjoy. At least that’s how it is with “recreational” catch and release fishing…  Professional fishing is quite another matter.

Professional fisherman realize that their livelihood depends on their success every day – just like professional marketers do.  If you don’t catch, you don’t eat.  Failure is not an option.

Whether an amateur or a professional, fishing and marketing also have a lot in common with hunting. We are in search for our “prey” and we have to compete in the “wild” in order to succeed.  Here’s ten things that marketers can learn from fishermen:

1. Understanding - understanding our prey is central to success. Knowing as much as possible about the fish, how they think, their behavior, their decision-making and habits is core to success.  Without this understanding, a fishing trip requires more luck than skill.  With this understanding, skills becomes more important than luck.  Do you truly understand your buyers and their habits like a professional fisherman does?

2. Location - it seems obvious enough, but unless you go where the fish are, you can’t possibly catch them. And since you cannot see underneath the water, you have to look for other signs of where the fish are located; certain types of “structure” that attracts them like humps, dropoffs and creek channels.  With marketing, we need to identify the “places” that our buyers like to hang out, too.  Are you fishing in the right locations where your buyers hang out? Do you know where these buyers like to feed?  Where they like to go to rest?

3. Bait - in fishing, our goal is to “hook” the fish; however, first we must attract the fish using the right bait.  There’s “live bait” and “artificial baits” called lures. The purpose of bait is to attract the fish and get them to “bite”.  Live bait is usually more effective than artificial baits.  However, artificial baits are more flexible and durable, unlike live bait.  When we choose the right bait for the circumstances that the fish are in (muddy water, clear water, low light, etc.), we catch more fish.   How effective is the marketing bait you’re using at attracting buyers?  Do you use the same bait all the time or do you choose the bait to match the circumstances of your buyers?  Do you appear “live” to your audience (or at least in recorded videos) or do you rely strictly on artificial, online bait?

4. Presentation - how the bait is presented makes all the difference in fishing, in terms of speed of presentation, depth, rhythm, sound, color and other aspects of how the bait is perceived by the fish.  Fishermen know to vary their presentation for the circumstances in order to catch more fish.  How well does your marketing presentation match the circumstances of your buyers?  Do you have a single presentation for all buyers, or do you tailor it for each “buyer persona”?  Do you use text, images, video, audio, and color in combinations that entice your buyers to “bite” (or does it annoy, bore and repel them)?

5. Patterns - there are a huge number of possible combinations of location, baits and presentation characteristics.  Depending on the season and the prevailing habits of fish on a given lake, certain combinations work consistently. For example, on a windy, overcast day a spinner bait with larger copper blades on a point often works best vs. on a clear, calm day, smaller silver blades that reflect the sun when fished near brush and cover work better (because the fish are hiding from the bright sun in the brush).  Do you understand the patterns that work best to land the most buyers under various conditions?  Do you look for and find these patterns, then leverage this knowledge to replicate your success at every lake (advertising/traffic venue) you visit?

6. Setting the hook – one of the most important moves you must make in fishing is picking the right moment to set the hook. If you fail to set the hook, the fish will get away once they realize something’s wrong and they’re being caught. Do you pick the right time and way to set the hook and close your buyers?  Or are you losing many of your buyers before or after the “hookset”?  Does the same close work on everyone or do you use different ones that are appropriate for the circumstances?

7. Catch and release – once the fish is hooked, the fun begins – playing the fish and reeling them in. Once they are landed, we admire our catch, weigh them and either place them in the live well or release them. Do you still enjoy catching and landing your buyers?  Do you still weigh each one and appreciate the catch or have you grown so accustomed to the catch that it’s now mundane and repetitive?  Do you provide great service after the catch or just throw them back to be caught by another fisherman?

8. Schools - one way to catch a lot of fish is to locate schools of fish. Fish gather into schools in the same location in order to feed.  Buyers gather together in order to feed, too – to learn buyers go to events, seminars, trade shows, webinars, forums, blogs and other venues.  Are you fishing where your buyers school?

9. Trophies - every once in a while, we catch a fish to be really proud of – one that’s bigger and better than the average fish, perhaps even one for the record books.  Landing a trophy fish typically requires more planning and preparation. If your line is old and frayed, trophy fish will break it.  If your hooks aren’t sharp, the hook won’t penetrate and hold. If you don’t play the fish right, they will wrap your line up around a log and break it.  If you take too long to reel a big fish in, they’ll wear your line out with their bigger, sharper teeth and break the line.  Big fish are smart.  They grew big for a reason and they don’t fall for the same tricks that younger, smaller fish do.  Do you prepare and plan properly for landing a trophy fish?  When you land a trophy account, do you make the most of it you can?

10. Equipment - in fishing, using the right line, reel, rod and other equipment makes a big difference in how accurate your casts are and how productive you are at catching fish.  Do you have the right equipment in place for your buyer?  Is your marketing equipment in good working order?  Does it capture a buyer’s interest, attract them to look closer, opt-in to become a lead (fish on!)?  Does your sales process nurture leads and build a relationship with them?  Does it close the sale or do most of them get away?

Now clearly there are many differences between fishing and marketing – and between fishermen and marketers.  But there are also many similarities.  It’s often helpful to look at what we do from a different perspective to see things we otherwise miss from our usual vantage point.

I hope these insights and change of perspective help you see your buyers and your marketing/selling processes in a different light.  As in fishing, there are many patterns that catch a few fish and only a few that work consistently. Choosing the right approach under each circumstance is the challenge.

Boy, all this talk about fishing makes me want to hop in the boat and get going.  I can’t wait for the weather to improve so the fish will be more active and productive for catching.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of buyers just waiting for the right bait to swim by…

In addition to enjoying fishing, I also enjoy being a “fishing guide” – helping others to catch fish.  If you think having  a “marketing guide” could benefit your business, please take a moment to check out our “guide services”.

Related posts

• Recommended Reading: Tuned In to What Customers Want (8)
• How to Effectively “Tune In” Before Your Launch (3)
• Do You Speak Your Customer’s Language? (6)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (7)
• Twitter Research Formula (16)
• The New Rules of Launch (11)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• The Key to Discovering Breakthrough Opportunities (1)
• The Dirty Little Secret of Winning Product Opportunities (2)

In this post, let’s examine another key element: Stories and storytelling.

Stories are how human beings spread ideas that are important or interesting to us.  Storytelling is as old as mankind.  We tell stories in many ways – using words, images, sounds, gestures and expressions.  Storytelling is at the heart of how we communicate with one another every day.

And the human mind is optimized for storytelling.  Traditionally, oral stories were committed to memory and then passed on from generation to generation.

Jump forward to the Internet age, and the avenues available for sharing our stories are all around us:  blogs, Twitter, Facebook, forums, YouTube, email, websites, article sites, books, TV, radio, and of course, the all important and powerful – word of mouth.  The evolution of technology has made storytelling easier than ever.

As Steve Chazin, former Apple marketing executive says in “Marketing Apple”, to have your story repeated you must:

• Make your message memorable – Think Big, Write Small
• Boil the story down to its syrupy goodness
• Make your message different and worth repeating

When we launch anything to an audience (a product, a company, website or a political candidate), we need to use stories to get our message across.  These stories answer important questions for the audience, including:

• Who are these people and where did they come from?
• Why should I care?
• What’s in it for me?
• Why should I listen to you?
• Why should I take action and actually do something different?
• Why should I act now instead of delaying or just doing nothing instead?

Stories provide an interesting way to answer these (and other) questions people have about what’s being launched and how it could affect them.  Stories can be conveyed in a variety of ways, including blogging, videos, newsletters, and emails.

Crafted properly, stories don’t sell – they simply tell and teach by example.

Stories provide the information that people need to make up their own mind – about you, what you’re launching and offering and where it fits in their life.  Stories also enable readers to learn by example.

By allowing people to make up their own minds (instead of coercing them through slick offers and time-limited deals that everyone knows are lies concocted by marketers to get them to buy), people are much more willing to listen to what you have to say when conveyed as an interesting story.

And they’ll be more inclined to pass a simple, interesting story along to others, who will in turn be more interested than if you come across as selling your product.  Incidentally, this storytelling approach to marketing works well not only in launches, but also in everyday marketing and advertising campaigns.

And stories are an extremely powerful way to structure marketing campaigns and advertisements today. Stories are more effective than traditional ads because they attract the reader’s interest and convey the benefits and features of a product in the proper context – the context of a customer who’s using the product.

In fact, storytelling is so important to use in not only launches but to incorporate into your everyday marketing mix, we created a “system” for story-based marketing campaigns.  These campaigns have produced millions of dollars in sales when traditional broadcast-style, feature/benefit oriented campaigns fail.  The reason is simple. People will take the time to read and comprehend an interesting story (and continue to ignore what is obviously an advertisement).

Learn to properly incorporate storytelling in your marketing mix and you will be amazed at how well it works, not only in launches, but in your everyday marketing.

Related posts

• The New Rules of Launch (11)
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• Product Launch 3.0 Sales Process (2)
• New Product Launch Email Campaigns Now Available (1)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (4)
• Top 5 Product Launch Success Factors (and Pitfalls to avoid) (10)
• The Truth About How To Use Twitter in a Product Launch (11)

Effective marketers realize their goal is to both understand and influence human behavior in order to achieve business objectives.

There are many ways to influence human behavior. For the purposes of a launch,  here are three that will amplify your success:

1. Social Proof
2. Proof
3. Stories

Social proof is also known as informational social influence. This is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations, when people are unable to determine the most appropriate mode of behavior.  When we lack clear direction in certain situations, it is human nature to make the assumption that others around us know more than we do about the particular situation, which we can leverage during a launch….

Proof consists of evidence that can be used to demonstrate the truth about something.  This evidence convinces someone about what is true and what is not.  In marketing, we see many forms of evidence used to assert proof that what we say is true – and having the right kinds of proof available at launch time is one of the keys to gaining mainstream buyers…

Stories are how human beings spread ideas that are important or interesting to them.  Storytelling is as old as mankind.  We tell stories in many ways, using words, images, sounds, gestures and expressions.  Storytelling is at the heart of how we communicate with one another, providing a disarming, learn-by-example way of conveying our marketing benefits without hard-selling…

Read the full article…

Related posts

• The New Rules of Launch (11)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• Twitter Research Formula (16)
• The Truth About How To Use Twitter in a Product Launch (11)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
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The New Rules of Launch

How to launch a product, company or
anything else via the Internet in 2010

FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD

The Internet and Web have changed the rules for how we launch anything new, including products, websites, and companies – even political campaigns – using social media like Twitter and Facebook to create purpose-built launch communities and make more sales.

The Web and the ubiquitous global communications it enables now interconnect over 1 billion people for the first time in human history. Practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been slow to change and adopt new methods, such as social media.

I hope this e-book will enable everyone who wants to leverage social media and the Web for launch of – a company, product, service, website, political campaign, or anything else –  to grasp how to leverage the immense power of the Internet and social media networking to do so.

While I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, the path and way major launches will reach the masses is clear – through social media and online networks. I think this e-book provides some food for thought that will be helpful and worthwhile.

Download and Read the New Rules of Launch

But be prepared to alter the way you think about launches…

Download the New Rules of Launch here.

Merry Christmas 2009!!  And here’s to a Happy New Year and lots of great launches in 2010!

Rick

P.S. Please feel free to post copies of this free e-book document on your blog, website or email it to anyone you believe would benefit from it. This e-book is licensed under the Creative Commons License, as indicated below.

P.P.S. Please come back here and share your comments on the e-book whenever you can so I can improve it…

Inside the New Rules of Launch

How to launch a product, company or
anything else via the Internet

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The New Rules of Launch.  4

How to launch a product, company or anything else via the Internet  4

The old rules of launch.  5

The New Rules of Launch.  6

Why You Need to Learn the New Rules.  7

Today, savvy marketers use online networking to reach and influence buyers directly.  7

Psychology of Social Product Launches.  7

Reaching Mainstream Buyers and Markets Faster.  11

Targeted Buyer Language vs. Generic Product Language.  14

The 3C’s of Launch.  16

It’s the Network, Stupid!  17

Obama Presidency Launch Campaign.   18

The Power of Grassroots Movements in Launch Campaigns.   19

Network Influence is the Launch.   21

Nobody Cares About Your Product   24

Tuning In to What Customers Want   26

Big Idea = Big Launch.   28

New Rules of Attention.   35

The Magnetic Force of Free.   38

Buzz = Word of Mouth Storytelling Gone Wild.   41

The Launch Community.   43

Launch Partnering in Powers of 10.   44

Introducing Launch 3.0.   46

Launch 3.0 Process.   49

Canvassing – Building the Launch List and Community.  53

The Launch 3.0 Sales Process.   58

New Rules of Launch by Rick Braddy / ConXentric is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.winningware.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.winningware.com/contact.php

Related posts

• Product Launch 3.0 Sales Process (2)
• The 3C’s of Product Launch (1)
• New Product Launch Email Campaigns Now Available (1)
• Twitter Research Formula (16)
• Network Influence IS the Launch (2)
• How to Launch a Product using Social Networks (3)
• Top 5 Product Launch Success Factors (and Pitfalls to avoid) (10)
• The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success (7)
• Step-by-step Launch Plan for Web Sites (1)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)

Hook your audience and you can make millions.  Fail to find that elusive hook or slant and you’re doomed to mediocrity. Your hook is that critical.

Hooks aren’t just interesting, they’re fascinating and remarkable slants.

These slants resonate with the reader by triggering curiosity and promising a remarkable reader benefit.  The forces of a great hook are so strong they’re like a black hole sucking the reader deeper into the copy, even when the reader doesn’t want to read an advertisement, sales letter or story.

Once hooked, the reader must continue reading to satisfy the insatiable curiosity and desire that hooked them in the first place.  As ace copywriter John Carlton discusses at length in his Fishing for Hooks article, finding and selecting the right hook is one of the biggest challenges a writer faces.

The hook determines the headline content, the introduction paragraph and extols the primary benefit.  Finding the best hook takes time and effort – a LOT of it.  The best hooks are simple and brief, hitting the reader like a nail on the head.  In marketing, these hooks reflect the Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

These four proven headlines encapsulate the USP and serve as effective hooks for their creators:

Federal Express – “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”

One-Legged Golfer – “Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices…And Can Slash Up to 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!”

Cosmopolitan Magazine – “50 Ways To Thrill A Man – Warning By #18 He’ll Barely Remember His Name”

4-Hour Workweek - “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich”

Pick up a copy of National Enquirer (if only you still could), The Globe or the other tabloids and you’ll see firsthand the art of developing storyline hooks and slants at its best (and worst, at the same time).  Reporters and editors are professional hook developers. They excel in hooking their readers into picking up their magazines, skimming them and then buying them – by the millions.

So what are some of these best-kept hook “secrets” anyway.  Well, actually they’re not secrets at all.  Professional writers choose the slants and hooks that will be used for their stories, book titles and articles every single day.

Here they are, excerpts from “The Most Common Slants to Capture Reader Attention“, in “Nonfiction Book Proposals Anyone Can Write“, by Elizabeth Lyon. These are the slants recommended for book writers to develop the best possible book titles – the ones that sell the most book copies.

These slants used to develop hooks for book titles can be used to locate and construct effective hooks on virtually any topic.

Below you’ll find two examples in each category.  The first is a published book. The last is an imaginary title as if I was brainstorming for a slant on a book about ‘cats’ (assuming your audience is cat lovers, for example):

1. NEW – what’s never been done before, the cutting edge. Example: New Rules of Marketing and PR, or New Cat Breeds.

2. MONEY - any allusion to the buck attracts attention. Example: Big Profits from Small Stocks, or Million Dollar Cats.

3. SEX – either direct reference or sexual innuendo.  Example: Nuts! The Battle of the Bulge, or Furry Bedwarmers: The Cat in Your Life.

4. SECRETS - inside accounts, behind the scenes. Example: Secrets of Fat-Free Baking, or Behind Bars: The Untold Story of Impounded Cats.

5. PROMISES - this slant offers the moon and better deliver. Example: Eat More, Weigh Less, or Cats That Can Change Your Life.

6. FIGHT OR FLIGHT – meant to arouse brain-stem feelings of survival, this slant gets adrenaline rushing. Example: Jungle Rules: How to be a Tiger in Business, or Catting Around: Stalking Big Cat Home Videos.

7. FEAR - when you want to make your reader afraid, use this slant. Example: Warning: The Coming Dark Ages, How to Survive the Collapse of Civilization, or An Endangered Species: Big Cats Fall to Small-Armed Men.

8. NUMBERS – whether the numbers refer to time, pounds, age, or anything else, it’s a classic slant. Example: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, or Ten Ideal Vacations for Kittys.

9. LOCATION - an idea that implies a place. Example: In the Kitchen with Rosie, or Bedroom Designs for Catting Around.

10. AMAZEMENT - a slant that gives you a believe-it-or-not feeling or elicits amazement. Example: Remarkable Discoverys! , or The Cat Who Dog-Paddled the Channel.

11. SUPERLATIVES - any title or headline that involves extremes, such as worst, best, longest, shortest, richest, poorest, etc. Example: The Greatest Team of All Time, or The Sleepiest Cats in the World.

12. REVERSALS - minority viewpoints or an opposite stance from the prevailing views on a subject. Example: Roughing It Easy, or Seeing-Eye Cats.

13. TRAVEL – Unlike location, or in addition to it, the travel slant makes clear the out and about orientation of the book. Example: The Cat Who Went to Paris, and His Human, or Cruises Cats Love.

14. HUMOR - a humorous slant on an idea is enough to provide the sharp focus that every subject needs. Example: Chicken Dishes by Nora Drumsticks, Crocodile Dundee by Ali Gator, or I Purr, Therefore I Am.

There’s a tendency to want your headline, title and product to appeal to a broad group of buyers. In reality, these days it’s typically best to narrow your focus so your hook, headline and USP appeal to a more targeted group.  This causes your message to resonate and jolt the audience into action.

So, let’s examine the headline examples used in this post.

Post Title:  ”14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience and Hook Them”

Slants Used: NUMBER, SUPERLATIVE, SECRETS, PROMISES

Federal Express – “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”

Slants Used: PROMISES, LOCATION

One-Legged Golfer – “Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices…And Can Slash Up to 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!”

Slants Used:  AMAZEMENT, SECRETS, PROMISES, NUMBERS

Cosmopolitan Magazine – “50 Ways To Thrill A Man – Warning By #18 He’ll Barely Remember His Name”

Slants Used: SEX, NUMBERS, AMAZEMENT, HUMOR

4-Hour Workweek - “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich”

Slants Used: AMAZEMENT, PROMISES, TRAVEL, MONEY, SECRETS

Great hooks are elusive. They’re hidden from plain sight. Like the “one-legged golfer”, which was only uncovered after asking the client how he discovered these new golf techniques that he was selling.  He said he was talking to this one-legged golfer, who explained how he discovered how to beat the other players by using his disability to his advantage.

Great hooks are remarkable. They grab the target audience‘s interest and demand an answer.

Great hooks are relevant. They encapsulate the primary benefit and speak directly to the reader’s own selfish desires.

Great hooks resonate. They strike a chord within our existing memories and experiences, triggering an emotional response.  These hooks tap into stories, memories, beliefs and values that already exist within the reader.

The art of hook-making remains a difficult, yet worthwhile endeavor – for marketers, writers and bloggers.  The better the hook, the more fish that will be caught and weighed in each day.  The better the hook, the more ReTweets and email forwards a viral message receives.  And the more likely word of mouth will spread like a wildfire.

Fortunately, we have many avenues available to quickly and inexpensively test and validate hooks today, including email, Google AdWords ads, Twitter, Facebook and blogs. We can test a hook, slant and headline, measuring the response rates, blog comments, ReTweets and other actions each one causes – then choose the hook and headline that resonates and provides the desired response.

Finding and crafting great hooks requires knowledge of the target audience, some detailed detective work, careful selection of slants – and the courage to stand out and rock your readers’ world.

Related posts

• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (1)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (1)
• 10 Lessons Marketers Can Learn From Bass Fishing (11)
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (6)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (2)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (3)
• The Power of Story in Permission-based Marketing (3)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (11)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (10)