What Stories Are You Telling In Your Emails?

What Makes A Good Story

There's a one word answer to the question of what makes a good story.

Change!

You see, stories explain how and why change happens. So if nothing changes, then you don't have a story.

Change could be working hard in your business and not making any money until... you discovered how to attract the right type of customer. Once you did that your business started giving you the income and lifestyle you want.

Change could be a chance conversation at a networking meeting that made you see how to explain what you do in a way that makes people say Wow! Tell me more.

Change could be the success that your customers have enjoyed once they used your system.

So, when you're looking for a good story find the change. Once you know the change that happens you've got a story.

The other thing to remember about storytelling is a quote by Alfred Hitchcock.

A story is life with the boring parts removed.

So you don't need to put in every detail to tell a thrilling tale. In fact, some points will alienate your audience so cut them out.

How To Tell A Story

There are many storytelling systems and the one that has made the most money is The Hero's Journey. This is the storytelling system used by movies like Rocky, Avatar and Star Wars.

There are 10 steps in The Hero's Journey.

I'm not going to tell you about them today because they are unnecessary for telling an inspirational personal story.

You see, I don't want to weigh you down with theory. I don't want to tie your story up in knots as you try to find the 10 steps. What I want to do is give you a simplified version of The Hero's Journey that makes it easier for you to uncover and tell your stories.

So, I'm going to strip storytelling down to the bare essentials. Down to just 3 steps.

1. What forced you to make a change
2. Challenges achieving your goal
3. The end of the rainbow

What Forced You To Make A Change?

All good stories explain how and why change happens. So the starting point for a story is what forced you to make a change.

This could be you needed to make more money. That's the reason why I started a copywriting and business growth consultancy. I needed to make some more money to pay for my daughter's nursery.

That was what forced me to make a change.

The change could be a chance conversation. Something that made so you how to explain what you do differently.

I struggle to explain to people what I do. I can say it in a boring way such as I'm a copywriter and marketing trainer, mentor and consultant. The other person will nod and move the conversation on. That means they don't know what I do.

I can say that I turn expertise into cash. This is what goes down best with entrepreneurs. Which is fine because they are my ideal customers.

But...

I'd like everyone to understand what I do so they can recommend me. So I often say that I put money in people's bank accounts or I made people rick.

The reaction I get most often is Can you do that for me. So it gets a laugh and gives me permission to explain a little more about what I do. But I'm not convinced people really understand what I do and how I can help them.

Yesterday, I bumped into an old friend and said I make sales for trainers and mentors without a sales team. That's a little better and throws in some intrigue which gives me permission to tell them more. But I'm still trying to find something that really hits the sweet spot.

So, your story starts the moment you decided to make a change. The better you can describe that moment the better you will pull your reader into your story.

Challenges Achieving Your Goal

Deciding to change your life is easy. Making it happen is hard.

Why?

Because you've got to go where you've never been before. That's what makes the journey exciting, challenging and dangerous.

What pulls your reader into your story are the challenges and dangers you faced.

So, if you decided to make a change in your business because you weren't making enough sales. What did you do? And what was the result of that change?

It could be that you wanted to attract more customers so you ran some Facebook ads. Only to burn through your life savings without getting any new customers.

That's exactly what happened to me back in 2008.

That's the danger of making a change in your life. And that's the truth about making a change in your life without a guide.

Let's face it, setting up Facebook ads is easy. Setting up Facebook ads that get good results is hard... it requires knowledge and experience.

So, the first challenge to achieving your goal is often getting knocked down. It's a painful setback.

So... why did you get back up? What made you believe that you could achieve your goal despite the early setback?

The answer to that question reveals your values, your beliefs, and your grit and determination.

How do you reach your destination if you don't know where you are going?

You steal a map and a compass!

That means you found someone to teach you the skills that you need to achieve your goal.

I started learning new copywriting and business growth skills through books. Then through online courses and live workshops. Then through mastermind groups and mentorship.

I did not work this out on my own!

Why?

Because I knew from bitter experience that the school of hard knocks is much more expensive than paying someone else for their help!

So what challenges did you have trying to achieve your goal? And how did you steal a map and a compass? Who did you find to help you learn the skills you needed?

The more you tell your reader about the challenges you faced. The more interesting your story.

Every entrepreneur I've ever met has several hair raising stories. Stories that they have never told!!!

The End Of The Rainbow

You now know where your story starts. You know how to earn your reader's trust through the challenges you faced to achieve your goal. Now it's time to bring your story to an end.

Your story ends when you achieved your goal. It really is a simple as that. Possibly, your story ends when you repeated your shocking success. That's why you know your system will help the reader.

So...

How Does Email Storytelling Help You Make More Sales?

The most important thing email storytelling does is make your reader want to read your next email. That's the secret to email success.

The second thing email storytelling does is earn the trust of your ideal customer.

The third thing email storytelling does is make your customer want to take the next step. That could be to read your sales page.

So...

Yes, email storytelling does get more clicks and more people taking the action that you want.

But...

It does much more than that!

You see, not everyone is going to want your offer right now. Maybe the offer isn't right for them. Maybe, they don't have time right now. Maybe, they are doing some other training right now and want to put this off until later in the year. What storytelling does is set up the second sale.

So... storytelling helps you make sales today and sales tomorrow by earning the trust of your ideal customer.

What Types Of Story Should You Tell In Your Emails?

There are 4 types of story you should tell in your emails.

1. Epic
2. Every day
3. Hard-won lesson or Struggle to success
4. Customer success stories

Epic Stories 

Your Epic Story is the easiest to find and the one you should tell the most often. Your Epic Story is the one that explains how you got to where you are today. It also explains how you created your product or service.

So my Epic Story is how I made £672,989 in 9 days!

I need to tell it often because the only person that remembers everything I say is my daughter. Everyone else forgets because I'm not the most important person in their lives.

The same is true for your customers.

So, if you've already told your Epic Story, don't be afraid to tell it again.

You can change the way you tell your story by changing the length or changing the emphasis of the story.

My Epic Story starts when I burned my way through my life savings paying for Google and Facebook ads that did not make sales. So that could be a specific emphasis for one email.

Then I could talk about the sacrifices that I had to make to pay for formal education and streets-smart education. I can talk about forcing my wife to sacrifice holidays and restaurant dinners. I can talk about my guilt at living a Spartan life for 4 years in the name of a better future... when I had no idea if the sacrifice would pay off.

Then I could talk about the moment I realised that copywriting and storytelling was the starting point of everything. And how that realisation forced me to face my fears or quit. At this point I was, I was 4 years into my journey. There was no way I was going to quit... but there was no way I wanted to face my deepest fear.

So, do you see the different struggles that you can write about your Epic Story? Do you see how you can reveal things to your community that they might not know about you?

Everyday Stories

Everyday stories are the hardest to find. And this is what guarantees that you never run out of stories to tell.

What are everyday stories?

Chance conversations that lead to a change. Or unexpected challenges that made you see something new.

We all run into challenges in our jobs. You might have a system that you follow and for a specific reason (that you are going to explain in your story) you have to tweak your system. That's what caused you to run aground. That's what caused you to dig deep and find a solution. A solution that you are sharing with your community.

What are you doing with everyday stories?

You are revealing your vulnerability and your determination to deliver for a client.

That proves your values. That you want to learn and grow. That you don't quit when the going gets tough. Those are the qualities that make people want to work with you.

Hard-Won Lessons or Struggle To Success Stories

Hard-won lessons are stories of getting an idea, bringing it to life, changing the idea based on real-world feedback, until finally succeeding.

This could be the story of how you created a second product.

This could be the story of how you improved your current product.

Unlike your Epic Story that likely happened over many years. Hard-won lesson stories happen over a few weeks or months.

The point is that you have something valuable to share with your community. Something that you thought would be easy because of your experience. And turned out to be much much harder than you thought... and that's why you are sharing it with your community.

Unless you are standing still in your business. You've got a hard-won lesson story. You're trying to achieve something that you're getting crushed by real-world feedback.

My hard-won lesson story is trying to make lead generation free. I'm getting crushed by feedback. I haven't reached the end of the rainbow yet... and when I do I can't wait to tell the story.

Customer Success Stories

Stories earn trust. And you are telling your inspirational personal stories so your community knows who you are, what makes you different, how you can help them and why they should trust you.

Once they know all that, another big question is can ordinary people succeed with your system? That's why they want you to tell customer success stories. They want to see that someone else just like them, used your system and transformed the quality of their life.

Now It's Your Turn

I hope you can now see the importance of telling stories in your emails. And how to do it.

Your big challenge now is to actually use this information.

So, start by making a list of 5 stories that you want to tell. Start with the easiest. Your Epic Story. As you've seen you could have 5 emails that you could write within your Epic Story.

Then look for an everyday story. A chance conversation that made you change the way you see the world or the way you do things.

Then look for 2 hard-won lesson stories. One that you can tell now. And one story that you are struggling with right now. You're in the middle of it and can't wait to reach the end of the rainbow.

Finally, look for customer success stories you can tell. If you've been training and mentoring people for a few years then you will have stories to tell. You just need to look for them.

Once you've got a list of stories to tell. You can start writing them. Don't worry about trying to make them short. Just tell a thrilling take.

If you're telling an exciting story then your ideal customer will read 800 or 1,5000 word or longer emails.

So take 20 minutes now and write down the 5 stories that you are going to tell. It will be the most important 20 minutes you take this week to move the needle in your business.

If you've found this useful, then please leave a comment below.

If this can help someone you know, then please share it with them.

Until next time...

Carpe diem

Roland Eva

P.S.When bankruptcy stole my first business. I made a commitment to myself to discover a repeatable system to turn strangers into customers on demand. A journey that ended when I made £30,105 in 9 days… without making a single sales call.

It's a system that I've used in many industries. To sell products and services ranging in price from £5 to £12,000.

A system that I've used repeatedly in campaigns that have dwarfed that initial success.

I'd like to show you how to use my simple 3 step system in your business so you can turn strangers into customers on demand. And build your dream business. A business that gives you the income and lifestyle you want.

Unfortunately, I can't show you how to use my simple 3-step system here. The post would run too long.

That's why I've written the book Consistent Profits Pyramid. The book shows you how to use my simple 3-step system in your business. So you can turn strangers into customers... on demand.

I'd like to give you a FREE copy.

To download your FREE copy now. Click the link below.

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