Lots of us had someone try to lull us to sleep with bedtime stories when we were little; but did you know you can also use storytelling to increase online sales?
It’s true! And I wanna use that same bedtime analogy to show you how.
One of my friends was telling me about how when she was little her mother would read Winnie the Pooh stories to her. Like the one about Pooh sticks, where Eeyore got “boffed”” into the stream—or the story about Eeyore’s house. She can practically recite them word for word.
Not just because of how many times she heard them over the years, but also because of how bought in she would get while listening to them.
She could see Eeyore slowly spinning in the stream below the bridge. It became more than just a story. It was an experience. In her mind, she was right there!
Well, you can give your online customers that same thing when it comes to the products you’re selling online.
Not exactly Eeyore spinning, but potentially something that can get CUSTOMERS’ heads spinning happily (and not put ‘em to sleep unless you’re selling pillows!)
Jude Charles understands the connection between storytelling and increasing online sales more than most. In fact, he’s made a career out of it—one that began when he was still in high school!
He joined me on the How to Sell Online podcast to talk about how to use storytelling to increase online sales…and you can sell almost anything. Candles? Lipstick? Heck, maybe even those pillows mentioned earlier!
One of my favorite moments in the podcast (teeny spoiler alert!) is when he shared about something called “Significant Objects.” After Jude and I talked, I took a gander at it online to learn a little more…and it is FASCINATING.
Imagine purchasing about 200 or so objects at your local thrift store for $1.25 or less—and none of them, by the way, are some crazy art pieces that is shown on Antiques Roadshow and valued at a wild amount of cash or something. Far from it. They’re just things you’d expect to see in some bin at a second-hand store, collecting dust.
But the next step is the critical one: you have a product description written for each piece. And then you list each of them on eBay.
How much do you think these buck-and-a-quarter items sold for? Just under $8,000!
What made those often-ugly little thrift store pieces go from being worth almost nothing to, on average, 40 bucks? The story, or description, that went along with them!
That’s what can happen when you use storytelling to increase online sales! You take a good product and combine it with a great description, and…magic happens!
For example, I once took boring paper French fry boxes, then wrote a short blurb about how those very boxes can turn a busy mom into a bake sale hero. My husband thought I was nuts to try to sell them…but I pretty much lost track at how many thousands of them I sold! Ditto with paper straws and cupcake liners and baby leggings.
Jude’s got some fantastic information and ideas that will have your brain absolutely BUZZING with ideas.
He walks step by step through what makes a story “work”, so be sure to listen to this episode of the How to Sell Online podcast with a pen and pad of paper handy!
Here are 10 of the MANY things I wrote down during my time with Jude:
- Stories can make items/products more meaningful.
- Choose a word to represent your product, then work backwards to create a story that illustrates that.
- Give your customers something worth reading (and remembering.)
- Condense stories into what you were thinking, feeling or seeing.
- Put in the reps.
- Good stories have a hook, journey, and then a lesson.
- Use an app like Notion, a Google doc or a Google spreadsheet to capture your stories.
- Attaching stories to your brand keeps it top of mind.
- Look for ways to move your story off-line.
- Write, then refine.
Additional Resources
For over 15 years, Jude Charles has been producing documentaries for entrepreneurs. He has produced stories for Google, Steve Harvey, and dozens of visionary CEOs. Jude is the author of Dramatic Demonstration. This book is a roadmap that teaches you how to dig deep to find compelling stories that no one else knows, and then leverage those stories to grow your business. Jude’s mission is to lead and empower entrepreneurs to have relentless, unwavering courage.
Learn more about Jude at JudeCharles.co.
Sign up for Judes Newsletter here
Find Jude's Story Bank Journal here
Connect with Alison:
Facebook: @alisonjprince
Instagram: @alisonjprince
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