Have you ever wondered why some books, movies, plays or TV series become best sellers and endure while others, equally good, flop?
All enduring stories follow particular structures. Be they origin stories or the hero’s journey. And every culture on earth shares the same structures with their own content.
To be enduring, every story needs to accomplish for goals.
- Get attention.
- Generate interest (get emotional buy-in).
- Generate desire – to keep listening.
- Have a call to action – whether it’s to pass the story down, change behaviour, cement a culture.
Notice the parallel to the classic marketing copy AIDA formula of Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
As such, the greatest marketers are wonderful storytellers.
They weave a story around their product to get your attention and interest. By showing you what their product can do to enhance your life, they generate desire and finally, ask you to buy.
It’s a classic AIDA formula of Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
Attention:
Think about scrolling through your Facebook feed. What grabs your attention, makes you stop and read or watch something?
Chances are it’s an image/video or text headline which evokes curiosity in some form. You want to know more.
But attention wanes quickly. Especially online where the average person will give you 2 to 5 seconds before clicking away.
Interest:
People are impatient. They’re thinking, “Should I keep paying attention? Is this interesting for me?”
You’d better get to the point quickly. Follow through on the promise. Keep them engaged with interesting content that entertains and if marketing your product, educates re benefits.
If you’re using video, realise the vast majority of viewers fall away at the 2 minute mark.
Desire:
You generate desire by honing in on the problem they’re facing, help them begin to solve it and create a thirst for more.
You goal is to build up trust while positioning yourself as the “authority” in your field. Someone who can solve their specific issues better than anyone else.
Action:
What’s the next step you want them to take?
You want to be able to communicate with this person on an ongoing basis, enabling you to educate and set the buying criteria in your favour.
You do this by offering something of value to them. Something they have to contact you to get.
Called a “Hand raising free offer”, they have to give you their contact details to receive it.
Examples include free reports, webinars, free trials or consultations.
Whatever form your free offer takes, its main purpose is to answer universal questions we all have.
- Do I really want what you’re offering? Do I want to invest time/money/effort?
- Can I trust you? Are you for real?
- Will it work for me? My situation is different!
Once you have them on your list, keep communicating and putting out offers. When your prospect is ready, they’ll buy.
There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Often none of this happens in a straight line. You need a system including regular follow ups to keep your prospects moving from one step to the next.
We’ve spent years honing our craft and implementing successful marketing and sales systems for our clients. And we’d love the opportunity to do the same for you.
If your business has hit a plateau and you want to grow, give us a call on 0414-913-334 and get the ball rolling.
