Advertising
Are You a Story-Teller? If You’re in Solo Business You Ought To Be!
The subject of your business is so familiar and important to you, the owner, that you base your company on your own ability to share what you know about the niche with your like-minded customers.
Because your business is very personal, it’s most effectively delivered to your clients in a one-on-one relationship.
You have the control and power to turn complete strangers into your friends and you can deliver your business as if you were sharing a close and treasured secret between friends.
It’s on that basis, that I’m suggesting you need to learn to become a story-teller if you’re not already one. It’s not really difficult.
You see, some business owners feel that they need to keep a formal, very professional relationship in place with their customers.
They treat their clients as if they were visiting dignitaries: they get the hands off, but white glove attention without ever getting too personal.
The trouble with that approach is that most customers don’t want to be treated that way.
They prefer a more sociable, friendly, neighbor-across-the-back-fence relationship.
They would rather have you as a trusted friend and advisor than an arms-length acquaintance that never gets too close.
Friends, especially close and trusted friends, are able to enjoy and relax with one another.
This type of informal, pull-up-a-chair-and-chat-for-a-spell relationship isn’t appropriate for all businesses, of course. But for many very targeted solo operator businesses, it is a relationship worth nurturing.
You wouldn’t expect to deal with some professionals, like your attorney or the mortgage company in this way.
But for a solo business owner that is most likely sharing his passion, his fun, his experience with his friends, it seems to be the best and most profitable approach on the Internet.
Tell stories, like one close friend would tell another, in your advertising, your web copy, on your blog, and in your communications with your customers and email subscribers.
Don’t just list features and benefits and specifications related to your products and business . . . tell your customers how you enjoyed using . . . (whatever it was) and explain by using personal examples how it solved your personal problem.
Instead of making a sales pitch to a prospect, you are simply making a personal recommendation to a trusted friend as you are telling your story.
There is a huge difference in these approaches.
You will learn that trust between a prospect and the seller is very important to profitable online business sales. Prospects purchase from those that they know, like, and trust.
Educating your audience, advertising, and promoting your small business can all be accomplished to some extent by story telling.
A great story will engage your audience, it will help to disarm prospects who are naturally skeptical and wary. Stories that are fun, or entertaining, or suspenseful will help to calm and put prospects in a more relaxed and less suspicious mood.
Most of us were taught at a very early age that stories are good!
Why not try adding more stories to your business marketing? I believe you will be pleasantly surprised at how effective a good story can be in promoting and selling your business and your products.
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com
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