Sunday, October 7, 2012

How to Use Stories to Captivate Your Audience and Increase Sales

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. " - Robert McKee

And it ' s true, isn ' t it?

The chances that you ' ll commemorate something increase significantly if it ' s abstruse for a compelling story ( quite than a dry description ).

That ' s as stories introduce a human element to a company or organization - and people love to interpret about people.

In reality, stories not isolated communicate credibility and results, human ( moderately than business ) - centered tales increase sales, cut the sales course, help sell more to existing customers, land media coverage, and maturate sustentation for causes and ideas.

In their book, " Made to Stick, " Dan and Element Heath spiel that:

" Stories help people suppose scenarios and gain inspiration from seeing other ' s successes - and they are moved to act as a result. "

So how do you tackle writing a compelling story? Here are five steps to get you started:

1. Decide your core point. In order for a story to stick, you need to boil down the core of your message ( ideally to a sentence or two ). And do this before you write your story.

What are you trying to say? What point do you want to get across to your reader? Make it simple and easy to understand.

2. Determine the situation or setting. Writers will know that every story needs a context or a setting where the story will play out. If done right, this will engage the reader emotionally and make them feel part of the story.

People are always looking for something to connect to in a story, so make sure the context is detailed enough that they can find something to relate to on a personal level.

3. Decide the problem. Before writing the story, you should not only determine the point of the story, you also need to figure out what the problem is that you ' re trying to solve for the reader.

Since the product or service you ' re writing about is designed ( hopefully ) to solve a problem or help the reader face a certain challenge, your story must connect the dots - from their problem, to your solution.

4. Come to a turning point. Every interesting story has a turning point in it called the climax, where the suspense of the story reaches its peak. Here, you must show the reader exactly how things change and how those changes will affect the final outcome of the story.

5. Convert. Since as a marketer, you ' re ultimately selling a product or service, the conversion piece of the story is the most important. This is where the story converges, and the solution ( aka your product or service ) is revealed.

Usually, this last piece is followed by the offer or call to action. But it should come naturally, and should never feel artificial.

Don ' t force it

Stories are a remarkable tool for any marketer wanting to get her message out into the world. But in order for stories to work their magic, they must be compelling and always, always authentic - people can sense a bogus story from miles away.

" Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. " - Janet Litherland

So what are you waiting for? Go tell your story today.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Is Mobile Marketing the Next Big Story

The usual methods of set forth and television marketing are giving way to new forms of initiative marketing by businesses. The new sort of marketing includes mobile marketing and digital advertising. Mobile marketing especially is being used for mass marketing of products. Some of the more common usage factors of Mobile, or SMS marketing campaigns, encircle launching new products and conducting sales promotion activities, popular contests and plane conducting market research and customer feedback campaigns. The benefits are huge and come at a secondary cost than general marketing mediums. Marketers favor SMS marketing thanks to it is a two way communication process and it helps to engage the consumer in the marketing initiative. Mobile operators are and offering services like short messaging codes, which by using they can collect consumer information and feedback. The unprecedented growth of mobile phones in the developed world and the BRIC economies is another driver of SMS text marketing.

There are some interesting statistics to support the explosive growth of mobile marketing. In the US, mobile communication will penetrate 100 % of the population by 2013. The figure now stands above 80 %. SMS is used by more than 2 / 3rds of all mobile users. Less than 10 % of all SMS sent are spam as compared to 65 % of email marketing. Without flooding you with any further numbers, it suffices to say that mobile marketing will drive the next growth phase for marketers along with digital advertising.

There are different forms of Mobile marketing used by marketers. It starts with sending a simple text message to content rich message and pictures that can be viewed in high end communication devices like the iPhone. Short code SMS marketing remains the most preferred mode of mobile marketing. The reasons are pretty obvious. They are compatible with all kinds of mobile devices and offer a quick way of conveying your message to the consumers. It can be used for conducting contests or getting votes for a reality show on TV. Politicians ' use it for getting public views and restaurants can announce their new buffet using short code SMS.

SMS marketing service providers ' act as the interface between mobile service operators who offer the short SMS service and business houses which buy it. Another interesting fact about SMS marketing is the profit that operators, service providers and business houses can make by charging customers for replying to a SMS. If a customer replies to a marketing SMS asking for more information, it can be charged nominally. SMS short service providers are improving their service levels and offering customers " easy to set - up " SMS marketing software. The benefits are visible within a week or two of launching the SMS marketing campaign. Quick results, less cost and easy to launch campaigns are leading more and more marketers to join the mobile marketing revolution.

Indian Short Stories A Window To Our Morals

These short stories are fascinating and still have plentiful people who are sympathetic in reading them with an aim of getting the moral information that may benefit them. Others may find it good for entertainment purposes. The Indian short stories are bag through problematic times seeing a close of the genuineness of huge volumes of entertainment that has been brought about by the internet.

But one interesting instrument is that Indian short stories can be downloaded with ease prone that you have internet connection. Anyone can download them since there are very crowded sites that host them. You can make use of your downloaded stories over and over again as you can save it and read offline. You can choose from the different varieties of short stories that are available as they cover a wider variety of areas. There are a variety of other good materials that has a lot of information that can make it a great experience for you at all times.

It ' s a fact that Indian short stories are still the darling of many young people. Those who argue that it went with the older generation not understand the real facts. Many young people the world over would like to learn about these old Indian short stories. The youth of the Indian origin have also found it wise to ensure that they learn about these short stories as that ' s where the root of their morals stands.

The appetite for Indian short stories is as strong as never before. Children are finding it easy to download their favorite stories from the net without much help. The sites that host them are user friendly and by following the simple prompts, you can download the short stories with ease! With many children getting computer savvy, they can take advantage and get whatever king of an Indian story that they feel like they need.

Reading Indian short stories from the internet is the perfect thing for those who cannot get an elder to tell them about these stories. The demands of current live makes it so hard d to get the right person who can take you through these but courtesy of the internet, you can take advantage and learn more of the ancient Indian culture that is rich in moral lessons.

The characters that are mainly used in Indian short stories are animals but if you make a close look, you will notice that the themes relate to common life. It ' s all about what people do on every day basis. You will be surprised to note that these short stories are rich in cultural content that ' can be used well by the young people.

How Your Story Can Attract More Clients

People love stories. More importantly, people love to hear stories of triumph and fire. And moreover, people love to hear stories that they revert with that bequeath them optimism that their struggles will immediately stump. Being an entrepreneur, you no question have a story, a powerful story to tell. I am usually asked by entrepreneurs two questions when it relates to telling their story:

How much do I have to share?

How do I share it in a way that will lead to more auspicious clients for my business?

Both are choice questions and both are relevant to the overall orbit of your business revenue. You see, people like to buy from those they know, like, dependence and believe can solve their box. One sure - fire way to get people to know, like, trust and believe in your ability to help them, is to tell them your story.

I always share this caveat here. You only need to tell the part of the story that is congruent to the end result they want to experience. Period. If there is a part of your history that has nothing to do with why you can help them solve their problem, you don ' t need to tell it.

Go ahead, take a deep breath. I know I just liberated many of you.

The thing is this; you want for people to understand that you know what they ' re going through right now because you ' ve been there, done that and gotten the t - shirt. When they feel like you " get it, " you will get " it ", and " it " in the last case is their business.

People like to know that everyday people just like them figured out the magic little secret that will lead to the biggest breakthrough they ' ve ever experienced in their life. And how, do you ask, do you help them to see you as that person?

I ' d like to introduce you to something I like to call the " Why Story. " I didn ' t originate this concept, I must admit, I first learned of it when I was in Mary Kay Cosmetics. In Mary Kay, your " I " story was designed to help others understand why you started your Mary Kay business.

While I am no longer in Mary Kay, I loved the concept so much that I made some important tweaks and now apply it to my marketing message for my business and what I show my clients how to create so they can enjoy the same result. At the end of the day, your goal is to get " me, toos " from your prospective clients. You want them to identify with you so strongly that they say, " oh my goodness, me too! " And more importantly they say, ' If she is just like me and she used to struggle with what I struggle with now and she got out of it, then I know she can help me get out of it, too. "

And that, Incredible One, is the golden ticket.

So, while this story still answers the question about why you decided to start the business you now run, it more importantly helps to ensure that you generate the " me, toos " from the audience. Your " Why Story " in my newly created form includes three ( 3 ) components:

Your Robert Frost Moment

Your Moment of Change

Your Harriet Tubman Moment

Your Robert Frost Moment - In his poem, The Road Less Travelled, Robert Frost discusses a crossroad of sorts. Many of us, including you, have found ourselves at a similar crossroad. Usually it is the choice we make at this crossroad that becomes a defining moment for our lives and businesses. What is that moment for you? How did you recognize it? How did you decide which way to go? What happened that made you take the first step toward change?

Your Moment of Change - after starting in the direction of that less travelled road, what was it that created the need to change and follow the steps it would take to complete the cycle of change? How can you relate the work that you now do to that all important change?

Your Harriet Tubman Moment - Upon getting to the other side [solving your own problem], why did you decide to go back to help others? All of us, once we get a taste of " freedom " desire to help others experience it as well. When did that moment happen for you in the timeline of your business? How did you know it was time to tell others? Did you formulate the steps you took into any proprietary system? Did you test your theory and get some success stories?

When you create your " Why Story " to include these three elements, you will produce an authentic and compelling reason why you are the expert you claim to be and that when paired with an incredible follow up strategy will add more ideal prospects to your sales funnel and ultimately to your business.

Happy Story Telling!!!