Harness the Unconscious Marketing Power of Stories

If you want people to pay attention to what you say, you
have to communicate with them at an unconscious level.

In order to do that successfully, it's useful to know that
the unconscious mind loves symbols. One of the most
powerful ways of using symbols is through metaphor or
stories.

As the unconscious mind also takes everything it hears
personally, people will automatically relate to the people
they hear about in the metaphor.

So a great way of getting your message across is using
stories in your marketing. Good communicators do this all
the time without realizing it.

People love to hear a story. When you give them information
in the context of "this is what happened with so and so,"
they will take the message on board much more convincingly.

While most people will resist an obvious sales pitch, they
will respond much more happily to the same information
presented in the form of a story. For example, try telling
a story about how someone's life has changed as a result of
using your product or about the success they have had after
following your advice.

Compare the following sentences and consider which one is
more likely to leave the biggest impact.

'We provide great training to many leading companies'.

or

'Bill White at Marriott was telling me how their sales
people had seen appointments double as a result of
attending our course.'

Turning the same information into a story about someone
else not only makes it more interesting, it makes it much
more likely that the listener will respond positively.

You can also learn a lesson from Hollywood and fill your
stories with interesting characters and dialog plus a
dramatic benefit. However take care to keep your stories
factual and don't stray into the world of fiction.

Another benefit of stories or metaphors is that they can
create feelings in the listener. If you tell a story about
someone having a good time, being successful and enjoying
things, it will make the listener feel good too.

If your story is full of negative information, it will make
them feel bad and less likely to do business with you –
unless you are offering a solution to that bad feeling!

To put stories to work in your business, you should build a
fund of examples of people you have worked with in the past
or people who have benefited from using your product.

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Robert Greenshields is a marketing success coach who helps
entrepreneurs and independent professionals develop the
success mindset and marketing strategies for a better
lifestyle. For more info visit
http://www.mindpowermarketing.com