Do businesses email customers too much? A recent article in Business Insider states that the answer to this question is yes. Not for the reasons you might think.
Customers don’t hate getting emails from businesses. It’s not because customers hate getting emails from companies. Most brands today email in this way.
Discounts are their primary strategy to encourage customers to purchase. What happens when the entire inbox of your customer looks like this? They stop reading your emails.
Here’s the thing.
Why would they read your email if they knew what’s inside? Why would they purchase now when you offer discounts every day? Why would they choose you over your competitors, and why?
You must build strong relationships with your subscribers to be noticed in someone else’s inbox. Here’s how:
Storytelling: How to Make Your Brand Stand Out in a Crowded Inbox
Storytelling is a powerful way to communicate. It’s not just me who says it. The countless studies that have been done (such as This, This, and This) repeatedly prove this. Why?
Storytelling helps you create positive emotional associations between you and your brand. Your stories can have a big impact on how your audience perceives you. They will form a stronger bond between you and their problem. But that’s just the tip of the Iceberg.
Creating story-based emails can make you more than a brand that sells them a solution for their problems: It makes you a great entertainer. Being able to sell and entertain simultaneously is a marketing superpower. People don’t like being sold to. They love to be entertained. I know I’ve done it.
You can also add more variety to your calendar by using story-based emails. Your customers won’t be able to predict your next email: will it be a funny story? A new product? Perhaps even a discount. Curiosity leads to greater engagement. Increased engagement leads to stronger relationships between you and your customers.
By choosing engaging stories to include in your emails and writing them in a way that keeps your audience interested and eager to read the next email you send, you can keep your audience engaged and excited, instead of adding another sales email to an already overcrowded inbox.
How to supercharge your email strategy with stories that sell
Choose the Right StoryIf your stories aren’t engaging, the storytelling approach won’t work. It doesn’t matter how good your writing is.
You should select only story ideas that have potential. Where do you get these story ideas? What makes a good idea for a story?
You’re probably like me. Your life isn’t very exciting or interesting. You may have a funny chat with your neighbor. Wild adaptogen mushrooms might enthrall your team during a team-building event. Your spouse could accidentally spill coffee onto your laptop. ).
You can turn any of these into a fun story email that will tell your audience more about you or your team. Most business owners believe their customers do not want to know about their personal and business lives. This is not true.
Customers want to know that there are people behind the brand names. According to This report by Sprout Social, 70% of consumers feel more connected to a company when the CEO is active on social networks.
You can choose the type of stories you want to tell based on your willingness to share. If unsure, consider what you want to share with your family and friends at dinner. Most of the time, this would make a good story to email.
How to Write a Strong Hook
Let’s be honest.
Attention spans have become shorter. No matter how engaging your story may be, your email readers will not read it if you don’t write it in an interesting way.
The first thing to do is ensure that your story’s first three sentences will hook the reader. After someone has read that much, they will find it difficult to stop.
So how do you do it? These hooks work every time I write stories, whether for my own use or clients’:
You can start in the middle of an action (and then explain the context). You can use this example:
The police officer shouted “RUN!” at me.
I shouted back, “Okay, thanks!” as I ran out of Paddington station and tried to find a taxi.
It was only 4 in the morning. It was 4 in the morning.
Start your story with’ time ago.’ Remembering an event from the past will hook people into your story. You can use the following example:
“A couple of months ago, Joanna Wiebe, the original conversion copywriter, slid into my DMs in Slack completely by surprise …”
Transition to your sales pitch seamlessly
Your readers will be entertained and ready to buy your solution by the time you reach this section. Your brand is not just another inbox in the busy inbox. Your brand is now someone they know, like, and trust. So, it feels right to buy from you.
You can’t end the story abruptly to sell your product/service. This would be intrusive. In the same way, an annoying YouTube ad interrupts the stream when you are watching a video.
You must then find a way of tying your story into your product or service in a seamless manner so that your readers don’t realize they are now reading a pitch. Sounds difficult. You’ll be surprised at how simple it is. Most people make the mistake of trying to tie their sales pitch to the moral.