Once upon a time there was a brilliant but impoverished shoe maker. Day after day he lovingly manipulated the delicate leather pieces, creating shoes so soft, a mother once travelled 120 miles to the town of her childhood to buy a pair of gentle foot huggers for her new son.
Every night as he slept, the ageing shoe man dreamed of elves. He’d heard the stories of these tiny folk. The ones who rescued shoe makers, just like him.
And every morning he would wake to the familiar groan of his belly, glance to his work room and see the table still resolutely empty.
Tired, afraid of the never ending hunger, our hero decided that it was time to go in search of the elves. His shoes were beautiful. He knew that. But they weren’t fabulous enough to sell to the rich people over the hill. Were they?
And so he set off. Travelling a night and a day, he found himself in a new land. Bright lights, dazzling colours. What was this place? He saw fancy looking people dressed in dapper threads, handing out technicolour leaflets advertising their wares. He sighed. These were no elves.
Tired and hungry, he stumbled into the nearest bar and filled his belly from the blessedly low cost menu. As he emptied his glass a little while later, a curious old man, heavily decorated in creases, shuffled over and asked the shoemaker his business.
With a sigh, he told the old man about his home town, the workshop where he lovingly crafted his footwear and how he gently softened the leather with his own special hammer. As he talked to the man, something magical happened. He found his heart swelling and an excitement he thought had long since died made him come alive.
As the clock struck midnight, the shoemaker glanced round and was shocked to find himself surrounded by a small crowd of listeners. Still no elves in sight, the shoemaker returned home with a smile on his face.
Where are the elves in your business?
Do you have the magic little people looking after your stuff or, like our shoe maker, would you look around in shock to find people listening to your business message?
If you could use a little more magic in your marketing, a well told story is your secret weapon.
How many blogs are there on this super, huge world web of ours? Last time I asked Ms Google, she told me the answer in 2006 was 50 million. 50 million blogs?! I can’t even begin to get my head around that number! What if I told you that 2 new blogs come online every single second of the day?
With all that noise, how are you and I going to get ourselves heard? A well told story is your secret weapon.
What are you writing about on your blog? Or if you’re a small business owner, what product or service do you sell? I’m going to stick my neck out here and bet you a copy of my latest ebook that whatever you do, there is someone else doing it quicker or cheaper. With all that competition, how are you going to get ahead? A well told story is your secret weapon.
Look for the stories in your business. Find them, tell them, love them. People love stories. Without them, our history books would be empty. Who said business has to be staid and boring? Since when did your blog have to look and sound like every other place out there? Start pouring your very heart and soul into the fabric of your website. Oozing your personality and charm, it can not fail to attract new people.
Your story is what makes you unique. There is only one you so by telling your story, you’ve just smashed the competition out of the water. Ready to give it a try? Pop a link in the comments and let’s all enjoy a little story time together.
Need a helping hand? Come back next week and I’ll give you some simple tips to get your story started.
The article that you post should be the first thing that the new bloggers should read about. Not the SEO stuff and back link building but story telling secrets. The magic weapon that will help them to drove people to read their blogs. Thanks for the great post and I'm waiting for some more:)
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Ah! Storytelling is what I do for a living! I write fiction, but it's hard to keep in mind that a thriller is after all, a story too. My forthcoming thriller is coming out soon, and you have just given me an idea about how my next blog should go. That is valuable, and I thank you!
Your story is what makes you unique. Write from you heart, and that's will connect you to other people. Enjoy writing.!
El
I can read your stories all day long! I love the way you write. this story is awesome! I tell my personal stories on my blog, and I am hoping that people are feeling what I'm talking about. I am still very new at all of this so it is all learning for me. You are so much help El, Thank You so much!
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Great article El! I need to work on the story telling aspect of marketing on this blog a bit more. I think I do a good job of it on my career blog and I when I started to focus on being more personable and telling my story and why I am different (read : better
) then others, I have noticed an uptick in sales for my resume writing business. Looking forward to Part II.
El
I enjoyed this so much. We under estimate how interesting we could be to other people. Just because we know how to do something we often undervalue it. We are all unique and have something to give. Let's celebrate our uniqueness and stand out from the crowd.
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Nice analogy, for me getting heard is easy, just post something people can use.
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@ El
Well I think that the "something" is easier to pin point in the niche that I'm in, which is Internet Marketing, there are some standard topics that marketers always want, and instead of giving them just a glimpse, you give the whole picture, with resources, and actionable steps to reach their goals, this seems to work every time. Oh and 1500 word + posts of USEFUL info help a lot too. I guess it's in my nature to provide more than I should, and that has lead to a lot of success.
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I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that shares this sentiment. In May two friends and I started critiquing webcomics, videogames, and a few books by sharing our personal experiences and knowledge of the subjects. Confident that we're bringing people useful information in an interesting way, we have high hopes for the future.
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Our ultimate goal is to establish a comic book store with a twists after establishing credibility in the field. Thanks for the advice and the interest! I enjoyed your happy blog.
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