This blog post was originally published on July 20th, 2020. It has recently been updated to include new information. Please enjoy, then go forth and use storytelling as part of your email marketing.
Humans love stories. Storytelling has been a part of our culture for eons.
We tell stories to ourselves and each other every day. They are woven into the fabric of our lives.
This begs the question; Why aren’t we using more storytelling in email marketing?
We’re Hard-Wired to Listen to Stories
If you look at all of human history, we use stories to relate to each other and create a deeper connection.
Petroglyphs and cave paintings tell stories of how people lived “before human history.”
Religious texts tell the stories of how the earth and all of its inhabitants were created. They go on to tell the story of how that particular religion developed and why the deity or deities involved are important.
Fairytales are told to children as “teaching stories” to scare them into behaving in public. “Don’t stray off the path or the boogey man will get you. Beware of strangers, you don’t want to be gobbled up by the big bad wolf.”
It’s not uncommon for people to tune out when someone starts rattling off a list of facts, statistics and figures, but when you put that information into the context of a story, people pay attention.
The most common story or “monomyth,” a phrase coined by Joseph Campbell, is that of the Hero’s Journey. Professor Campbell discovered through his study of literature, mythology and religion, that every culture and society has some version of it.
This image gives the basic structure of the Hero’s Journey.
Most of the great works of literature and pretty much every movie ever is based on this formula. For example, George Lucas actually studied Campbell’s writing and created the original Star Wars Trilogy around the structure of the monomyth.
In marketing, we use this same formula when we talk about the Buyer’s Journey. I’ve written several blog posts about the Buyer’s Journey, which you can find here.
Storytelling in Broadcast Marketing
You’ll see a very common form of storytelling using the monomyth in commercials, where the “hero” of the commercial has a problem. During the commercial, the hero discovers the “solution” to their problem when they find the product the commercial is advertising.
The average cleaning supply commercial is the perfect example.
The Hero has a stain/mess to deal with and they’re scrubbing and frowning.
The product is introduced, and you see the Hero using the product wiping away the offending stain/mess.
Finally, you see the Hero smiling, admiring their handy-work and beaming at the product in their hands.
If you’ve ever watched a commercial for a charitable organization, you’ve seen another example of storytelling in action. You never hear about the “thousands and thousands” of children starving in (pick a world region of your choice). You hear about one child and that child’s plight. Then you discover your donation of “just XX cents a day” can feed that child and their family for a week.
The reason stories are so effective in marketing is that you feel drawn into them. You see yourself in the story.
If you’ve recently been fighting with a stubborn stain on your bathroom tile, you see yourself wiping it away successfully using Product X.
When you hear about that poor starving child, you want to be the person who feeds them and their family for that week with your donation.
Storytelling has always been designed to draw people into the story, create emotional connections, and make us feel like we’re part of the action.
Which makes storytelling a perfect method for your email marketing.
A Story-Based Email Helps Distinguish You From Your Competitors
When you use storytelling in email marketing campaigns, you’re doing more than just connecting with your subscribers. You’re also distinguishing yourself and your brand from your competitors.
Your personal story is unique. Your brand story is also unique. When you tell your own story and your brand’s unique story, you’re sharing everything from your “origin story” of why you started your business to the specific people you serve, to behind-the-scenes stories of how you make your product or serve your customers. (Phew! That’s a lot of “stories!”)
That alone will make you stand out from the competition. And it will make you and your company more memorable, which will ultimately result in more customers and more sales.
You can also make deeper connections when you do this because your target audience will see themselves in your storytelling efforts. When people have that emotional response, they’re more likely to click on the link in your email and then click on the “buy now” button on your sales page or the “schedule a consultation” button on your appointment app.
By the way, all of this is true whether you’re writing lead-nurturing emails or sending a subscriber through a sales funnel. You can use storytelling techniques literally everywhere in your marketing.
In Email Marketing, Storytelling Will Increase Your Authenticity
In our current environment where so many companies (including your competitors) are using AI to write their emails, sharing personal anecdotes and engaging stories will make you stand out as authentic.
Computers don’t know how to “human” yet. Chat GPT won’t do as good a job of telling your story as you will.
When you tell your own story in your own words, that’s going to register with your subscribers and make them want to support you, even if you feel like you “can’t write to save your life.” It makes you “real” in their eyes, even if they never meet you in person.
That will result in loyal customers who rave about you to their friends and family.
And it will blow your business way past your competitors who are using generative AI programs to write traditional emails that sound like they’re written by a robot.
Now that I’ve raved about using storytelling in your email marketing, here are a few ways to do it.
3 Simple Ways to Include Storytelling in Your Email Marketing
First, I want to be clear that storytelling is not the only method for email marketing. There are many other methods you could use, some of which I’ve already written about, such as:
Using features and benefits to show why someone should buy your product or service.
And,
Focusing on the transformation someone will go through when they use your product or service.
That being said, storytelling is something you can and should use regularly in your emails. (For that matter, you can use storytelling as part of both of the methods I just mentioned.)
Here are 3 different ways to use storytelling in your email marketing, whether you’re selling something or sending content-based nurturing emails.
1. Case Studies
Case studies, also known as customer success stories, are awesome to use in your emails because they’re literally telling the story of one of your customers having success with your product or service.
Many case studies are short and sweet, which makes them perfect and compelling stories to tell in an email. And they’re incredibly versatile, because you can use them as a stand-alone email or as part of a sales campaign email.
You can get extra mileage from them when you write them up as a blog post or content piece on your website, then write an email that teases the story and sends your subscribers to read the whole thing.
Here’s a great example from Ryan Levesque of The ASK Method Company.
Ryan used this email to paint an incredibly relatable picture of a situation many parents were in during the pandemic, not knowing whether their kids would be in school or at home.
Then, he tells the story of one of his coaching students, and how she built a Quiz Funnel that is letting her make money while spending more time with her family.
This case study shows off 2 of Ryan’s products, his Quiz Funnel Masterclass and his Business Coaching program. This story is directed toward a specific segment of Ryan’s target audience, business owners who are also parents.
By telling the story of Lisa’s success, he’s proving that his methods work and piquing his readers’ interest in these products.
There’s more about case studies in this post on social proof.
I’m sure you have previous success stories from your own business that you could turn into an engaging email marketing campaign. Turning a real-life example into a good story about one of your previous customers achieving success with your product or service is one of the easiest ways to incorporate storytelling into your email marketing campaigns.
2. Tell Stories Related to Your Product or Service
I do this regularly in my emails. It’s a fun and effective way to use storytelling in your email marketing campaigns.
Basically, you take a story out of the headlines or from your industry and use it to promote whatever it is you’re offering. Again, it can be used in nurturing or sales emails, though I find it’s more effective in sales emails.
As far as I’m concerned, the master of this technique is a copywriter named Ben Settle. This is his standard M.O.
Here, Ben uses a story about Leonardo DiCaprio to sell one of his products. The product is totally unrelated to Leonardo DiCaprio. But by focusing on the branding aspect of DiCaprio’s career, Ben is able to bend this story to his own product, a book all about branding.
Using “other people’s stories” gives you two advantages:
It helps your reader relate more quickly to your product or service because they relate immediately to the story you’re telling.
It’s easy to find something to write about. (This is a good email option when you’re struggling for a topic.)
Because we all have an emotional connection to stories, it can be easier to use what may seem like an unrelated story to pique your reader’s interest, then ease into the promotion of your product or service.
A lot of storytelling email marketing campaigns are more about entertainment than education. You want to engage your email subscribers and convince them to keep reading. Using that seemingly unrelated story is what grabs their attention. Then you show how the story really does relate to what you’re offering.
3. Tell Your Own Story
Shocking, I know.
But your audience does want to know who you are and why you do what you do.
They also want to know what’s going on in your life and that you are a real human being.
This is one of those ways in which writing story-based emails is most effective.
I’ve done this on many occasions, such as when I lost my beloved cat of 16 years, or when I was out traveling up the west coast to figure out where I wanted to live.
I also include pictures of my current cats, Irusan and Nanner, in blog posts and emails as often as I can make an excuse to do so.
Incorporating storytelling into my email marketing has gotten the best click-through rates and the highest response from my dedicated subscribers.
Here’s why storytelling works.
You are writing to other humans. We all want to know each other’s stories because, as mentioned earlier, we thrive on stories. It’s why reality TV is as popular as it is, despite the fact that much of it is clearly scripted.
An excellent example of this is from Tom Dyson, who writes for Agora Publishing, one of the largest financial newsletter companies in the world.
He is an expert financial advisor and has written sales packages that have made millions for this company. Yet he now travels the world with his family, going from state to state and country to country because they can. His daily emails tell the story of why they’re doing this and where they are at any given time.
Along with information and pictures on what he and his family are doing, he includes information on stocks and options, which are his… well… stock and trade. He also gives his opinion on what’s happening in financial markets and how it will affect the overall economy.
His employer, Agora Publishing, inserts “ads” for their various newsletters, webinars, etc. into these emails, and Tom promotes his own paid newsletter. But all of it is couched in the story Tom is telling about why he and his family are traveling the country as he and his partner homeschool their kids.
At the end of this VERY long email, there’s a “Mailbag” section, which I didn’t include in the picture. Here, Tom responds to readers’ questions and comments. Some are about the family’s travels (along with offers of places to stay) and some are questions about Tom’s financial advice. In many of his responses, Tom is able to direct people to various Agora product links.
How Will You Use Storytelling in Your Email Marketing From Now On?
I’ve just showed you 3 simple, yet powerful ways to use stories in your emails. What’s more, I’ve shown you that you can use this technique when you’re selling and when you’re nurturing.
So, how are you going to put this to use in your own emails?
If you’re sitting here thinking, “Tanya, this is all well and good, but I still have no idea what to say…” I’ve got a secret to share.
There are many ways to tell stories, as I illustrated above.
The same is true of writing your emails.
Just as we’re all hard-wired to listen to stories, your subscribers have a “Nurture Email Type” they’re hard-wired to open, read, and buy from.
Once you know your subscribers’ nurture email type, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out the stories that will grab their attention and convince them to click on the links in your emails.
You’ll also be able to write your weekly nurture emails much faster because you’ll have a simple, repeatable formula to follow every time.
This gives you the knowledge and security that you can sit down, whip out your weekly nurture email, load it into your email service provider and get back to doing what you really love, running your business. All while getting more sales and bringing in new customers from your email list.
Find out which Nurture Email Type your subscribers are most likely to open, read, and buy from when you take my free 60-second quiz. Just click on the button below to start the quiz now.
Once you’ve taken the quiz, go forth and let your subscribers hear your stories in your email marketing! They’ll be more engaged and more willing to buy, once you do.