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Great stories are ways to engage people and build relationships with them.
Sometimes a Simple Graphic Can Tell the Whole Story
When I worked on the Marshalls’ account, I visited the client in the Massachusetts office. We talked about ways we could run a campaign without doing a whole photo shoot of the merchandise.
Walking down the hall from the conference room, I met a Marshalls buyer who was grinning ear to ear. He told me he’d just made a huge buy of designer comforters—thousands of the highest quality, stunning comforters he’d ever seen. Truckloads were coming to the warehouse, and people in headquarters already were putting in their orders for them.
Hmmm, I thought. Truckloads. I decided to test an inexpensive postcard, and went back to the office and asked our art director to draw a lineup of trucks that said Marshalls on them. The headline read something like, “Our buyers just bought the most fabulous designer comforters and they are on their way to the Marshalls store near you. Just $29.95!”
It was one of our most successful mailing pieces ever. The downside was Marshalls sold out on day three of the event. The upside is once you get a customer in the store, they often buy other things they see there.
True Stories Make You Real
Many of 3M’s products came to life by chance, and customers find that sort of thing interesting. The now-ubiquitous Post-it Note was developed by Art Fry, a 3M scientist who wanted a way to mark his hymn book in church without tearing or dog-earing the pages. He used a low-tack glue 3M had discovered earlier on small pieces of colored paper. Now we all have these handy notes at work and home.
Spin a Yarn in Your Letter
It’s so much more engaging than getting into some product offer or corporate puffery first.
We’ve all seen the most successful direct mail letter ever written. Martin Conroy wrote it in 1974 for the Wall Street Journal. It is said to have generated almost a billion dollars in business, and the Wall Street Journal still uses it.
The letter tells the story of two men who are very much alike. Both graduated from the same university and had great ambitions. They return for their 25th reunion. They’re both still very much alike, married, with children. But there’s a difference. One man is the manager of a department at a company, the other is the president. The difference, of course, is the president had knowledge he could use from The Wall Street Journal.
It’s a great letter, artfully crafted with a story.
Sometimes a Customer Can Tell Your Story Better!
We used this trick a few years back for a car insurance client. Everyone sold auto insurance the same way, on rates. We asked the client for any unsolicited testimonial letters and, sure enough, it had plenty of them. One was perfect. The customer had just moved to a new city and immediately got into a fender bender. Our client’s rep got to her right away, took care of everything, and helped her get a check within weeks. It was a great story, and we made it the lead letter. The usual letter from the vice president became the lift note. It beat the control by 35 percent.
Start a Speech With a Relevant Story
I always do. Dale Carnegie taught me that years ago, and it still works. The audience gets involved right off the bat.
Last week I gave a speech in Ft. Lauderdale for the DM Summit. I met some interesting people, including a woman who told me she was working in New York (like we used to) and wanted to move to South Florida. She also mentioned she’d been a marketer at Scholastic. We chatted for a short time, and when she called for an interview, I immediately remembered her, especially a story she told me about Scholastic.
Other people sent resumes and cover notes, but this lady was memorable, and she recently came in for an interview.
Maybe the stories of our lives help us find things we have in common. I’m not sure, but I do know you might want to try them. It’s also an opportunity to do something new and creative. And, it can make you sound current if you talk about the time of year, a recent event, or something that happened a few months ago.
Stories are irresistible. They’re why people hang around the coffee maker. They’re talking about real life happenings that interest us all.
I want to hear your story, the story of your company, your product or service. Why is it great? Who thought of the big idea—any interesting, big idea? How do people use it? What does your teenage daughter say about it?
Let me know. And, go forth and engage your prospects and customers in new and creative story telling. Send some to me, and you might win a prize like a signed copy of one of the books I’ve written, or a T-shirt from Miami.
Lois Geller is president of Mason & Geller Direct, a direct marketing agency in Hollywood, Fla. You can reach her at loisgeller@masongeller.com
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