Back when I first learned the principles of good business writing, one of the primary formulas prescribed opening with an impressive statistic. After all, what’s better than telling potential buyers just how good your product or service is, right?
Fast-forward… that’s old school, not effective, and boring!
Now we know that what makes persuasive writing effective is incorporating stories. Research has proven that people are hardwired for stories.
So, if you want what you write to have impact, the reader must be able to connect with what you’re saying.
To do this effectively, you need to truly understand story… how it’s different from data, how it’s not just breaking down a process, and what elements are needed for your readers to fully engage and identify with the story — leading to a purchase.
What Story Is Not
Story is not simply sharing data.
Obvious, yes? Yet as a buyer, how often do you rely on data plus story? For example, if you’re making a purchase, how often do you skim the product description but scroll down to the product’s rating… not just looking at the number of stars, but reading each individual reaction?
Why? As Robert McKee explains in Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World, “Data lists what happened; story expresses how and why it happened. Data compiles facts by quantity and frequency; story reveals the causalities behind and beneath those facts.”
In other words, you’re looking at the data… the number of stars the product earned from other buyers… but you’re also looking for the story… the buyers’ personal experiences with how the product worked for them and why they felt that way.
Story is not a process.
You might be fascinated to read how to quickly and efficiently clean out your email inbox (something I need to do) or effectively prompt the latest AI tool, but breaking down a process only gets you from Point A to Point B.
When you’re writing persuasively, you need to engage your reader with desire and conflict. You need to give them a character to identify with so they can feel how their life can be impacted and improved also.
McKee simplifies this. “A process accumulates; a story progresses.” Story invites the reader in and lets imagination move them forward.
What Story Is
The prime definition of story, as expressed by McKee is, “a dynamic escalation of conflict-driven events that cause meaningful change in a character’s life.”
But wait! You’re not writing a novel! What are the elements that allow you to format and incorporate a short, meaningful story that makes your persuasive copywriting effective?
According to McKee, there are eight components (or stages) that give story its form:
- Target audience — A meaningful emotional element
- Subject matter — Balance
- Inciting incident — Imbalance
- Object of desire — Need
- First action — Tactical choice
- First reaction — Violation of expectation
- Crisis choice — Insight
- Climactic reaction — Closure
Some of these components are more obvious than others. So, let’s break them down in a little more detail…
- Target audience
You know the importance of knowing your target audience. But the key is identifying the final effect your writing will have on their thoughts and feelings.
- Subject matter
Set the scene. What are the situational and emotional aspects of the prospect’s daily life?
- Inciting incident
What is the event, or change over time, which upsets the flow of the prospect’s life… what builds to finally create a pressure point?
- Object of desire
Once your client’s prospect recognizes the pressure point, they’ll want to bring their life back into balance. They’ll need to find a way to do that… an object of desire.
- First action
To reestablish balance, the prospect must act… they must do something that will at least move them forward in an effort to resolve their issue.
- First reaction
But life happens. How often have you tried something only to have it fail? The same applies to the story you’re sharing with your client’s prospect. Problem solving is rarely easy.
- Crisis choice
The pressure builds. The prospect must see another alternative, something that allows them to learn from their first action and make an even better decision that will provide relief.
- Climactic reaction
A choice is made and acted upon. The climax restores balance for your client’s prospect, successfully ending the story… and hopefully making a sale.
Applying the Components
Rarely will anyone make the high-cost purchase typical of B2B sales without first feeling the pressure to make that purchase and then believing their actions are resulting in the best choice for their company and for themselves as part of their job responsibilities.
So how can you apply these story components to help drive sales for your B2B clients?
McKee proposes that the eight components/stages of story lead to “three key storified moments” which:
- provide a storified hook for the prospective customer,
- build a relatable story that emotionally links the prospect to your client’s product or service, and
- close with a story climax that compels the prospect to purchase.
Let’s walk through a simplified example…
Your client produces and sells educational software focused on improving upper-elementary and middle school reading levels.
Components 1 and 2 — Target audience and Subject matter
Through your client’s and your own research, you’ve identified the specific characteristics of your client’s prospective customers. You know what is working in educational reading software and, more importantly, what isn’t. You understand the environments of prospective school districts.
Components 3 and 4 — Inciting incident and Object of desire
The prospective districts are struggling with lagging test scores that demand improvement. You’ve worked with your client to know how to position their company’s software as the best choice for improving student reading levels and increasing test scores in these schools.
Components 5-8 — First action, First reaction, Crisis choice, and Climactic reaction
You and your client also know the claims of competing software companies and where your client’s company has the edge over those claims. Working with objections and problems that the prospective districts and other schools have experienced with the competing software, you build the story that supports your client’s product as the best choice to solve the issue and highlights the benefits of the resulting achievement.
Eight components of story. Used effectively, they’ll hook and hold the rational side of your client’s prospective buyer. But more importantly, they’ll engage the buyer’s feeling side, resulting in their wanting to purchase your client’s product or service because they believe it’s the best solution to the problem for their organization.
