subject: Online Marketing With Storytelling - How to Use Your Personal Story to Attract Prospects and Clients [print this page] Online Marketing With Storytelling - How to Use Your Personal Story to Attract Prospects and Clients
I can remember the little girl next door asking my mother how she knew so many stories. That 'little girl' is now in her forties, and I'm sure she has stories of her own that she has shared with her family in the years since that time. We all grew up hearing stories, and you can most likely remember the stories you heard from a very young age. Stories are the things that link ideas together in our brains.When you think about figures in history, movie stars, politicians, and other well known people, it is typically the story about them that you will recall. Whether it is positive or negative, the story is the framework for your connection to them. Any one of these people that you think about will have a story associated with them. You cannot really think about a person without this happening.Fast forward to doing business on the Internet in the twenty-first century, and storytelling has become the way we connect with people from around the world, most of whom we will never meet in person. The stories we share let others have a glimpse into who we are and what we believe in, and for those reasons alone they can be invaluable to our success. Stories help up to get people interested in what we are talking about.My story of how I went from being a classroom teacher for twenty years to running a successful Internet business has helped me to resonate with my prospects and clients for the past few years. People see themselves in the story and use it as a starting point for changing their own life.Think about why you decided to build an online business in the first place. Did it have to do with a dream you had for your future, a job layoff, the economy, your health, or something else entirely? Whatever the reason, shape it into a story you can share for years to come. This will become something you tell over and over and people will know you by your stories.When you are promoting a product or a service, whether it is yours or that of an affiliate, tell the story of how you came to create it or use it, and give as much detail as possible. This will flesh you out to your audience, and set you apart from everyone else doing business on the Internet.
