WHAT STORY SLAMS CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT BUSINESS COPY II: Share What Matters
The folks at The Moth encourage their storytellers to choose subjects that matter to the author.
Why? Because if the storyteller has a stake in the outcome, the listener will care. If the listener cares, they'll keep listening. It's the same with the people on your email list.
This doesn't mean you need to tell gut-wrenching stories. The really deep stuff is better for the stage. But bringing more vulnerability—more internal fire—into your marketing will help your subscribers see something beyond your product and your desire to sell it.
The fact that people crave real connection is the whole idea behind content marketing, the reason big companies are paying storytellers to write about the work they do instead of continuing to rely on the slick language of yesterday's advertising.
Traditional marketing language is distancing. It puts your products in a side tent and casts you in the role of circus barker.
It's counter-intuitive, but one way to step into your reader's world instead of trying to lure them into yours is to share more about the situations that matter to you. It works because by sharing about what matters, what's at stake, you're likely to hit on a universal theme.
In that spirit, here's a story.
Once there was a 55-gallon hole in the garden bed just outside our back door. Over a weekend, Brian pulled up a container that was sunk into the earth maybe 30 years ago. It used to be filled with water, the source for a feature we called "the bubbler." You'd flip a switch and water would gurgle up from the depths and splash over the surrounding rocks.
The rock garden had its run, though. We've transformed it into an herb and tomato garden. With the help of a friend and garden designer, we kicked around a bunch of ideas, such as a dwarf tree of some kind, clematis, and fragrant creeping ground cover. But we ended up with straight herbs and spots for tomatoes.
The thing is, we don't really know how to do this. And we don't have a great track record with yard upkeep. We live on a sizeable corner lot ringed by trees and shrubs that regularly escape the fence and sprawl out over the narrow sidewalks. (We've twice been cited by the city).
When we started this project, I was afraid our enthusiasm would flame out before we finished the project. But stasis and good intentions weren't working, either. And, guess wha? We removed the rocks one shovelful at a time and prepped the spot for something green and bountiful. Now our tomatoes and herbs are heading into their third season.
I hope it's the same for you and your marketing. If you're still writing to your potential clients the same way you have been forever because you don't think you know how to tell stories, I hope you'll take some risks and start sharing what you care about to anyone who will listen.