Last week, I did a Facebook Live video explaining that all stories are not created equal. We talked about a story-based email sequence/landing page combo I just wrote that, in the client’s words, “murdered” the long-standing control. “Murdered” meaning “more than doubled sales.”
(If you’re not a member of the Email Copywriting Corner Facebook group, you missed it.)
Today I wanted to give you a little more insight into writing stories that sell. I’d like to illustrate with a fictional story that created a real-life story. Everything will come together at the end.
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Once upon a time in a land called Zamunda, a handsome prince left home to avoid marrying a woman his parents picked for him. The prince wanted to find true love for himself.
Before the king and queen “rescued” their son in the faraway city, they checked into the royal suite at the Waldorf Astoria…
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You may recognize this story as the plot of the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. When she was a little girl, Coming to America was one of my wife’s favorite movies (mine, too). And even though the Waldorf played a tiny role in the film, my wife dreamed of staying in a room at the storied hotel someday.
The dream came true this past weekend, after nearly 28 years of waiting.
She woke up on the 15th floor of the Waldorf Astoria Chicago on her birthday.
Where All Stories Should Begin
When you write emails with the ultimate goal of selling something (product, service or idea), it is critical that you begin with aspiration.
Getting a room at the Waldorf was one of my wife’s lifelong aspirations. The moment I learned about it, it became MY aspiration to make her dream come true.
Your reader aspires to:
- earn more money without abandoning his family 20 hours a day
- have gorgeous, healthy hair her friends secretly envy
- retire comfortably and ON TIME
- find true love without flying from Zamunda to some faraway land
- get rid of back pain without surgery
- …or whatever.
Connect – and connect quickly – with your reader by telling stories that tap into their specific aspirations. Yes, problems work too; people aspire to live without their struggles.
Your stories introduce them to a world where their aspirations can be realized…make it seem eminently possible and even easy…with the help of your product or service of course.
No hard-selling necessary.
