More Ideas on How to Tell a Great Story

As one of the only, if not the only, person in the marketing industry with his own action figure, Seth Godin knows what it takes to tell a good story. As a follow-up to my earlier post on the book Made to Stick, I thought I’d tell you a bit about Godin’s perspective on the issue.

In his book, All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, Godin explains that the most successful marketers don’t talk about features or even benefits, but they stick to stories. Stories relating to a specific audience and how the product/service fits into that audience’s worldview. People want to be able to wrap themselves around the stories they’re being asked to believe.

Some of the questions Godin proposes to help you create your story are below:

• What worldview are you addressing? Unless you can reach those with a specific outlook, all will be lost.
• What frame are you using? How do you position your story so others can be aware, listen and relate to it?
• How will you live your story? Don’t make promises you can’t uphold, remember that you’re long-term success is built on this premise.
• What hard decisions do you need to make to keep your story real, pure and authentic?
• What are the shortcuts your clients will use to help spread your idea to others? Do you have a way to help them with this?
• How can you radically change your product/service so the story is natural and easy to tell?
• How can you use your permission asset? Do you have permission to follow-up with your clients? Can you get feedback from them to help you grow within their worldview?

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