What’s your story & how do you tell it?

We’ve all got a story to tell but more often than not it’s more about showing people what our story is rather than telling it.

In the 1940s a supersalesman named Elmer Wheeler made what TIME magazine called ‘a handsome living’ advising U.S. businesses: ‘Don’t sell the sausage – sell the sizzle!’

‘Selling the sizzle’ is all about our story and our experience. Selling should be something that covers all the senses and comes down to a benefit-lead approach and focussing on the experience.

So what is experience marketing and how is it useful?

1. Engage the emotions

Feelings and emotions are created from everything we experience. A good experience lives long in the memory, builds brand loyalty and creates passionate customers.

By engaging the emotions, we give people something the remember us by and it’s these memorable experiences that lead to two of the most powerful channels; word-of-mouth marketing and repeat business.

2. Make it shareable

People like to share their experiences. They’ll do this whether they are good experiences or bad ones. So make sure you give them a good one. Our desire to share is what’s fuelled social media into the billion-dollar industry it is today. It makes us feel connected, not just to our friends and family but also to a wider society.

Give people an experience they want to share.

3. The sizzling sausage

The phrase ‘show, don’t tell’ is drummed into every aspiring writer from a young age and it is more applicable than ever when it comes to experience marketing.

In fiction, it allows the reader to experience the story through actions, senses and feelings. The best marketing, digital or traditional, does this too.

The sausage sizzling on the barbecue in the summer-sun is a much more appealing image than a piece of raw meat!

To implement this in your marketing, think about how you want your customers to feel and then think about what it is about your product that can make them feel like this.

4. The power of communication

Stories are our universal language. They are the birth of communication and the oil that greases the wheel of civilisation. We have moved from drawings scrawled on cave walls to the communications revolution of the 21st century.

We now have more platforms, more ways and more methods to tell our stories than ever before. This empowers us as people, it empowers businesses and it empowers the customer.

Find out what your story is, find out the best way to tell it and see how it enriches every experience your customer has with you.