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What’s that one commercial which you saw years ago but still remember? Figured that out? Now ask yourself why do you remember just that and not any other advertisement from the bygone era. Well, the answer is simple. It made you feel as if you were a part of it. When you read a story, it stays with you for a longer time when compared to facts and figures. And hence, storytelling is becoming the mainstay of all sorts of marketing, especially email marketing.
When it is about hooking the reader to your emails, nothing comes closer than storytelling. See, the inbox is a very personal space for anyone, and whatever goes into that space should carry a personal touch.
Here is how you can leverage the art of storytelling in email marketing:
Tell your story through people
A story is appealing if the characters are relatable. Give your characters something common that connects well with the readers. You can also place the name in the subject line for instant engagement. The most significant benefit of choosing a person to tell your story is that it makes the entire premise all the more believable and hence, convincing.
The biggest challenge that lies in email marketing is the subject line. It should be irresistible enough to make the user open the email and read it through. Including the name of your character in your subject line would solve this challenge to a great extent.
Your email shouldn’t be a sales pitch
Right from the break of the dawn (or even at night, for that matter), we are encroached by advertisements. From our roads to our mobile screens, they are everywhere, trying to take that money out of your pocket. The entire world sometimes seems like an immersive sales pitch.
And, if you also lure the buyers through your emails, then you are defeating the entire purpose of using storytelling in email marketing. Your email mentioning the USP of your products and deals is redundant, and there’s a very high chance it won’t attract much of users’ attention.
The purpose of email marketing (which most of the email marketers fail to realize) is registering your brand in the reader’s mind. Moreover, it then leads to establishing a connection with them which a sales pitch of your product can never do.
In today’s scenario, “Marketing is not about the products you make, it’s about the stories you tell.”
To intrigue your target base, it’s imperative to wrap your product with a story and let your audience decode your storytelling. When you create a story around a product or service, it leverages you to include all the USPs indirectly. Hence, breaking the ‘sales pitch’ monotony and giving the readers a breath of fresh air. This uncommon goes a long way in creating a unique brand identity and retaining it for a long time.
Having trouble weaving that storytelling in your email marketing campaign? Well, having professional services onboard would save the day for you. Services like Salesforce Marketing Cloud email specialists or Marketo certified associates would make it a breeze for you and elevate the appeal of your entire email marketing campaign.
Your experiences matter
A story creates a far more profound impact when it involves a personal experience. It grasps the readers instantly. You can embed visual elements like photographs and videos to show them a clear ‘picture’ of what your story has to convey.
A personalized story can change the entire narrative of your email and compel the readers to click on the CTA, achieving the ultimate goal of an email marketing campaign. Moreover, sharing a personal story hits a different chord with the readers as it projects you and your brand in a different light and not any other brand just trying to make a sale.
Being realistic is the key
The thumb rule of storytelling is keeping it real; else the readers won’t be able to find it relatable. Everything in the story: be it the images, the theme, the visuals that you use in the story should be real.
One great way to do is by including testimonies of your existing real-life customers in your emails. Someone who is already a customer of your brand would have an impactful communication with someone who wishes to become one. It would be very enticing for the reader to know the tale of a satisfied customer and how your brand made a difference in their lives.
Tell about yourself
When you tell the story of how your brand’s journey unfolded, it elevates the subscriber engagement with the brand to a whole new level. People start connecting to your story and start drawing values from it. This practice begins influencing their decisions in the long run, which would have an eventual impact on overall sales.
It’s always smart and more importantly ‘humane’ to tell what goes into making your brand or its products. You can share the story behind your brand’s name or its logo or even reveal why you decided to enter that specific industry. These sorts of conversations instil aspirational value about your brand and make it stand out from the crowd.
Wrapping up
Email marketing is the best when it comes to connecting with your readers, and with storytelling, you can just make it even better. A well-crafted narrative can transform the entire customer outlook about your brand. So, keep these points in mind and get started as we wait for a great story in your email!
