The 4 little know-it-alls: how to grab your reader’s attention and not let go

“Once upon a time, this little guy named Communication & Information Sciences arrived at Tilburg University. He was often looked down on by other studies. He didn’t care and he always had a lot of fun. But everything comes to an end. Or, not necessarily? One day, the big bad faculty kingpins decided Communication & Information Sciences had to magically turn into four little know-it-alls.

Eventually, Business Communication & Digital Media would grow to be the one with the most students, but Text & Communication, Intercultural Communication and Human Aspects of Information Technology refused to be disheartened by that. Over the years they all have brought lots of brilliant copywriters, advisors, designers, tech whizzkids and managers to the outside world.

Sadly, of all the people who do not study communications, nobody ever understood what they were doing. But the four little know-it-alls held there heads high. They lived happily ever after.”

Are you as touched as I am? Can’t imagine your not!

It’s hard not to love hearing a little story now and then. We grow up with them and we pass them on. One fun thing to do with it is (don’t be startled) make money. Me and my fellow BITers (but far from biters, right?) study Communication & Information Sciences, known from the story – at least, by now. It is a field closely related to several disciplines of marketing. Combining knowledge from both sides with creativity and consumer savviness can lead to great things.

One way to achieve that, is storytelling. “How’s that?” you ask? Well, a story benefits your brand and/or product and/or campaign because it can…

1. “disarm listeners who don’t like pushy, feature-focused sales spiels”;
2. “relax your audience and release sales-averse tensions”;
3. “introduce your product - or service or organization - in a non-threatening way”;
4. “keep you top-of-mind. People remember up to 70% of information they learn through a story, compared to 10% relayed through statistics.”

Great stuff, right? There’s more where that came from: check out MarketCopywriterBlog for the 7 storytelling secrets of top salespeople.

If you know some interesting examples of companies using storytelling, let me know below!