The market is driven today by a copy and paste system, done for you scripts, and other automated selling systems. Businesses wanted to get those "low-hanging fruits" into their business virtually overnight. And implementing the copy and paste system in their digital marketing thing compromised the human connection that is vital in getting more clients.
The result today is, more clients are becoming smart and demanding more from companies in terms of quality and customer experience. We've evolved into online creatures with improved ad-sensing abilities. It's as if we instinctively know which pieces of content out there won't contribute to our survival.
To humanize digital marketing, a well-written simple yet effective social story can help you leverage your marketing efforts. This is to ensure that customers understand your products and services.
In other words, the best way to resonate with your ideal customers is to talk to them as real humans like to interact. The best way to stand out and cut through all the noise online is to show up with a message your customers want to read.
In this article, we will be looking at what many brands are calling the social story selling system. What is it and, more importantly, will it move the needle for your business?
What Is a Social Story Selling System?
The Social Story Selling System is a business strategy that helps you control your customers. It helps you build a client base and produce money in your bank account too.
Social Story Selling System is not only about selling the product; it is more about sending direct messages to your personal clients that they can be able to achieve something with the help of "Product S/he wants to buy".
These direct messages will make them feel that they are in control of their own life, which will motivate them to have a long-term commitment with you for the "Product they want to buy".
Social Story Selling Systems will also help you to build healthy relationships with your customers. Sometimes it happens that customers are not ready to buy the product so early. If you implement a Social Story Selling System, you will have opportunities to have a conversation with them about the product which will help you to understand their needs.
This will also help you to take some extra time for this customer. Some customers are not ready yet, but they want to buy in the future so during your conversation you can ask them if there is anything else that they need from you (in terms of service or product).
Social Story Selling System helps you to identify your unprofitable clients. In this technique, you can motivate them to have a long-term commitment to you.
The best way to stop chasing clients is through a relatable social story selling technique. You can share your story about when you were in the same position before so that they will feel connected to you.
How Is The Social Story Selling System Any Different From StoryBrand?
Much like the StoryBrand marketing approach, the Social Story Selling System uses the story structure to help brands create a connection with their ideal customers.
One notable difference between both approaches is the way StoryBrand helps brands simplify their marketing systems. StoryBrand enables you to make the story short and sweet, eliminating the extras and getting into the meat of the story, so your customers don't have to burn lots of brain calories just to get to the solutions they're seeking.
While the Social Story Selling System is designed to turn the customer's purchasing journey into a story, StoryBrand gives you the edge by making the story shorter, clearer, and easier to share.
What Does It Mean to Sell a Story?
The power you possess over your business is driven by the stories you tell. When you publish a story, people will read it. They also pay attention to the advertisements that are displayed in the same publication. For that reason, when they see an advertisement in your publication, they may think that that product or service is interesting to them and this sometimes leads to sales.
Social story selling amplifies the relatability of the product or service to the consumer. With social story selling, the consumer thinks of themselves as the protagonist in the story they are reading. They feel that they can relate to the characters and their experiences which makes them more interested in your product or service. This works because consumers will buy things that make them feel good about themselves.
With social story selling, you sell not by directly promoting your product or service to consumers, but by promoting it indirectly through a story. Instead of telling the consumer about what they would gain from buying your product or service, you're controlling business media when you tell them a story that persuades them to buy because it would make them feel good and improve their self-esteem.
Feeling Good vs. a True Transformation
The Social Story Selling System creates a purchasing journey where the customer comes out on the other side feeling good. The StoryBrand marketing approach invites the customer into a journey of transformation where there are real risks involved.
The StoryBrand Framework clearly outlines the problem of the customer and breaks it down into three parts:
- External - the literal problem that stands in their way.
- Internal - the feeling you get living with a problem
- Philosophical - the reason why it's just wrong for you to have a problem like this.
It's only when you take a good look into the problem that you can show up with a solution that changes your customer's life for the better.
What Can Stories Do for Your Business?
Stories enable you to create a healthy relationship with your customer and also to achieve long-term commitment from them. It will help you to know your customers' needs and wants so you can help them to achieve their goals.
It will also help you to build trust with your customer. The StoryBrand Framework makes a necessary tweak to the Social Story Selling System by explaining in detail how you can establish your brand's authority in a more sustainable way.
It positions your company as the guide and your customer as the hero of the story. To be considered as the most qualified guide, you need to have empathy – let them know that you understand what they're going through. On the other side of the deal, you have to carry authority – let them know that you've done this before and you're willing to do it for them.
Why Is Storytelling Important in Sales?
Sales are all about meeting people where they are and making it easier for them to listen to you. We tell stories because they make listening to us easier. A story is more than words; it's the context of those words. A social story is more than the sum of its parts, and that's why it can be used in such a wide variety of ways today.
Social stories are used as a learning tool, to introduce a specific situation or experience, and to prepare someone for a situation that may cause anxiety or stress. For example, social stories can help individuals transition to a new environment feel more comfortable and prepared for the next stage of their life.
Donald Miller's StoryBrand approach to marketing takes it a step further by calling customers into a leap. There's always a risk to buying anything, but when the steps are easy to understand, and you have a guide right by your side, you can be more confident to face possibilities.
It's not just a more comfortable stage in life, it's a necessary change that takes your customer's current identity and transports it into a reality where they become the best version of themselves.
Storytelling in sales is just another way for you to help them connect with your product and build trust in you as their representative and you'll stop chasing clients when done right.
How Storytelling Changed Digital Marketing
The social story selling formula is a brilliant system that is used to sell your product or service by using stories. Part of the reason why it works really well is that humans are storytelling creatures - we find storytelling as an essential part of our lives.
Studies have shown that storytelling has been used as a tool since the early days. They understand how powerful a story can be in influencing their prospects and eventually making a sale. That is why cool companies try to craft stories that will attract their target market's attention so that they can have the chance of converting them into buyers.
Aside from being used as a tactic in digital marketing, story writing has also been taught in schools to children so they can easily learn how to write interesting stories.
When you put The Social Story Selling System side-by-side with the StoryBrand Framework, you can see that the differences between both approaches give brands like yours the freedom to choose which works better.
Both methods may advertise themselves as an applicable approach to just about any kind of brand, business, or organization, but here at ROI Online, our weapon of choice will always be the StoryBrand Framework.
For us, the approach is more simplified, the Framework enables us to apply the StoryBrand principles in a more uniform way across our client base, and most importantly, it delivers the results our clients are looking for.
If you want to apply the proven principles of the StoryBrand Framework to your business, click on the button below to schedule a call with one of our StoryBrand Certified Guides.
Start Working On Your Brand's Story
If you want to turn leads into customers, the best way to lay the proper foundations is to join the next StoryBrand Workshop.
It's an interactive, two-day workshop. It's not a bunch of videos you sit through, it's where you show up to do the work that matters and moves the needle for your business. You'll get all the coaching you need from one of our StoryBrand Certified Guide and you'll get the chance to show up to your customers in a way that matters to them.
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