I’ve never been a great storyteller. So much of it comes with practice, and I’m trying my hand more and more these days. Telling great stories is a craft that you can hone for decades. When I was watching some videos from Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar the other day, he introduced a formula for telling marketing stories. As someone looking for tips, this immediately caught my eye. I’ll share it with you here:
I thought ____
Then I realized ____
And now I _____
To put this in action, here’s an example of how Casper, the online mattress company, might tell their story.
“I thought buying a mattress was always a pain. The sales people were untrustworthy, there were too many models and you always left feeling like you got ripped off.
Then I found casper. They send you your mattress in the mail. If you don’t like it, you can send it back. There are no salespeople to deal with, it’s all straightforward.
Now I recommend Casper to all my friends who need new mattresses. I believe experiences like Casper are the future”
Boom. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but that’s the basis for a marketing story. It’s a neat little structure with plenty of wiggle room, I hope it’s helpful.