Storytelling for Internet Marketers – Dave Kaminski

Storytelling for Internet Marketers – Dave KaminskiIrvin Cornthwaite was a chemist by trade. In his early fifties, Irvin had spent much of his adult life developing compounds for the construction industry.In 2004 Irvin had an idea. Maybe, he thought, he could help builders save time and money by sharing his knowledge of construction compounds. Provide them with a “missing manual” (so to speak) for the products they used every day.Problem was, Irvin was a chemist, not a businessman. So he hired some help. Along with learning whatever he could himself. After four and a half months and some very long nights, he had a website and the first version of his manual. He planned on selling it for $200.The Early ResultsIn his first year online, Irvin generated $34,000 in sales. While terrific for someone just starting out, it wasn’t nearly enough to replace his full-time salary as a chemist. And as the days and months passed, Irvin began to get caught up in everyday life and spent less and less time on the site, until he finally stopped working on it altogether.This continued for 10 years, as Irvin’s website sat untouched. But it was still making sales. In fact, Irvin continued to earn an average of $21,000 a year from the site.An Expensive LessonThen in 2015, with retirement approaching fast, Irvin decided that it was time to get serious about his long neglected website. So this time around he hired a local marketing firm to inject new life into it. For the paltry sum of $15,000, that firm delivered Irvin a shiny new website, complete with a modern day sales funnel, upsells and fancy videos.His sales instantly plummeted by 50%. And after 6 months of tweaks, changes and re-designs, his sales still remained at just half of what they had always been. Dismayed at the results, Irvin switched back to the old site. And when he did, sales immediately doubled, returning to where they had always been.Stuck with a site that worked but was old and outdated…and a new, expensive site that didn’t work…Irvin decided to do some experimenting. For his experiment, Irvin did something very simple. He took one piece from his old site and plugged it into the new site. That’s all he did. And then he put that new, updated site online. This time however, his sales didn’t drop by 50%. Instead, they actually doubled yet again…to over $40,000 a year.The Secret Right Under Your NoseWhat was it about Irvin’s old site that generated twice as many sales as his new site? And what specific piece did he then take from the old site and add to the new…which doubled his sales once more?It was the sales pitch being used. Specifically, a sales pitch that used a story. The story of a builder who had used Irvin’s manual. A story that resonated with his market. A story his potential customers could relate to. And a story that got them to buy.I’m the guy who wrote that story for Irvin. I was the “help” he hired way back in 2004. And recently, Irvin recounted this tale to me over a Skype chat (where I joked that I should have charged him more).I Told You This Story For Two Reasons.First, To Illustrate How ProfitableOld-School Storytelling Can Be.And Second, Because It DidSomething To Your Brain.In plain terms, it shut off one part of your brain and turned another on. And when that happened, you started to pay a lot more attention. That’s how I explain it.But neurologists at Princeton University give a more scientific explanation. Let me explain. In one of their studies, they monitored the brains of people telling stories versus the brains of people hearing stories. And what the scans revealed was astounding; that the brain of a person hearing a story begins to mirror the brain of the person telling a story. Or in other words, a storyteller can (more or less) control the minds of his or her audience.They also found that a particular area of the brain lights up when you hear stories. It’s the area of your brain which allows you to anticipate what is going to happen next. And this area only becomes active when you’re completely engaged in an activity, when your attention is focused on only one thing. Turns out, stories trigger this hyper-attention in us automatically.In fact, over 350 studies in the areas of cognitive science, neural psychology and brain development have confirmed the same things. That the human brain is predisposed to positively respond to stories. Stories take our brains out of auto-pilot mode. And they make us pay complete attention, almost instantly.But It Gets Better.Stories Also Help YouSell More Products at Higher Prices.I’ve long known this from my 20 years of experience in developing and selling products online. It’s the one indisputable truth I’ve learned; that storytelling allows you to sell more products, for more money.But it wasn’t until a few years ago that another study finally provided the science to back this up. It was a six-month study that was both simple and fascinating…involving eBay and garage sales.In the study, 100 random items were purchased at garage sales. Each item cost an average of just $1.25.Next, those items were listed on eBay. And here’s where it gets interesting. Instead of listing the items like people normally do…with generic, boring or even non-existent descriptions…the items were listed using stories. Sometimes very detailed, elaborate and entertaining stories.The result? Those 100 items, which cost a combined $128.74 when purchased at garage sales, sold for a whopping $3,612.51 on eBay. Or to put it another way, each item cost $1.25 and sold for $36 because of the story attached to it.And that’s the power of storytelling. It not only makes people pay attention, but makes your products more desirable. Which makes them worth more. Which makes people more eager to buy them at higher prices.But There’s One Big ProblemWhen It Comes To Using StoriesTo Sell Your Products Online.Well, Actually Three.The first is that people think they can’t tell stories. Or don’t know how. Or can’t imagine how they’d ever craft a story about their boring product, service or business. So they look for help…they look for someone to show them how to do it.Which leads to problem number two. Storytelling is big these days. It’s no longer the marketing secret it once was. Which means that now, there is a long line of “experts” trying to teach people storytelling. And to be blunt, they don’t know what the hell they are talking about.These experts are often self-proclaimed consultants, unknown actors or struggling writers. Whatever the case, they usually come from the entertainment industry and none of them have ever sold an actual product in their life. Even worse, they are all going to tell you to create stories the same way.And that way leads us to problem number three. It’s called the Hollywood or hero story. It’s the formula used in most movies. And it’s the formula everyone is going to tell you to use. Problem is, it rarely works for marketing products on the Internet. And even more ironic, it rarely works for Hollywood as well, where 8 out of 10 movies fail to make a profit.So what are you supposed to do? You know that stories grab a person’s attention like nothing else. And you know they help you sell more products at higher prices. But everything being taught about storytelling is pretty much completely wrong for Internet marketing.Good news. Here’s the solution.Introducing Storytelling For Internet MarketersThis is my newest (and most requested) course. And it’s designed to do one thing; teach you how to craft stories that will sell your products on the Internet.Not how to write a blockbuster movie, an award-winning novel or a Broadway play…but how to create and use stories on web sites, in emails and videos to sell more of your products. And at higher prices.It’s also designed with the average person in mind. That means you don’t need to be someone who is creative, a talented writer or a natural storyteller. You just need to be able to listen. If you can do that, I’ll lay out the rest for you, step by step.Everything is taught using plain English and is easy to understand and follow. There are no complex theories on developing characters or story arc’s (that’s Hollywood stuff that doesn’t work online), and instead I simply walk you through the steps of crafting a story that will produce more sales for your product, service or business…on the Internet.Storytelling For Internet MarketersIs Broken Into Five Main PartsGetting Your Head On Straight About StorytellingThis section of the course will give you the “straight dope” on storytelling for the Internet. It’s designed to take away any doubts you have about your ability to tell stories. In fact, if you think you can’t tell stories, this is the section where you’ll discover that you can. And easily.I’ll also debunk a lot of the misinformation about storytelling, set the facts straight on what works and what doesn’t and lay out several unique approaches that you can use to craft stories for anything you want to sell.Here’s the bottom line. Once you complete this section, you’ll have the confidence and know-how to take any product or service and begin crafting stories to sell them. And you’ll know more about storytelling than 99% of marketers on the Internet.Storytelling For Sales PagesPound for pound, the most lucrative form of storytelling is when you use it on a sales page. That’s because not only will a story sell more of your products, but you can use a story unchanged for years, and it will never lose it’s selling power.But there’s a trick to it. And that trick is developing your story in the first place. This is where most people get it wrong because they rely on formulas that don’t work online. But I’m going to show you the formulas that do work. And I’m going to do it step by step.The bottom line is once you complete this section, you’ll have all the pieces in place to create powerful stories that will sell any product or service. Stories that will grab a visitor’s attention, make your products more desirable and generate more sales.Storytelling For EmailEmail is my favorite tool for storytelling. Why? Because it’s simple, super-effective and a great way to build your storytelling chops. Plus, when you use stories in your emails, open and click-thru rates are often 3 times higher versus regular emails.Better yet, there are almost no limits to the different ways you can use storytelling in your emails. But some formulas work better than others. And I’m going to share with you what the most surefire formulas are. Along with how to use them, quickly and easily.Here’s the bottom line. Once you complete this section, your email marketing will be forever changed. Through storytelling in email, you’ll get more of everything…more emails opened and read, more links clicked and more sales.Storytelling For VideoWhen most people hear the words “storytelling for video”, they think Hollywood. Where you need lots of fancy stuff. But the truth is, you don’t even need a camera to achieve terrific results with storytelling in video.What you do need is the ability to tell an engaging story…fast. That’s because video has the lowest attention span of all on the Internet. No worries though. I’m going to show you how to craft stories for video that have the maximum impact, in the minimum time.Here’s the bottom line. I’m going to show you how to create stories for any video, whether it’s going on YouTube, your blog or a sales page. Stories that will grab the viewer’s attention, keep the viewer’s attention and funnel them towards the sale.Storytelling For ContentThis is the most overlooked area of storytelling; using stories as content…content that drives people to your site…and then gets you even more traffic because your visitors share it (people love to share stories).And with what you’ll learn in this section of the course, you’ll never create a piece of content the same way again. You’ll use stories. Stories that are fun to create, drive traffic and build a loyal audience. Stories than can take your site from no visitors…to lots of visitors…sometimes in just hours.The bottom line is once you complete this section of the course, generating “natural traffic” (the kind of traffic you don’t have to pay for) will never be a problem for you again.