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How to Use Storytelling to Build a Sales Funnel

April 30, 2017 By Jackie Pearce 18 Comments

Sales funnels don’t have to be complicated, but you should take them seriously. Using storytelling to build a sales funnel can help your brand get noticed in a way that traditional, boring funnels don’t allow.

How to Use Storytelling to Build a Sales Funnel

This article will show you why you should use storytelling not only in your branding but also in your sales funnels. By doing so, you can build long-term relationships with your customers.

Most business owners know why storytelling is important, but few actually put it into practice. This neglect means they’re missing out on large sums of money.

With that in mind, let’s dive into how you can set your company apart.

Table of Contents

  • Why Sales Funnels Are Important
  • Why You Should Choose Storytelling Instead
    • How to Find Your Story
      • The Overall Formula:
      • The First Post
      • Cookbook:
      • Facebook marketing:
    • The Second Post
      • Cookbook:
      • Facebook marketing:
    • The Third Post
    • Why Storytelling to Build a Sales Funnel Works
      • Jackie Pearce
      • Latest posts by Jackie Pearce (see all)

Why Sales Funnels Are Important

Simply put, sales funnels are like staircases. They lead your customers toward buying your product or service, one step at a time.

As you can imagine, this process can end up looking incredibly different, depending on your business, but the overall idea is the same.

Through the years of helping businesses with their copywriting, there is one common mistake I see over and over: Companies will throw their money at advertising campaigns to stimulate growth in their sales funnels.

If a site has a 2% conversion rate on average, then spending money to show that page to 10,000 more people will give you more customers.

This is also known as the “Promote Your Link” Method, which businesses use for quick sales or sign ups.

However, while that technique might generate quick sales in the short-term, storytelling is how you hook customers for the long-term.

Storytelling will get clients to come back again and again because it is through that strategy you will help them build an emotional connection with your brand.

Why You Should Choose Storytelling Instead

When you use storytelling, you give customers an emotional connection that overrides their logic.

Research has shown over and over that customers use logic to justify their emotional responses to buying.

If they are emotionally invested in a company, they will use every reasoning tactic in their brain to justify spending money on that brand over another option.

Think of your own life and the purchases you make. For example, most grooming products do generally the same thing, but how many people are loyal to one particular brand? Or how many buy a favorite brand of food because that’s what they ate as a child?

We all have emotional attachments to certain products.

Give your customers a reason to care about your company, and you'll keep them for years to come.Click To Tweet

How to Find Your Story

When it comes to developing the story you’re going to use for sales funnels, a lot of brands think that they only need to use their company story. Their approach would be something like, “Our brand was launched in 1997,” and so on.

While your brand’s history can be appealing (especially if it is unique), we’re going to focus on a different angle.

The best way to find a story to use is to know exactly what specific pain point your product or service solves. That way you can work backward to how your customer feels.

Here are some examples:

  • A cookbook with healthy recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less. The cookbook solves the problem of figuring out how to save time while eating healthy.
  • A Facebook marketing service. The service removes the hassle of trying to figure out how Facebook ads work.

While your company might solve a lot of problems, there’s usually one overriding pain point or problem each service solves. (If you aren’t sure what that is, read through your testimonials or e-mail your customers to get a better idea.)

Once you have the core pain point in mind, you will know what stories to tell. I should note that you can build your funnel through blogs, email newsletters, social media, video, or even audio.

You can adjust the following steps for your business and marketing materials.

The Overall Formula:

  1. Describe the pain in detail.
  2. Describe what it would be like to be free of that pain.
  3. Introduce your product/service and clearly demonstrate how it could solve the problem.

The First Post

The first post should go into detail about a person dealing with the pain your product solves.

Based on the steps above, here’s how the first post could work for each of our business examples.

Cookbook:

Your post could be a detailed story about a woman who just got her first serious position at a company. She’s struggling to balance eating well with her new demanding schedule.

Each day, she knows she should be eating healthier, but it’s just so much easier to go to the greasy fast-food restaurant just up the block from her office.

Every night she pops something quick in the microwave and swears she’ll start eating healthier when work slows down.

Facebook marketing:

Tell the story of a small business owner trying to figure out how to put ads on Facebook. He spends hours creating an image, getting it approved by Facebook, and paying to have it be seen by people.

Some ads don’t perform well, and he’s worried he’s wasting his money and time.

The trick with the first story you tell is to get your audience nodding and feeling the story emotionally. If you’re targeting the right people, they will connect with the struggle.

You want them to feel as if you’re reading their minds and understanding what they’re going through.

The Second Post

The second post is when you outline what your readers’ lives would be like if they were free of the main pain point you outlined in detail in the first post.

Cookbook:

The woman now comes home and whips up something healthy and delicious within 30 minutes.

She is getting in better shape. She has more time to spend on her hobbies instead of worrying about what she’s going to eat all the time.

Facebook marketing:

That small business owner is saving a lot of time by outsourcing his Facebook marketing. He gets a detailed report every month on how his ads are doing, and he sees that they’re all doing much better than the ones he created.

The point of the second post is to get your audience members imagining how different their lives could be. This is not when you go in for the hard pitch or even mention your product or service.

You simply get them dreaming about how great it would be to have this gnawing problem in their lives finally solved.

Leave your readers hanging at the end of this post to tease them with the solution you will offer them. End it with, “Sounds too good to be true? Well, it isn’t. We’ll show you why tomorrow.”

The Third Post

The third post is when you make the obvious connection between your customer, their struggles, and how your product or service solves their pain points.

Don’t just talk about your product or service. Show your readers exactly why your solution is the one they’ve been looking for.

This post is also the best place to put in testimonials and real-world feedback on how your product or service changed a customer’s life.

Why Storytelling to Build a Sales Funnel Works

This process works because it shows your customers that you not only understand their pain but also that you’re here to offer them relief.

You’re not just selling to them while appearing as though you don’t care or don’t know what they’re going through.

By following this simple formula, you will build an entirely different relationship with your past, present, and future customers.

If you follow this simple formula, you’ll have passionate customers who can’t wait to buy what you’re selling.

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Jackie Pearce

Jackie is a copywriter and blogger from Denver, CO. She graduated with her business writing degree from the University of Colorado. She helps businesses sell and connect with customers online.
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Filed Under: Content & Copywriting Tagged With: building a brand with storytelling, copywriting, how to use storytelling to sell, sales funnel formulas, sales funnels, storytelling

Comments

  1. Anna C. says

    January 29, 2020 at 12:39 am

    I like this article, very full of helpful information. I have learned a lot about Sales Funnel and how to build one through storytelling. I like that you provided an example of a story to tell. Thanks for sharing, I am so glad to have read this.
    Anna C. would love you to read ..11 Top Reasons You Should Be Self Publishing On Kindle To Make Money OnlineMy Profile

    Reply
  2. Jorgen Hoem says

    January 12, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    Hey Jackie. Thanks for the advice, I’m definitely going to try this strategy in my marketing business. Looking forward to see what kind of results I get. I’ll come back to read more, before you know it. Thanks again!

    Reply
  3. Dhruv Mangukia says

    January 2, 2019 at 12:45 am

    Hi Jackie,
    Thank you for sharing this lovely post.
    I am going to use this approach for my supplement business.
    While I was reading this post, an idea came across my mind which is: How about converting customer testimonial into an appealing story?
    Any input on this will be appreciated.
    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • Jackie Pearce says

      January 2, 2019 at 10:41 am

      I think that would be an incredible idea! Especially if you document their journey from before they worked with you to after.

      Reply
  4. Melisa Smith says

    December 24, 2018 at 12:52 am

    Hello. I am Melisa Smith. I am very glad to read your top notch article. I try to read different types of digital marketing related articles daily. Today I am surfing to read about “Sales Funnels” and I found your very well written precious article. I got and learned some new concepts and lessons from your content. I believe it will help me a lot. Thank you so much for your impressive article. I appreciate your effort to write such worthy content. The information shows that you are knowledgeable about this subject and is helpful for the newbie and the for the expert alike.
    Melisa Smith would love you to read ..Statutory companiesMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Cathy Beesey says

    September 12, 2018 at 12:42 am

    Thanks Jackie, I use a story style when writing my travel blogs but hadn’t thought as deeply about this on social media and marketing. I will be coming back to your blog to deepen my understanding. Cathy

    Reply
  6. Noelle Addison says

    May 11, 2017 at 9:55 am

    Storytelling is essential in creating a sales funnel because it helps brands build a connection of trust and builds an interest. Interesting story will help you create the attraction in leads and prospects. Moreover, storytelling helps grow a connection of trust and turns more leads into customers.
    Noelle Addison would love you to read ..One Half’s Offshoring Accounting ServicesMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Madalin says

    May 8, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    Thanks for a great post…and read 🙂
    Storytelling is by far, the most successful conversion channel. If I can say it, is like in a relationship. You can`t ask her to marry you from the first date. In the sales case, storytelling done right is the road which starts when landing on the sales page and ends with the checkout page 🙂
    Madalin would love you to read ..How UV Light Kills BacteriaMy Profile

    Reply
  8. Wayne says

    May 8, 2017 at 1:42 pm

    Hi Jackie. This is one of the best explanations I have read about how to use stories in marketing. The examples really help.

    Thanks.
    Wayne would love you to read ..Does Alkaline Water Really Make a Difference?My Profile

    Reply
  9. Jackie Pearce says

    May 4, 2017 at 11:57 am

    Thanks, Muna! It’s true, those kind of stories really get readers to care and it’s so subtle but it makes all the difference.

    Reply
  10. Roon Cook says

    May 4, 2017 at 7:16 am

    This is the best and workable formula to sale a product. Catching the attention of customer through this tactic is way better than any other.
    Roon Cook would love you to read ..Supply of Electricity in UK Energy PlusMy Profile

    Reply
  11. prika says

    May 2, 2017 at 6:11 am

    Great Post !!
    I like how you have given examples to kind of guide the consumer from an initial intro to the purchasing stage.

    Reply
  12. Sanjib Kumar Saha says

    May 2, 2017 at 4:43 am

    Storrytelling is now one of the best way to make sales. If done correctly, it can boost up your sales by 300 percent. In one of my sales funnel, I used storytelling and got 4 times more subscribers and sales rocketed.
    Sanjib Kumar Saha would love you to read ..How To Generate Leads For A New Coupon Website ?My Profile

    Reply
  13. shad williams says

    May 2, 2017 at 4:04 am

    I agree with Muna Kenny’s Post i like all the examples that you have shared with us

    Reply
  14. daisynosh says

    May 2, 2017 at 1:41 am

    Brilliant post! In fact this is one of the topics we cover in our Marketing course.
    Story Telling is an excellent art to convert visitors into actual customers.
    Thank you

    Reply
  15. grantwilson says

    May 2, 2017 at 1:37 am

    Excellent information…!!!
    I like how you have given examples to kind of guide the users.
    Thank you

    Reply
  16. DigitalDeepak says

    May 1, 2017 at 12:27 am

    Hi Jackie,

    Brilliant post! In fact this is one of the topics we cover in our Brand Funnel Marketing course.

    I like how you have given examples to kind of guide the consumer from an initial intro to the purchasing stage.

    More and more marketing strategies are developed based on the consumers psyche and attempting to establish an emotional connect than merely showcasing the company’s product benefits.

    Thanks,
    Deepak

    Reply
    • Jackie Pearce says

      May 4, 2017 at 11:58 am

      Thank you for reading, Deepak! I’m glad you cover it in your course, because the emotional aspect should not be overlooked. 🙂

      Reply

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