Stories are one of the most important elements you could possibly include in your email marketing campaigns for so many reasons.

But did you know there are 3 specific types of stories you should be using in all your campaigns?

I’m going to tell you exactly what those different types of stories are and what they will accomplish for you and your subscribers but first lets talk about- why are stories so very important.

When you tell a story, you create a connection with your subscribers which is crucial if you are going to write emails that get opened and lead to profitable promotions.

Really good and effective marketing goes so much further than just sharing the facts, features and details of what you are selling. Great marketing evokes emotion, it creates trust and builds a relationship, it allows your audience to say oh my gosh I feel that way too! You understand me.

Stories are like instantly disarming. We see thousands of marketing messages every day and we probably don’t even realize it but our brains are constantly filtering out messages and instantly disqualifying offers or salesly messages that might seem annoying or like an energy waste. But when we hear a story it moves past the rational center of our brains and allow us to experience emotion…both our own emotion and the emotion of the person telling the story.

That is how humans have communicated since the beginning of time —by telling stories because we see ourselves reflected in them and so its really important to not only add them into your marketing but to even go so far as to plan your campaigns and promotions around the stories you can tell.

So let’s talk about the 3 different types of stories you should be sharing in your email campaigns.

The first type of story you should be using in your email campaigns are stories that build trust and create authenticity and relationships. So the entire point of an email list is to have an engaged audience that knows you, likes you and trust you right? These days your audience really just wants to know that you are a real genuine person, that you actually know them and you are capable of getting them the results they are looking for.

Authentic marketing is going to meet your audience where they currently are in their journey to achieving their goals and showing them the way forward. So the best types of stories that you can share are your own. What was it like for you before you got the big transformation that they are looking for. Do you really know what is it that they are feeling? Were you really in their shoes before, do you know what they are frustrated about? Tell your own stories from when you were in that season….talk about the emotions that you felt and the struggles you experienced. These are the types of stories that cause your audience to say oh my gosh me too!

There is really nothing that creates trust and builds relationship with your audience faster than a meaningful shared experience. They want to know that you really are one of them too. The best way to add these types of stories to your story bank is to think about what your audience is doing right now to solve their problems that isn’t quite working. What things did you try before you found what worked well for you? What was it like to run into obstacles and to be frustrated or to go without the desire that they are trying to fulfill?

Was there are certain experience that cause you to think oh my gosh there has got to be a better way to do this! Or I just cannot do this anymore. Were there certain aspects of your life that kept you awake at night? What are the stories or experiences that you would share with a friend over dinner who is going through the same hard time that you went through?

The next type of story you should share in your email campaigns are edutainment types of stories. Stories that both entertain and educate. These can be all kinds of stories from something funny that happened to you while you were at the grocery store or something major that recently happened in your life like your house flooding or finally hiking to the top of a mountain. The type of stories that hook your readers and make them want to keep reading to find out what happened. They key here with these types of stories is to not only let your personality shine through but to tie your story into some kind of learning. What life lesson did you take away from that experience or is there some kind of metaphor that relates to your industry or a helpful tip you can share?

To add these types of stories to your story bank simply list out all of the experiences big, small, interesting, funny, sad, aggravating that you would share with a close friend you are catching up with.  Once you have a good list of stories think about the hidden lessons or the metaphors or the tips you could segue into after sharing the story.

Then finally the last story type you should always use are stories that create belief and inspire action.

Marketing is really just about sharing offers and the offers you create are just opportunities. Opportunities to do things differently and in ways that have better outcomes. Your prospects are either going to move forward with you or stay where they are based on what they believe. If they believe that your offer is able to get the results that you say it can, if they believe that they are able to get those results that it is possible for them, and they believe that they are worthy of those results then they will be much more likely to move forward with you right?

Stories that create belief can include your own breakthrough stories or even client breakthroughs. We all crave success and we all really want to reach our goals and hearing about other people who are in a similar situation being able to experience that breakthrough is honestly crucial to our own successful journeys. So what kind of success stories can you share from your own experience or from your student or clients experiences?

I hope that you are starting to see how powerful story telling can be! Marketing doesn’t need to be complicated…just be you and be willing to share your own stories. Your audience is looking for someone who knows what they are feeling, who knowns what their life is like and can help them create the belief they need to find the success they are looking for. If you are a course creator or coach and you need more help building and nurturing a list of highly targeted leads make sure you check out the list builder’s toolkit at the link below.

We’ve included every single email template you need to build a profitable course or coaching business and lots of other helpful resources like a huge bank of 57 story prompts you can use today to start incorporating powerful stories in your email campaigns.