Creative storytelling is important in an effective direct response marketing campaign. If you're doing a direct mail piece, you want to lead with a conversational opening piece, move gently into a heart-grabbing story, tie-in some proof with more stories, benefits and things that motivate people to buy, and then you close with a call to action and the direct response you want the prospective client to take. It could be a website you want them to go to so that they can enter their contact information and get more details. You may wish for the prospect to call into a phone line to speak to someone live. This is not as effective as it used to be. The list should be HIGHLY targeted and the story telling impeccable to get this kind of direct response.
With an email campaign, we do pretty much the same thing, however it's not likely that any prospect would read through 8-9 pages of email story telling like they would in a direct mail piece. There's something about having the paper in hand, the photos, words and even the feel of the paper and texture that grabs people. That's impossible in an email, so a few other key strategies have to come into play. How we write our subject line is critical. What we do in the first two sentences of the email. Making sure we don't sound pitchy and salesy. All of these key pieces come together to create an email direct response piece.
Similar storytelling takes place on radio, television, a web page, a blog post, the side label on a product at a store, the set up at a kiosk in a mall and so on. But How do we do our story telling effectively with a social media post that is very limited in space and even letters?
Storytelling on social media happens when highly targeted followers are engaging with content that is piece by piece telling YOUR story. This doesn't mean we talk about our product or service everyday. On the contrary. Our videos, graphics, posts and more connect our reader and follower to individual pieces that tell the story.
Purina did a fantastic job of telling their story with their recent video featured on Buzz Feed. With 51 MILLION views, it's obvious they hit the hearts of their viewers. But let's look more deeply at this campaign.
As the video is being shared, liked and commented on by over 50 million people, the message is going deep, "Take good care of your puppy. Have fun with your puppy. Puppies are people too! Feed your puppy well!" I love the part where he lays on the floor and eats with puppy. This warms the heart of the viewer and draws in the emotions that are necessary for an incredible campaign- an emotional desire to be like the person we see in the video. We want to take care of our puppies just like he did!
The next time the new puppy owner is out buying food, or if they are currently not sure what to feed their new baby, This guy from their video pops up in the recesses of their memory and they'll think, 'Purina Puppy Chow! That's it!'
It's very similar to what happens in a direct mail piece, on the television and even in some radio commercials. An emotional connection to your buyer drives sales more than any facts and figures could ever do.
The same kind of thing happens with quote graphics! Just take a look at this recent campaign by Dove.
Women are being invited to share their story and to write about the examples of their mother and the lessons they've learned. You might be asking yourself, "How does this sell more soap, shampoos and other items that Dove sells?" Great question. By pulling on the heartstrings of it's followers through their social media page, stirring up emotions with the stories shared, the next time a follower is walking through their local store and they see that familiar white bar, they'll think, "I want that product" without even thinking about what is really driving the sale: The emotions they felt on the Dove Facebook page.
Storytelling on social media takes time. But it's worth the time you have to take to create these campaigns, post regularly, talk back to clients and have relationship with them. This is exactly what we do in a brick and mortar store. It's not any different on a social media page, and the 'marketing tail' lasts longer.
People share stories with their friends, show their favorites on their personal profile and 'word of mouth marketing' goes viral.
The first key to successful direct response marketing is having highly targeted followers. I've been writing ads in magazines, on the radio, direct mail campaigns, PPC ads and more for over 20 years. It is brutally painful and VERY risky trying to learn how to write a great ad, hope it is targeted correctly and praying you can recoup your costs with traditional marketing. But social media ads are VERY different.
There are no rewrites with magazines. No do overs on radio. No 'let's try again' after you spend thousands of dollars on a direct mail campaigns. But with social media we get instant feedback and we can adjust things every day, if we need to.
NOW... when you begin your social media story telling, a big strategy that many people overlook is how highly targeted low cost ads can propel your social media story telling forward quickly. You can 'tell a story' with a post that is promoted to a highly targeted audience. Steer that emotional pull going with a 15 second video that is marketed for $5 per day to hot prospects that have a proven history of buying products just like you offer.
Truth be told, we built our page to our first 10,000 followers in just a few months at $10 per day. We made over $250,000 in profit with those 10k highly targeted followers. These are not people who just respond every now and then, they are highly engaged, want what we offer and tell all of their friends. As many of you know, we now have over 1 million highly targeted clients on our Facebook page.
Tell your story. Bring the pieces together. Do great ads, regularly. Have relationships. It's the direct response marketing strategy that has been proven for hundreds of years and is alive and well on social media pages today.