Everyone loves a good story. Stories are emotional, powerful and very useful for financial copywriters. This is because a good story can easily provoke a response, influence your readers and move people to action. In short, stories can sell.
However, using storytelling in your financial copywriting isn’t as easy as it looks. Here are a few tactics to help you get the right storytelling technique in your financial copywriting.
1 – Start with a Relevant and Supportive Story
When using storytelling to sell you need to ensure that the story is relevant and specific to your customers and your end goal. An entertaining story that has little to do with the title of the post or the action you’re asking them to take at the end is just a story. It won’t help you reach any of your marketing goals. Find a story that’s relational from beginning to end, and make sure that it connects to the goal you want to achieve. If you have to explain how the whole thing ties together at the end, you haven’t nailed it yet.
2 – Work to Maintain Interest
There are some really boring stories out there. When you’re trying to sell and make a connection with your audience this is the last thing you want. To avoid ‘dull’, stick to some of the basic storytelling elements; a beginning, a conflict, a climax, an end. If one of those is missing, it isn’t a story – it’s just the description of an event.
3 – Keep an Eye on the Length
Too short a story and readers aren’t sure what just happened. Too long a story, and they get impatient or bored. When it comes to copywriting, you need to avoid both. Avoid overlong descriptions, going into too much detail, getting off track on tangents that don’t hold up the main goal or skimping on the good parts. It’s difficult, but a good financial copywriter knows how to find the right balance between hooking readers in and what to cut out.
4 – Stick to what’s Important
The hardest part of telling a story within your copywriting is knowing what to keep – the parts that contribute to your goal – and figuring out what’s just filler that needs to be cut out. With each paragraph you write, ask yourself, “Does this contribute to the message? Does this help me achieve my goal?” If the answer is yes, then great. Go for it. But if you can remove it will still working towards your end goal, then take it out.
