🏰The #1 storytelling element no one uses enough?

Glad to be with y’all mid-week. We’ll overcome Humpday hardships together. Or not. At least we’ll have each other.

What’s on tap in today’s Feature Story? We’ll look at a key to storytelling that most marketers fail to take advantage of. After that breakdown, chew on the following sections… 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (energy lifter)

• Facts & Stats (spending)

• Get Hacking (boost conversions) 

Appetizer: Remember when a pack of Olds zip-tied & robbed Kim K? How’d I miss that?

Now, let’s pop the top on today’s Feature Story…

Feature Story

Marketing Must Persuade People to Change 

I was straightening up my messy bookshelf yesterday. I paused at a great book on storytelling. Storyworthy.

I got a lot out of it even though its focus is verbal stories. Keyboard > mouth, for me.

(5 solid tips from that book are at the end of the Feature if ya need ‘em)

But the main point from author Matthew Dicks is this:

“It is not a story if no one or nothing changed.”

Paraphrased, but you get the point. Plus, slight changes are enough to fulfill the mission of a story…

An example story in the book is about someone picking up a dropped set of keys for a neighbor.

Small act that made the person feel better about society after watching too much news about American divisiveness. 

That tiny act and resulting change will beat a series of incredible events told in linear fashion but leaves out a change of any kind.

*Change mirrors the human experience of growth and adaptation, allowing audiences to project their own struggles / transformations onto the story.

Since marketers need all the power tools available these days, it should help to make this storytelling concept super-tangible. 

So, see the following examples of how characters changed in well-known stories of various types.

6 Story Character Changes & Key Event that Caused the Change 

⚠️Spoiler alerts - but these are older, so who cares. *Psychological notes sprinkled in.

#1 Carol Peletier (The Walking Dead)

Starts as a timid, abused wife. Then evolves into a bad$$$. What changed her? Two key events. One, her daughter’s death. Two, when her tribe screws up and is captured, she’s forced to take action, ending up saving them. (The hero is just as afraid as the coward, says this boxing hypnotist, BTW)

#2 Tony Stark (Iron Man)

Guy begins as your everyday 9 to 5 arms dealer. Smug and all. Being held captive in Barbarianland (Afghanistan) changes his perspective. Goes legend by becoming someone willing to sacrifice himself.

*People crave contrast. The "before/after" arc creates tension, then some relief. Without change, stories feel static and irrelevant.

#3 Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones)

Real naive at the start of the story. Has fairy tales dancing in her head. Too many events to count shattered those dreams. The main event of change was being handed over to Ramsay Bolton. Sansa came out of that a hard woman. Ended up a necessary cold-blooded leader.

#4 Hulk Hogan (NWO Heel Turn)

This pro wrestler told kids to take their vitamins and say their prayers for over a decade. Was as big a fan favorite as you can get. When he turned into the bad guy for the NWO, it shocked the wrestling world. It moved the live audience so much they slung debris at him—one moron fan charged the ring (don’t do that).

*Memory Anchoring: Transformational moments act as narrative landmarks, making stories memorable.

#5 Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games)

The key event that changed Katniss Everdeen is when she volunteers to take her sister’s place at the Reaping. This selfless act drops her into the deadly Games and marks the beginning of her change from a survival-focused teenager to a lethal rebel and symbol of hope.

#6 Walter White (Breaking Bad)

Changes from meek chemistry teacher getting a pitiful birthday gift into a ruthless drug kingpin. Getting cancer set the ball rolling for his change. He broke truly bad when he killed for the first time. However, there was no turning back from his change when he whacked poor Jane in Jesse’s bed. Well, he did redeem himself, changing again at the end of the series, going good guy.

Get it? No change, no story… 

Use that in your marketing stories as you see fit. 

Now, those 5 extra tips from Storyworthy:

1. Open your story with physical movement. Put yourself in motion right away. Creates instant momentum.

2. Every great story centers on a brief, transformative moment. Pinpoint this moment first. It’s the heart of your story.

3. The beginning should contrast with the end. If your story ends with triumph, start with struggle. Make the change / arc clear enough for the lowest IQs.

4. Make your story vivid by anchoring each scene in a specific place and time. Use sensory details so folks literally “get the picture.”

5. Instead of stringing events together with “and” or “then,” use “but” and “therefore” to plainly show cause and effect.

The Knowledge Base is just ahead…

_{In partnership with Smart Recognition.}

The Fortune 500 Secret to Converting Anonymous Traffic into Sales

Fortune 500 companies capture leads hiding in plain sight - their anonymous website visitors. Why can’t you?

Most businesses miss these opportunities because they don't know Identity Resolution tools exist or mistakenly think they're not CAN-SPAM compliant.

They are compliant when you simply follow U.S. opt-out rules.

Get the 10x lead-generation advantage. Smart Recognition matches your anonymous visitors with its 223-million shopper database, turning browsers into prospects & buyers.

Case Study: Recent e-commerce client generated $156k in new revenue using Smart Recognition.

How to qualify? You need U.S. traffic & about 15k+ monthly site visitors.

Book a quick demo. Start collecting leads like national brands do.

Self-Help

No shrink’s going to prescribe rage for improving your mental health. 

However, some rage is a way to fire yourself up and get out of feeling low.

Saw this dude try to tip a bagger at a grocery store on Sunday. Kid declined it, saying tips were against store policy.

Dude wouldn’t take no for an answer. So the kid told him he’d get in trouble if he took it. The would-be tipper went over to vent to the manager. Overheard part of it… “I bet you get a bonus as the manager - that’s a tip, ain’t it?”

Dude was hot. But… I’d seen him walking around the store before checkout. He was slumped-shouldered, low-energy.

By time he left that store, he had pep in his step. No idea what he did with that renewed energy. But the possibilities were higher than when he walked in.

(BTW, this doesn’t apply to politics. This is for little irritations. Political rage is bad for anyone’s mental health).

Facts & Stats

Bonus: Massive improvements in AI capabilities have not led to a corresponding surge in what? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Adding MORE pricing details to your landing page spikes conversion rates… 

…even if your pricing is wonky, variable, hard to nail down.

Using a cost estimator alongside the call-to-action→ “Get instant estimate” increases leads by 300% to 500% according to Marcus Sheridan.

He breaks this down in his new book Endless Customers. His must-haves for a profitable pricing page are:

• State what you charge (rough estimates can use ranges, sample invoices, etc.)

• Use a world-class video with pricing details

• Tell why your product or service might be more expensive than competitors

Sheridan also developed a price estimator he plans to use for pricing his public speaking.

ALT Hack: I noticed Duct Tape Marketing didn’t have their latest podcast episode posted on their website (was on pod players). Latest episode on their site was 18 days ago. Even the best marketers miss things or get behind. So, be sure your newest content gets promoted instantly on your website. 

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

“Good writing takes place off page. Gathering experiences, observing the world, letting ideas take shape.” ~Rob Henderson (author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class)

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: Massive improvements in AI capabilities have not led to a corresponding surge in national-level productivity (WSJ).

⭐Ad of the Day ⭐