Photo by The New Ruffian
Storytelling really is an art form. If it was easy to do well, all books would be bestsellers, all movies would be smash successes and all products and services would be easily sold in a simple process. Does that sound like your reality? It’s not mine.
Marketing really can be boiled down to storytelling. You have to tell people — in a compelling and easy-to-understand way — exactly what problem your offering solves and why yours is diferent. Telling a story has characters. Your product, your show, is a character. But which archetype is it … the hero? The sage? The wizard? Here are some storytelling tips I have picked up from several people (like Michael Margolis) through the years that have taught me a lot about what stories do:
- Help your audience relate to the story and feel a connection to your event
- Make for more digestible information
- Empower your customers or prospects to step outside of their comfort zone in how they approach a problem
- Aid in recall with visual representations (illustrations, infographics, etc.)
- Focus on why your existing clients already choose to exhibit at your show
- Create a turning point for your main character as good stories come with a clear conflict
- Help your targets see things differently
Share a story here about your event. Did Exhibitor A experience a huge resurgence after exhibiting at your event for the first time last year? Did Attendee B manage to find all the suppliers s/he needed to meet in a single trip?
What’s your story?
