SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hey there everyone, Marissa here. I'm sure you're gonna resonate with this statement. Everything we do online should engage an audience, right? Why? Well, because we're in the people business. Your business is not about transaction, it's about interaction. There's a secret to promotional writing, and it's right under your nose. You see it daily, but most miss it. And as a result, their promotions are dry and flat. I didn't catch this at first either. I stumbled across this secret during a moment of reflection. This secret helped me publish international articles. It helped me win an international speech competition and speak at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. This same secret helped me become a professional copywriter, and I'm going to share this secret with you on episode 56 of the Brazilian Faith Online Show. The title of this episode is The Number One Secret That Turns Resistance to Engagement.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Welcome. I'm Arissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I'm an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. In this podcast, you'll find a different perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change online. To connect with me and my private Facebook group, go to MarissaShedrick.com forward slash community.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Hello, hello, everyone. I did a little bit of a quirky little intro today, trying to mix it up, change things up a bit, right? Because I want to keep your attention. And we're going to talk about that today. Here is something that an A-List copywriter David Garfinkel said. He said this in his book, Breakthrough Copywriting, and I'm going to quote some of his content today. The best way to reach into your reader's heart, soul, and mind is through story. Now you might think, oh Marissa, I already knew that. Story, yeah, yeah, yeah. But sometimes we miss the power of story and we miss some key components of story. Now we all know that a story has a framework. We all know that it's got the setup, it's got the conflict, and it's got the resolution. That's not what I'm going to be talking about today. We're going to go deep into story and how you can apply story in your copy, regardless of what it is that you're writing, whether it's headlines, whether it's a landing page, whether it's a sales page, whether it's a blog post, whatever it might be, you can incorporate story elements to it to hook the reader, to build curiosity, to build that know like and trust factor all through story. Plus, here's the bonus you're going to naturally implement some copywriting principles when you tell a story, and you're not going to even realize you're doing it. I mean, for sure, this is something that I did intuitively and I didn't realize until I looked back at some of the things that I had accomplished, some of the successes that I had. I just thought it was, well, okay, it was writing. But then I realized, no, what about the writing? Oh, it was story. And then I looked even deeper and I found another secret that I'm going to share later in this podcast about story. So I'm going to share a few little things that I found in this book, Breakthrough Copywriting, from David Garfinkel. So let's dive into it. Now, stories are very valuable when you're writing promotional material because stories bypass judgments. People can argue with an opinion, people can argue with an assertion, people can argue with a claim, but it's pretty darn hard to argue with a story, right? That's from a great book, Breakthrough Copywriting. And I totally agree. I see now as I look at my past and some of the things I've accomplished, and I read now about copywriting and I see what's worked and what hasn't. Story has been the consistent key to really helping me leverage and write more compelling blog posts, articles have gotten published, copy that converts, it's the storytelling. So let's look into story a little further. Now, stories condense a lot of information quickly, which is so helpful so that you don't go on and on and on in your copy. Now, stories can get across not only information, but also conviction in the story because there's that emotional connection that happens. People are more open to what you have to say when you tell a story. Everybody likes a story. It's just part of our human nature. We all love stories. So there's kind of a running thing here at home. My family, when they know I have to work and they get done early before I do, they'll tell me if I run into the kitchen to get another bottle of water or something, that's like, don't even look at the TV because they know I will get sucked in to the story, right? Put me in front of a football game, I'm not interested. But when you start telling me the story of the players, who they married, how many kids they have, maybe some life uh triumph that they had that after you know, some type of difficulty, I'm totally engaged. I'm watching it, right? Story pulls me in. So people are more open to what you have to say when you tell stories. Stories are indirect, they're not direct, you're not just shoving information in people's faces when you tell a story, you're entertaining too when you tell a story. They're very powerful and they're very concentrated. Stories help people get to know you pretty quickly. If you're telling a story of some event or something that happened and you're going to transition it into a topic that you want to lead the reader to, those stories will help your readers get to know you a little better. They'll be able to tell your personality, they'll be able to resonate with you a little more. Stories take your prospect into a different world. So you're pulling them into a story and you're taking them into a different world. We do this a lot in copy when we future cast, when we try to help them see the other side of the problem, when they implement our solution, they begin to see themselves differently, like there could be a different result for them, especially when we use words like imagine. It takes them into a different world. And then stories also excite imagination, which is great. Imagination is awesome. The possibilities of something that maybe hasn't been done yet that they could potentially do. And people learn through stories. Now we remember when we were kids at school, if the teacher told a story to be able to reinforce a point, we'd get it, right? It's so helpful. Every story should have a point. And when you make a point, you can help someone learn the concept through stories. So people learn through stories usually better and more quickly. So that's something to keep in mind. And lastly, stories stir up fears and desires much more reliably than statements of fact, claims of benefit or empty hollow phrases. These are some tips again from David Garfinkel in his book Breakthrough Copywriting. It's a great book. So as we tell stories, I started thinking about this and I realized that even in my faith, when I thought back, because at one point Jesus was a stranger to me. I knew about God, but I didn't know about Jesus too much, other than he was dead on a cross, right? And they had statues and things like that. And I thought that's really like sad, but it didn't resonate with me. I I didn't make any connection with it until I started getting curious. And someone gave me a Bible. This is when I was in my 20s, so it was a long time ago. It was a long time ago. So someone gave me a Bible, and all I knew about the Bible was that the red letters were words that Jesus had said, right? All the other stuff, like Job and these other Mark, Luke, all these, I've been going, I don't know who these people are. Why am I gonna read them? Who are they? I don't know who they are, but I know Jesus is kind of a big deal, so I'm gonna read everything he has to say, and I'm only gonna read the red letters. All the other stuff I thought at the time was all filler stuff, so I wasn't gonna read it. And so I was a skeptic, right? I was a skeptic, and so I started reading all the red letters, and guess what? Jesus taught in parables, which were stories, and I started reading the stories, and I started getting to know Jesus, and I started realizing what his message was about, and I could sense his love and his compassion in the words that he used and his patience in the teaching that he gave. And I got to know him through the stories that he told. And you know, I'm not trying to make a pun or anything on this, but it led to conversion. And isn't that what we want when we're writing copy? We want to convert people and so that they will opt in to our lead magnet or register to our webinar or join our community through some type of offering that you have, or maybe make a sale, right? But it was interesting to me that even then, the skeptic, the one that was not a Christian, it was the stories that hooked me, compelled me to read more, and eventually led to that change in my life. And life has never been better. I mean, it's I it was the best decision I ever made. That and marrying my husband, two great decisions I ever made in my life. I can't say that about all the decisions I've made in my life, but accepting Jesus and then marrying my wonderful husband of 36 years, two best decisions I've ever made. So, in any event, when you use story and copy, and I just told you a story about the stories that I read, right? I just told you a story. When you use stories, people lean in and they listen, right? They read. And you can use stories, not just in written form, but you can use stories in audio, like this podcast. You can use stories in video as well. It engages people. And you've probably experienced it where you stay on a sales page when there's a story being told. You want to hear the story. So stories can be used by themselves as a story to make a point, right? You don't want to just throw stories in there. They don't have to be long, they can just be very short. It's not a, you know, a long memoir. It's not a chapter book, you know, it is just a story that will introduce the idea you need to have a transition to be able to transition while you're telling the story. Every story has a point, every point has a story. So the stories can be used. And if you notice, when there's a story, one of the most powerful things in a story is dialogue. So whenever you see copy and there's dialogue, I mean, I wish I can show you examples in this podcast, but just think of a book that you've read, a fiction book, and where there's dialogue, it's powerful because the dialogue shows you what's going on. You're no longer telling, you're showing through the dialogue, the personalities, the tone, everything comes across in dialogue. So when you incorporate dialogue in your story, that makes it really, really powerful as well. There's also the power of suggestion just through story as well, that you can craft a story and create a power of suggestion. There's also quotes that you can add in stories, right? So there are quotes that are very, very powerful. You want, like when people write books, you want to write a book that people have to have a highlighter and highlight things because it's so good. So you want to have quotes that are really compelling that keep people reading. And it could be one of your quotes, something that you say, something that you believe, something that you want to share that's relevant to the content that you're writing. And we've seen stories in testimonials and endorsements, right? You see them all the time. It's just we don't realize the power of stories. I mean, where would we be without the testimonial, without an endorsement? And those are little mini stories. And we see it in the beginning of a sales page when you begin after the headline and after the deck copy and you begin the actual sales page, you the opening paragraph, the opening story, you see story also used very effectively. And we use story also in the about page of your website. So you can see how story is being used in so many places. And yet we, I don't think we're aware of the power of story. So we kind of sort of put a story together, but we can do so much better, right? I can do so much better. I'm going to incorporate more because I've been really digging into this and studying about this. And a lot of stories too, um, I see them pop up in emails. And the emails that I read, they have first a good headline. So you want to win them over in the headline, you want to win them over at the first line, and then you want to win them over with a story, and then transition into why that story was told because you're teeing it up for whatever the ask is in the email. And the ask could simply be, you know, click here to read my latest blog post or click here to listen to my latest podcast. But you can lead with a story even in emails as well. You can use it in opt-ins, you can put it in your lead magnet. You can have a little story at the end of your lead magnet, no matter what it is. Instead of just saying uh, you know, about you, who you are, you can create a little story at the end of your lead magnet. You can use stories, they're so versatile, you can use them everywhere, and they're so powerful. So, as I was studying this, I was looking through this, I was realizing, man, I need to use more stories. So, what kind of stories do we pick? Hmm, what do we do? What do we choose? There's so many stories. So I suggest you keep a story bank, get a Google Sheet or Excel, whatever's easy for you. And anything that happens that maybe a lesson you learned, or maybe something, maybe a mistake, and you you had to take away your own personal life, whatever it might be, or some monumental thing that happened to you in your past life, keep a story bank. So all that is is a Google Sheet, and you just document in the Google Sheet what the story is, and you you can tell the story, and it's a powerful story in and of itself, but you want to keep a list of it, or something that you maybe read in a book, or something that you saw in a video, or something that happened to a friend of yours, or anything that comes up that you go, man, that was a good message. Put it in that story bank. And then when you're writing your promotional material, whatever it might be, and you need a story, you can figure out what is the point you're trying to make in the content that you're creating, and then go look at your story bank and see what you can use as a supporting story to really reinforce that point. So there's lots of things we can pick. I mean, we could talk about current events like the great resignation. In fact, I use that for a podcast episode. I I'm not sure what the title was, but it was something I could put in the show notes. It was something about is a great resignation really a spiritual shift? And so I wrote about that. And you can write about pop culture or things that are happening, you know, in the world, like entertainment or something that's um at the time of this recording, J Lo just got married again. And so there was a lot of media coverage on that. Is there something that you can use there and create a story? Or some of the popular movies that are coming out, or something that um you experience, or maybe seasonal content, like at the time of this recording, it's back to school, and so can you tie in a story about that? Maybe a story about sending your kindergartner or your preschooler to school for the first time, you know, and that vulnerability that you felt or whatever. Can you tie it into something? Or sports, can you tie it in? I'm actually writing an article and the stories about football, and I know nothing about football, nothing about football, other than the fact that when I sit down with my family, watch football, I'm not interested until they start talking to me about the players, and then I'm interested. But can it be something like use it as a metaphor? Or of course, there's news, which can really give us a headache at times, but it could be something that you've read on the news, or it could be your own story. There's lots of choices, and I don't want you to scratch your head and go, I have no idea. Just document in your story bank, just keep a story bank in a Google Sheet. And then when you're trying to make a point, look and see what stories you can create. That's what I did when I was competing in speech competitions. I kept a story bank and I would look to see like what story I can tell in this particular speech. And I used it also when I was publishing articles in various magazines. I would look at my story bank. So it comes in handy because we forget. So one of the things that you want to think about when you're considering pulling a story and making a point and writing to your audience, regardless of what it is, a sales page, a blog post, whatever it might be, is really figure out where your audience is. And we talk a lot about demographic, you know, gender, uh, we talk about age, demographic, we talk a lot about those things, but there's something also that you need to consider is the psychographic. So psychographic is really important. And I have a definition of psychographic here provided by Hotjar because I could not define it for you. So I looked it up. I know what it is, but I thought, I don't want to put those in words. But they said it's um psychographic consumer-based studies based on psychological characteristics and traits such as values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices. Psychographics in marketing focus on understanding the consumer's emotions and values so you can market more accurately. So that's really important, right? That's where we talk about emotional connection. We want to make sure that they feel seen and heard. So psychographics is just as important as demographic. So I'm gonna have you, and I think I've referenced this before, but it's worth repeating if I did, because I think it's really important. There's uh Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow, Abraham Maslow was born April 1st, 1908, died in 1970. His parents were first generation Jewish immigrants, and he was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was an American psychologist, he was a university professor, researcher, but he is better known for Maslow's hierarchy of needs. So, in this, it's just a way to see where people are, and there's a various levels that sort of pyramid up. There's five different levels, and the first level is The basic needs food, shelter, sleep, clothing, water. And the second one is personal security, employment, resources, health, prosperity. That's where you think you know, people want to be employed. Maybe they want health insurance. You know, it's that security that they need, right? The third level going up is love and belonging. That's where you're talking about friendship, intimacy, family, communities, a sense of connection. And then the higher one, the second one that is right before the top tier is esteem. And that's where we talk about respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom, people that love learning, people that love getting certifications, people that that invest in getting a degree, all those things because we appreciate and we need that self-esteem, right? And at the very top is self-actualization, desire to become everything that you can possibly be, with all your gifts, with all your talents, with all your skills, with your knowledge, with everything that God has given you. You know, I want to be able to make a difference in the world, right? So you have to see where your market is at. And as I shared in a previous podcast, when people are in self-actualization and they're learning and they're investing in themselves and they're they're trailblazing and they're pace setters and they're they want to do a lot. When the pandemic hit, they could have gone from level one to level five and four, basic fundamental needs and security. So when we talk to them, we have to adjust, course correct, how we enter into the conversation because we want to meet them where they are at. And we can use story to do that. Story is a great way to always bridge the gap, always bring them from where they are to where you want them to be. And that is based on where they want to be, right? So that could be very helpful for you to figure out what story would be relevant for them. What story would be relevant for them? And then if we have a story bank, that'll make it easier, but you always want to make a point. It might be the same point, you're just introducing it a little differently. So here's a last quote that I have for you: a story cuts through the resistance of unfamiliarity like a white hot knife cuts through soft butter. A story cuts through the resistance of unfamiliarity. Try to say that five times, like a white hot knife cuts through soft butter. And unfamiliarity is the biggest form of resistance that you have to deal with when you're introducing a new concept, a new product or service based upon a new concept. So the concept could just be going from discouragement to hope, because maybe uh they've tried something before and it failed. Maybe the concept is that it wasn't them, that it was the process that they used, whatever it might be, whatever the concept is, you can use, especially when the audience is unaware that they need this solution, you can use stories to bridge the gap. So here's a last thought that I have for you that I think is gonna be really helpful. Um, we're in the online space and we're in the people business and we want to market heart to heart. And we have to realize that if there is an opportunity for us to encourage others, why not? Why not? You know, even if it's not gonna directly equal revenue, if we have a voice on the internet, why not encourage? And using stories, which is a universal language, is a way that you can do that. And one of the things that stories is able to accomplish is the fact that it allows you to help release the feel-good chemicals in a person. Like when I read those scriptures of Jesus and the red letters, it made me feel good inside. It released endorphins inside of me. I felt hope, I felt good, I felt loved. I felt like I could have a future different than what I had. Those endorphins allowed me to think beyond my misery at that time. And so when you use stories, you also can help others release endorphins in them. And that could be just what they need in the moment. So why not? Why not do that? Why not use stories an effective way to be able to write greater, you know, podcasts episodes and create blog posts and create sales pages and and yes, make money, awesome, great, but there's nothing wrong with making money, but also be able to bring some encouragement, some positive change in the world. And with that said, if this helped you, I'm going to soon open up my copy connection community. It was in beta, and I launched it earlier in 2022, and I'm getting ready to launch it again in the fall of 2022, but I'm I'm changing something. It's been so great doing this with a group of people, and the the feedback has been so positive. I want to get this in the hands of the do-it-yourself entrepreneur. And so I am changing the model to a monthly membership so that more people can access this at a very affordable price. And so if you're interested to find out more about this, where I teach about copy, all you have to do is go to marissashatrick.com forward slash wait list. Marissashadter.com forward slash wait list. And I will let you know when it opens up and I'll tell you all about it, and you'll be able to be the first to know about copy connection. So until next time, thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. And if you enjoyed this podcast, I would love for you to review it. I don't ask enough of it. It's in the outro, but sometimes I use a different outro. But that is so helpful for me to get the word out. So I would really, really covet, ask you. Um not begging yet, but maybe if I don't get any reviews. So that would be awesome. I really appreciate it. So anyway, until next time, take care.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

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