Tell Your Story Online

Have you heard online marketers say tell your story and use storytelling to connect with your audience? The missing piece is how do you do that.

It can feel intimidating to write all your content, social media, email and website copy on your own.

Even if you like writing it can be overwhelming.

Trust me I get it! As an entrepreneur you have to do a ton of writing.

Let’s learn three tips to guide you to tell your story to connect with your online audience.

Write How You Talk

Grammar and language rules are fine for academia but are pretty boring to read.

If you’re trying to entertain or educate your audience reminding them of school probably won’t make them want to stick around.

When digital storytelling is done well, these stories are memorable, engaging, and persuasive. This is your permission slip to break the rules if it makes your story sound and flow better.

You can also record yourself and transcribe that to write your copy instead of jumping straight into putting words on a page. There are so many different ways to get these stories out of your head so try out a few to see what works.

Plot out the major points of your story and the emotions going on behind the scenes. Your audience isn’t going to be swayed by logic and facts even though those are good to have.

People love to connect with familiar and totally wild stories. Even if this experience has never happened to them the emotions will help them connect with you on a deeper level.

Imagine Talking to a Friend

How would you explain what you do to your friends? This will make your copy, email and social media posts sound more lifelike and less robotic.

I’ve found that when my copy on my website or email starts to feel not like me it’s because it isn’t! You might start to fall back into corporate speak or jargon because that’s how you’re used to communicating.

Sometimes if I’m reading or consuming too much of other people’s content I accidently start to talk and write like them. The only time this is a good thing is when doing market research.

The easy way to correct this is to channel your voice again by imagining explaining a concept or having a conversation with a friend. You can also have them read over what you’ve written to give you honest feedback.

Simplify

Can you explain this concept to a 14 year old? The average reading level that your writing should stick to is a 7th to 8th grade.

Some subjects are a bit more complicated but if you can’t distill down concepts you’re going to struggle with connecting to your ideal clients.

I used to have this issue because of my love for writing long essays with beautiful, flowery language. That works in English class but not in your business.

Reading your content shouldn’t be a chore. Unless you’re reading a book for fun, clarity and simplicity are your best friends for writing online content.

This is not assuming your clients or audience is dumb. Intelligent writing in a way that’s easier to read vs being a chore will keep peoples attention easily and keep them coming back to your content, website and emails.

Elements of a Successful Story

Need more digital storytelling guidance? These 6 elements of a successful story created by StoryCenter will help bring your story to life.

Point of view- What’s your unique perspective? How do other aspects of your life inform this story?

A dramatic question- Where did uncertainty come up and how does it resolve? It’s usually easier to find this looking back.

Emotional content- What issues and emotions connect your audience to the story?

The gift of your voice- How can you personalize the story?

Economy- What parts can you cut? This can be hard but so worth it!

Pacing- How quickly does the story move? Try not to take too many detours.

How do I tell my story online?

Writing can be a struggle if it doesn’t come easily to you.

With these digital storytelling tips to write how you talk, explaining something to a friend and keeping it simple your copy will improve and help you connect with your audience and reach more people.

Use your strengths in your business, mine is research, to create awesome content that connects and creates an impact.

If you’re ready to launch your site and take tech off your to do list check out my Squarespace web design services and packages.