Make it Stick with a Story
So you’ve defined your message, your personal brand, your niche in the business and blogging world. Whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t matter if your blog isn’t interesting or memorable. The key is getting people to remember your message - to make it stick in their brains.
“Sticky” messages don’t necessarily have to be revolutionary, but they have to be engaging and relatively simple to understand. One of the easiest ways to make your blog sticky is to tell your readers a story.
People remember and respond to stories and anecdotes much more easily than plain facts (obviously, facts and stats are important, but plain factual statements and data does not normally make for compelling content). If your readers identify with you or find you entertaining in some way, they’re much likely to subscribe to your feed or bookmark your blog - and to patronize your business.
People also just plain enjoy stories - personal anecdotes, fables, etc. They draw the reader in and tend to resonate much more than basic instructions. You can market pretty much anything in the form of a story, from an actual tangible product (think TV commercial here - those are generally 30-60 anecdotes) to an idea or concept.
One example of using a story making a concept sticky is the original Aesop Fables. For instance, the tale of the tortoise and the hare. The purpose of the tale is to tell readers that “slow and steady wins the race”, but it couches that in the form of a cute animal story. Granted, that’s an incredibly simple example, but the simplest messages tend to be the stickiest. Think about it - almost everyone knows - and can retell - the fable of the tortoise and the hare.
You don’t have to a brilliant copywriter to write a sticky story. Look to the classics - from literature to marketing schemes, there is tons of writing out there that you can draw inspiration from and create parallels to in your blog.
