Commercials are normally things I skip by when I record something on my DVR player, but the Coke commercials that run during the Olympic Games are always a treat. Whomever creates these ads is genius. They tell a story in a short span of time and involve their brand prominently.

There are a lot of story commercials these days, but many of them leave you remembering the story to some degree yet having no clue what is being advertised. Not so with Coka Cola.

This snowball commercial that is currently running during the Vancouver Winter Olympics makes me laugh. I hope you enjoy it as well. Watch the story unfold and notice you have no doubt that it’s advertising Coke.

When you craft a story, a blog post, an article, your book or any other message, you definitely want to tie in a story, because that will make your message memorable. Too many people do a video or write something that is all marketing and no story.

People don’t buy based solely on the features and benefits of the product. Veteran infomercial pitchman Billy Mays, who died last year in after a tough plane landing, said on his show The Pitchmen that half of the reason people buy is because of a great product, and half of why they buy is the story.

You don’t have to have the brand recognition of Coca Cola to weave incorporate storytelling for business.

Turning Everyday Events into Storytelling for Business

Sometimes, the story you tell can be essentially unrelated to your product. A snowball fight has nothing to do with drinking Coke, yet it makes for a fun message. If you’re using a story like that, be sure to “connect the dots” for the receiver so that you make a clear connection between your story and your product/message.

Here’s an example:

I’ll let you listen to the story of what my hens can teach you about looking for results.

Summary of story in video: The story I tell here is about my hens using a particular corner of the nest area rather than the 12 next boxes to lay their eggs. The connection I make is to ask you to consider how often you INSIST that you have to do or have something a certain way or it isn’t right, when all the time you’re passing up ample opportunities to do what you want.

You can take an ordinary experience at home, in a restaurant, on a trip, at a movie or wherever to make a point that transmits your business message.

Case Study Storytelling for Business

You can also use a case study story. This can be a typical question people ask, but you take a recent interaction, coaching session, consultation, phone call or whatever to share your message.

Example: I’m on the faculty of a new site called Success Bug.(that’s not the story; it’s part of the setup to the story). Success Bug founder Barry Plaskow came to me in a quandary. He said he knows he needs to write a book, “But I’m not sure how to figure out exactly what to write my book about.” Sure, he knew it would relate to his business, but that is so vague.

“Barry, I get that question a lot, and it’s really easy to figure out not only what to write about, but also how to write a book that will generate leads and business for you.”

Naturally, Barry felt quite relieved. I asked him 3 questions and helped him draw out the most common concerns for which people come to him. From there, it was really easy for him to recognize that people come to him wondering how to make their business stand out above their competition.

That is the STORY part, and from here I would share the teaching with more specifics if that were my focus here. You can watch for a post set to come out soon which will give you the same help I gave Barry.

And from that, you can see how telling a story of an interaction (sometimes with a real name and sometimes a real situation but with a pseudonym, can share valuable understanding around the concerns and challenges your ideal customers have.

Beware of Storytelling that Isn’t Storytelling

I participated in a giveaway once that is an example of storytelling that isn’t storytelling. First of all, a “giveaway” is an event in which someone sets up a site for people to add gifts and then everyone promotes to everyone they know in order to give out the gifts for a short span of time, such as 2 weeks. This giveaway supposedly involved a ransom to free the event creator, but the only “story” was a lame 30 second video with no story line at all. It was more a concept than a story.

Another example.of storytelling that isn’t storytelling is one of my colleagues who would write something like the following in blog posts and think he had told a story: “I read an article about ____ the other day and it made me think of ___.” That’s just a transition. It’s not a story.

Help with Storytelling for Business

I have a 5–part free multimedia mini-course which you can get with the form below,

and if you truly want to become a masterful storyteller, watch for the interactive storytelling for business class I will hold very soon.