Storytelling for your small business: a non-writer’s guide

Introduction

Storytelling—I know you’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but it really is a powerful way to engage your audience, especially for your small business. And that’s all well and good if you like writing (thankfully I do), but what if you don’t? I get it; not everyone’s a budding author, and you might be thinking, What should I write about? How do I craft a story that connects with my business? And how do I learn the art of storytelling for my small business?

Well, you’re safe here because, although I love writing, I also find it hard. I can procrastinate forever, which makes the task one hundred times harder than it needs to be. What I have on my side is that before I started freelancing, I organised events and guess what? The best way to engage people at an event is through storytelling! So, you’re in good hands. I’ve got plenty of experience in this area and I’m here to help you get started in 4 simple steps.

My 4-step storytelling strategy

Ok, so it’s four steps, but essentially there are 3 parts to it because for a story you need a beginning, a middle, and an end—right?

1. The beginning: your goal

What action do you want your audience to take after hearing your story? Are you looking to inspire them, for them to sign up for your newsletter, engage with your brand, find out more about your services or something else entirely? The key is to be clear about your objective from the outset. What’s my objective in this blog? to showcase my expertise so you can see how I can help you.

2. The beginning: your theme

A theme creates a red thread that ties your story together and guides your reader to your goal. The theme doesn’t necessarily need to be directly about your business—it’s about finding a way to link it to your business. In this blog, my theme is my experience and how I can help you.

3. The middle: the writing bit

Writing can feel daunting; it still does for me, so I sit down at my computer and just let the words flow in whatever order they want. Believe me when I say it doesn’t always sound great the first time, so I write, I read it, I might refine it, and then I take a step back. I come back to it, I read it again, I tweak it, and then I use AI to sharpen it further and make it even more engaging. I then put it through a grammar checker before I send it live.

This might all seem like a lot, but it’s worth it. Especially as blog posts have a long lifecycle, and you can repurpose them to use in emails and social posts.

Don’t just use AI

Don’t be tempted to just put a prompt in AI and use the version it churns out because not only can search engines see right through that and won’t recommend your content if it doesn’t have value, but your story won’t reflect your brand personality, unless your personality is that of an AI bot, of course.

In fact, brand personality, emotion, and things that are relevant and relatable will all help to make your content more engaging, and that can only come from a human. Sure, use AI to get started if that helps; I sometimes do. A blank page can be pretty intimidating, and ideas are always sparked by something. If you work alone, you haven’t got anyone to bounce off, so AI is a great tool for brainstorming, but don’t just use what it comes up with—make it your own.

There are other things you need to consider, like keywords, and headings for SEO, and I cover that in my how to write a blog post.

4. The end: your call to action

Every good story needs a strong ending that leads your reader to take action. This links back to step 1 and your goal. Don’t forget this step! My call to action is coming up.

That’s it—four simple steps. You don’t need to be a bestselling author to tell a story. Just tap into your own experiences. The more you do it, the better you’ll get. And who knows? You might even enjoy it!

Conclusion

Here’s my challenge to you: Start telling stories in your emails, blog posts, and social media. One of my blog posts has recently made it to page 2 of Google. This proves storytelling works—along with a healthy dose of SEO, of course!

If you’re ready to take your storytelling to the next level but need some help, drop me a message by clicking here, and we’ll come up with some stories together.