Recently I was listening to a marketing expert I admire.  I’ve been following him for years. His emails strike the perfect balance between marketing and informing. 

While some marketing pros never send nurturing emails, his messages do. That makes sense: he’s an Educator Archetype. 

Educators attract clients who want to pick their knowledgeable brains. They talk about themselves only to make a point.

In contrast, for Role Models, their “How I Did This” stories are the point. They’re making the promise, “I’m just like you. If I can do it, you can too.”

This Educator was talking about the types of stories a business owner could use in an article or email post. He suggested that we mine our backgrounds for article ideas. Think of a childhood memory, he suggests. Or remember a time when you were new to your field. What mistakes did you make? 

Another marketer uses a similar approach. She urges her clients to find a personal story – something as simple as a shopping trip or as complex as adopting a new puppy. 

“Start with the story,” she says. “Then find a way to turn that story into a marketing lesson.”

So…will this approach work for you?

1 – Very few strategies come in one-size-fits-all, whether it’s email subject lines or stories to share. If you’re a small service business, the brand is YOU. 

As a guide, you can refer to the framework of the five archetypes, which I explain in this free guide.

Not all marketers benefit from sharing personal stories. Sometimes these stories backfire, especially if they seem to go against your archetype or your ongoing practice.

2 – Apart from your style of marketing, your client relationships change over time. If they’ve followed you for a long time – maybe even years – they’ll be open to learning more about you as a three-dimensional person. They’ll open almost anything you send. It will take a lot to drive them away.

In fact, Abby Barry, the Email Marketing Manager of DemandJump.com, recently wrote that email subject lines aren’t as important as we’re led to believe.

Her company once forgot to change the subject line of their email, so they sent a new email with a subject line their readers had previously seen. Their open rates weren’t substantially affected. I’ve had similar experiences, including the time I sent an email with the subject “Subject line goes here.”

If you think about it, this idea makes sense. When you get a call from a good friend, you pick up the phone. You know you’ll want to answer, no matter what they want to talk about.

Besides, your long-term subscribers are curious.

You’ve been sending them emails for a while. Maybe you dropped a hint about “our dog” or “my recent geographical move.” They want to know more.

We’ve heard about the “know, like, and trust” model. It’s no accident that “know” comes first. Often when we get to know people, we begin by admiring their skills and confidence. Only after they’re credible do we want to know the person.  

When a quarterback guides his team to a Superbowl win (I don’t know the equivalent for European or Asian sports), we want to know how he got there. A lot of people make the mistake of starting with “liking.” We get a lot of personal stories that leave their audiences shrugging, “Who cares?”

3 – Your audience may be suffering “compassion fatigue.” 

Every day it seems I get dozens of emails from people I know or don’t know. Each email begins with a personal story that encourages an empathetic response.

Today’s stories were about dog training, talking to young children, family illness that forced them to cancel a trip…and one email included multiple challenges involving illness, loss of a business, relationship breakup, and serious depression. Each writer was asking for emotion work…and as you know, that’s work.

In my podcast episode #91 I talk about why you might get unexpected responses to your stories. One reason has to do with the context where your story appears.

Each message, read in isolation, would be effective. But they’re not seen in isolation. They’re seen in the context of “one among many.” Seen all at once, they can be overwhelming!

Don’t get me wrong: this approach can be extremely effective. Many business owners gain a huge following by introducing each email with a personal story.

But here’s a tip: next time you open an email that begins with a story, try to figure out what archetype the business owner has chosen…or if they even have a clear archetype. Learn about archetypes with this free download.

Next, try an experiment.

Next time you write an email, article, or blog post, ask yourself, “What does my market want to hear about? What will give them an ‘aha’ moment? Do I want to explain my service or show why I’m qualified to offer it?”

Then choose a story to support your purpose.

You might even decide to use your story to encourage sales. That’s a special type of story – a selling story. I’ve put together a step-by-step recipe to replace “Story Telling” with “Story Selling.” Click here to learn more.

Should you swear when you’re onstage for your business?

There are 3 ways to answer this question.

(1) Does swearing fit the purpose behind your story or are you into “lazy” swearing?

Are you illustrating a point by including swear words? For instance, you could say, “I could believe Tom said *#&&!!!. By directly using the word, not a euphemism, he got his point across.”

Sometimes people throw in a strong word just to get a reaction or a laugh. We see this a lot in standup comedy. It can get a laugh, but that’s a cheap laugh.

The word “badass” has lost its power because it’s used so much.

(2) Are you a Celebrity archetype?

This is the only archetype that can get away with swearing consistently. They’re promising they have the freedom to cross a lot of lines because they’ve achieved so much, and. that makes them worthy to support you.

For the other archetypes, swearing can backfire.

(3) Your audience may want you to swear, but you can’t make assumptions.

Some audiences are more open to swearing. Some don’t even know those words are considered swearing: they’re just everyday language. I’ve even heard of people saying, “I don’t trust someone who doesn’t swear.”

You need to go beyond stereotypes. I know twenty-year-olds who won’t swear and sixty-year-olds who swear like sailors. I know men who won’t swear and women who will.

Swearing in stories is the topic of Strategic Storytelling Episode 91. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or https://cathygoodwin.com/podcast.

You’re hearing lots of advice to “just tell stories.” But in fact telling the wrong stories can send the wrong message. Here are 3 stories I’ve told over the years, before I understood the importance of understanding your marketing archetype.

(1) That story is too far from my own experience. I can’t relate to you in that context.

Many of my stories fit this pattern, especially (a) in my earliest days online and (b) when I listen to well-meaning but misguided advice.

When I was doing standup comedy, an experienced comic advised me to tell stories about my time in Alaska. So I shared the story about flying around Alaska in a tiny Cessna with a colleague who had less than 100 hours of flight time. Alas, the vast majority of my audience wasn’t sure what a Cessna was. They did know they weren’t crazy enough to fly around the mountains with an inexperienced pilot.

(2) The misunderstood story that sends the wrong message.

I didn’t share the Alaska stories in my business. But when I first started, I was advised, “People want to know you,” and, “People will look to you for the qualities they wish they had.” The first is true mainly for Role Model Archetypes, the second for Celebrities. Bottom line: this was bad advice for me.

At the time, I’d just published my book on relocation as a life transition. I wrote that I’ve always been willing to move and make changes that would bring me closer to the life I wanted.

People didn’t feel closer to me. They didn’t relate to me at all. They wrote things like, “I couldn’t do that – take risks and leap without a net. You must be totally unconcerned about money.”

The truth was, I didn’t leap without a net. Most of my moves came with jobs where my employer paid for the moves. I had a nest egg. There really wasn’t much risk and yes, I cared about money.

Needless to say, that story disappeared quickly from my website.

(3) The story that gets taken way out of context.

Once in my newsletter I shared a story about taking a bus to go somewhere. I got a few comments asking, “Why didn’t you drive?”

Apparently many of my readers thought “taking the bus” meant “being too poor to own a car” or possibly “too poor (or dumb) to take an Uber.”

The truth is, I live in a major city. Almost everything I need is in walking distance. I do use cabs and cars, but often it’s simpler to hop on a bus.

Lots of people take public transportation or ride bikes. Our mayor was seen on the subways before he got elected.

In Philadelphia, many people don’t own cars. Many never bothered to learn how to drive.

In many other places, a car is just a part of your life. I’ve lived in those places. I owned cars. It doesn’t make sense.

The same holds true when city dwellers talk about where they live. A luxury apartment in New York (and often in Philadelphia) will seem …well, much less luxurious to those who live in other parts of the country.

Bottom Line: Successful storytellers begin by considering the purpose of their stories. If they want to be viewed as “a down to earth human being,” they introduce themes that resonate with their audiences. They talk about “safe” topics, like family and gardening. They avoid stories that raise questions about their ability to deliver their services.

Successful storytellers also consider their audiences, their business and their brand. If you’re a life coach specializing in grief recovery, it might make sense to talk about losing a close family member. If you run a website software company, that same story will seem irrelevant or even intrusive.

People who live in Philadelphia like stories about buses. They go over well when I do comedy. I wouldn’t share those stories with an audience living in an area where car ownership gets taken for granted.

Most important, they consider the purpose of their story.

Are you trying to establish a personal connection? Do you even need one?

Are you introducing prospects to a system, program or service that will benefit them in surprising ways? They’re more likely to respond to stories of, “How my innovation helped these clients.” Or you could try a story that draws an analogy with what you offer, especially if you offer a particularly complex or new service. I explain more about those concept stories in my book, Grow Your Business One Story At A Time.

One of the most difficult challenges of a solo-preneur is finding a subject line that will stand out among the hundreds of messages your audience receives each day. These days those inboxes get crowded.

When you’re a service-based business, your audience will open their emails based on two criteria:
…Do they have a relationship with you?
…Does the subject line seem to be written especially for them?

Often the two go together. For some people I follow, I’d open their emails if the subject line were related to basket-weaving. But those people often have subject lines that seem written directly to me.

So that means a lot of us business owners get bogged down trying to find the perfect title for our emails.

As a copywriter, when I get stuck, my first step is to look for a swipe file. And I have no trouble finding one. There’s no shortage of templates for subject lines, like, “How to come up with the perfect [your word] every time…” or “13 types of [something] that get shared like crazy.”

These templates are fine. I’ve used some myself.

The problem is, they don’t work for everyone. Your brand will attract a certain type of audience. And your subject line needs to be consistent with your brand.

For service based businesses, the best brands are built on a foundation of stories. Stories allow you to demonstrate your expertise and claim your status as an authority without sounding boastful. By definition, they’re engaging and memorable.

But when you’re ready to find a story for your service business brand, you might have trouble finding some realistic guidance. Many books on branding and storytelling are filled with examples from products, ranging from soft drinks to computers to beer. I’m particularly fond of the Budweiser commercials, with the dogs and the Clydesdales.

Alas, service businesses can’t work with those warm-and-fuzzy stories. We’ve got prospective clients who want to know what it’s like to work with us.

And we’re branding ourselves as people. We interact with clients in a way that products never will. A soft drink company can give its product a fanciful personality; in fact, an old focus group exercise used to be, “If [product] were a person, who would it be? Life of the party? Old friend?”

Service businesses, especially solopreneurs and independent professionals, can’t do that. We’ve got to be real.

We could turn to the classic archetypes, such as “conquer the monster” or “voyage and return.” But a movie story doesn’t always seem particularly relevant to what we do in our businesses.

My free workbook, From Story To Brand,  describes five story archetypes for branding your service business — the Role Model, Innovator, Celebrity, Educator and Passionate Advocate. These archetypes are based on the way business owners promote themselves to their audiences. They will simplify the challenge of aligning content with your brand.  In particular,  they will help you create more targeted, more effective subject lines.

When going through my own inbox, I discovered that many marketers are already doing this. Here are four examples — I don’t seem to be following any Passionate Advocates. Then we’ll look at the way you can apply these ideas to your own marketing.

Connie Ragen Green – the Role Model

The Role Model’s message is, “If I can do it, you can too.” She’s just one step ahead of you on the path. She’s so friendly and down to earth, her followers often feel they know her like an old friend.

Connie’s mentioned in my workbook but I’d never noticed her email subject lines before. She uses first names, so my emails look like this:

• cathy, open only if you believe in the power of video
• cathy, she’s returning today and i’ll be there!
• cathy, why you must experience the magic and power of live events
• cathy, you could have knocked me over with a feather
• cathy, could it be santa driving down 5th avenue?

These subject lines reinforce Connie’s message. She’s a mentor who relates to her clients like a more experienced friend — the big sister who’s a couple of years ahead of you. She reinforces the relationship with her content.

Incidentally, Connie continues this down-to-earth style in her sales copy. She’s got a “Really Simple” series where she walks her audience several marketing actions that normally would be considered quite complex. For “Really Simple Sales Copy,” her headline makes reference to apple pie, corn on the cob and summer bar-b-que.

Christina Hills – the Innovator

The Innovator brands on being able to solve an urgent problem by offering a one-of-a-kind solution .  The message is, “These benefits are meaningful and you can’t get them anywhere else.”

Christina’s innovation relates to the way she delivers her website creation course.

Christina reinforces her innovator role by showing she’s on the cutting edge in her field (so she’s on top of the new Gutenberg WordPress version that’s not out yet). She’s got examples of people who succeeded with her innovative approach. She uses the word “new” often.

• the simple truth about building an online business
• a wellness coach gives up and creates her own website
• install the ‘classic editor’ plugin before Gutenberg comes out
• [new pdf report] I highly recommend …
• What are google fonts?

Ian Brodie – the Educator

Educators brand by being knowledgeable. Often they’re positioned as authorities. They’re not necessarily teachers in the traditional sense. They get the audience’s attention — and claim credibility — by sharing lots of information. But they don’t just present facts. They create lots of aha moments.

Some of Ian’s subject lines:

• Why don’t clients buy from you?
• 3 marketing secrets stolen from my local coffee shop
• my worst sales meeting ever
• how to lose a sale
• the simple secret of follow-up that works
• does ‘just be yourself’ lead to success?

When Ian’s describing something from his experience – such as his local coffee shop – the subject line shows that he’s getting ready to illustrate a marketing point. He’s not sharing more of his own life, the way a Role Model would.

One subject initially didn’t seem to fit: Sting vs Lady Gaga. But it’s actually a concept story — illustrating a key point that Ian wants to make about authenticity. Educators love concept stories. I drive my friends crazy with them.

You can learn more about concept stories through my Udemy course on marketing with stories and through my ebook on Amazon, Grow Your Business One Story At A Time.

Unnamed – The Celebrity

I decided not to name the business owner who adopted the celebrity archetype (although you may recognize her if you’re on her list). I don’t know her so I’ll seek permission first.

Celebrities brand by making the claim, “I’ve achieve great success and a great life through my work. That’s my credential! And because I’ve been so successful and earned substantial rewards, I’m qualified to help you do the same.

This unnamed celebrity does exactly what I recommend for Celebrity archetypes. She’s promising insider access and taking us behind the scenes. And she’s referring to her lifestyle.

• behind the scenes: how I built my social media biz
• the one mistake I hear a lot of solo-preneurs talking about
• we flew all the way to Mexico to hear this person
• my guest this week is a bad influence
• a behind the scenes look at my weight loss journey

So how can you apply these principles?

(1) If you’re slightly uncomfortable with some of the copywriting templates, chances are you’re reviewing copy strategies that make sense for someone who’s got a different story archetype. In fact, that’s another way to confirm that you’ve identified your archetype.

(2) Instead of looking through “101 killer email subject lines,” create your own templates. Find successful marketers who share your story archetype. Get a sense of the style and content of their subject lines.

(3) Review your past subject lines. Do they seem to be written by several different people … or are they consistently following your brand? While it’s important to be consistent, you may have a good reason to offer a radically different headline. For instance, you might be promoting someone else as an affiliate.

Do you have any examples from your own inbox? Add a note to the comments below.

Alexis Rodrigo recognizes that templates rarely work for effective email marketing. If someone’s style doesn’t match yours, you’re probably better off creating your own. Check out Alexi Ridrigo’s SMART Emails course. 

Learn more aboout story archetypes at http://CathyGoodwin.com/arch

And if you’d like to work with me on building your own story-based brand, check out the Story Consultation.

For instance, some apartment buildings and condos have set quiet hours. Often you’ll see messages and signs along the lines of: “11 AM to 7 PM are quiet hours. NO loud music. NO parties. Violators will be fined, tossed out the fifth floor window, or burned at the stake.”

I’m joking about the last parts (hopefully), but we’ve all seen those notices. So I was really impressed with the way the Washington Hilton does it:

“Please be courteous to sleeping guests because our sunrise is monumental.”

Nice play on the word “monumental,” too.

In longer marketing content, you can wrap your tough message in a warm fuzzy story. Here’s an example from my book on storytelling:

Marketing coach Connie Ragen Green likes to say, “To succeed in business, you need to be disciplined.” She softens this potentially harsh message with a story:

Growing up, she rarely had to follow a schedule. But when she got to college, she was overwhelmed by the demands on her time. A professor advised her, “Get some discipline.” And she’s been doing it ever since.

And now the word “discipline” no longer evokes images of whips, chains, and dungeons…or even your old-fashioned high school.

Connie is a Role Model archetype (explanation here). She shares stories about her own life lessons. Role Model archetypes tend to follow the common wisdom to “be vulnerable.”

As an Educator archetype, I might communicate a message about self-discipline with examples of how our environment can sabotage our best intentions for getting work done.

Did you know that being tired makes it harder to exercise willpower and make good choices? In a research study, tired people were more likely to opt for chocolate cake over fruit salad at dessert time. What’s your tough message?

That’s the kind of story Educator archetypes thrive on.

And if you haven’t discovered how to use storytelling to build your brand, forget what you’ve heard about being vulnerable and sharing your hero’s journey.  Here’s where to learn the best techniques and tips that help you reach your audience and inspire them to take action.