You can’t be a successful eCommerce marketer if you don’t understand the importance of storytelling. And when it comes to converting new shoppers who are sitting on your site right now nothing matters more than a good compelling, delicious story.

Why storytelling matters

68% of your site visitors are new (Databox survey). These are people who have a need but don’t know who you are.

How new visitors behave

Shoppers search on Google, see a list of results and right click and open in new tabs:

If what they see on your landing page doesn’t inspire they’ll exit. It’s how we all shop (yourself included).

Story impact

The difference between an average and good story is 512x.

One word of caution

Let’s get one thing out of the way when we say storytelling we’re not talking about fabricating facts. Every product innovation has a compelling origin story. Unfortunately, creators are so close to it they forget how special it is. They don’t think it’s relevant to talk about the 38 times their prototype failed. They don’t feel comfortable nerding out about their passion. But these are precisely the things your audience is looking to connect over. 

How to increase conversions and sales with storytelling

Stories can be big and broad but in the course of A/B testing hundreds of ideas we’ve discovered that there are two aspects of stories that have the most meaningful impact on improving conversion rates when it comes to converting new buyers. These are:

Why we exist, and

Why this product must exist

As we’ve seen above in the previous article (How to Increase Online Conversions and Sales) shoppers are inundated with choices and this means that when they come to your site no matter how unique you may think you are they’ve seen a version of it before.

Paradoxically, because shoppers are inundated with mass produced experiences they crave something authentic.

Furthermore, because online experiences lack human touch anything that humanizes the experience affects at a deeper emotional level.

This is why stories that connect with emotions matter.

Think of your site as a huddle race where the shopper has to overcome hurdles before they are ready to pull out a credit card.

The first hurdle is “who are you and why should I care” and this is what “why we exist” section answers.

Once they’ve bought your “why we exist” story they are ready to explore your product page(s). Here, another question comes into focus, “I like you and understand why you exist but what makes your product the best?”

This is what the “why this product must exist” question answers.

Extracting the story

In our experience working with clients we find that while they have a really compelling story they often are unaware of it or shy to talk about it. To overcome this natural hesitation we like to role-play with the client. Fill in the blanks:

___________ is sitting at an upscale bar enjoying a delicious cocktail. It’s been a good week.

I sit next to you. You notice my clearly expensive suit.

We get talking and hit it off. You tell me about your business. I smile and lean in with interest.

Turns out, I’ve been looking for __________. This is a crazy moment of serendipity.

Visited plenty of online review sites, seen plenty of products but just didn’t fight the right model. If anything, there are too many options out there, I’m paralyzed by choice.

Mind if I play around on your site? You say, “absolutely!”

I take out my phone and start playing with the site. I’m clearly intrigued. You don’t want to be rude so you just enjoy your drink.

20 minutes later I’m ready to ask my questions:

— Were you surprised such a product didn’t already exist?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— Like you, I’m a business owner, and running a business is hard as hell. What keeps you going? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— What was the most complicated part of the baking steel development process? Were there parts that turned out to be way more complicated than anticipated?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— How important is it that you exist? What would the world miss out on if you didn’t exist?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— What are your guiding principles?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— When you talk to customers who have bought and used __________ what feature or part of the experience do they seem most surprised by?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— Which of your competitors is doing the best job? Who do you admire? 1: Why are they succeeding? 2: What can we learn from them?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

— Sites like __________ and _________ can outspend you online. They will always show up #1 in a Google search. How do you plan to deal with that?

Your reply: __________________________________________________

These aren’t all the questions one can ask. These are just the most common ones. You’ll need to expand on this list to cover the topics you want to explore in your story.

Next step

Now that you understand the building blocks of a good story we need to learn how to increase it’s potency using principles of buyer psychology. That part is explained in this article: Use buyer psychology to tell more effective stories.