I come from a family of story tellers where each one tries to top the embellishments of the one before them… as we all have our own version of a shared memory. And 80 years comes with lots of memories. There were war-time stories of my uncle’s life as an MP in Japan (I still have my Japanese porcelain baby doll that he sent back for me). There were the vacation stories when the youngest cousin almost drowned (funny now… but not at the time). We compared movies (visual stories) that had made an impact on our lives. We poked fun at our youthful antics and marveled that we lived to tell the tales.

It was a reminder to me of how stories have a unique power over us. Even the great-grandchildren frequently found their way into the circle as they listened to the narratives. We are all drawn to stories, especially when they reveal a layer that we didn’t know about or teach us something new or just show us something about ourselves. It was a great reminder to me that I need to use more stories in my own writing.

As you work with your marketing messages, instead of including bullet points of how great you are… let a story do that by telling how a client was helped by your product or service. Or perhaps you should begin gathering testimonials… first-person stories… that you can include in in your promotional materials. As you work on your marketing messages this year, pratice telling your own stories to make your emails come alive.

I know I’ll remember the stories for years to come.