“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” Jimmy Neil Smith

Have you noticed all the books being written about “story marketing” these days?

Heck, I just bought a handful of them myself. (yeah, I’ll probably never read them). But titles like ‘Winning The Story Wars’ ‘How To Sell With A Story’ & ‘Storynomics…’

C’mon we’ve heard …facts tell, stories sell, right!?

There’s nothing more powerful in this world – if you want to influence someone – than to tell your personal story. That’s why every good sales webinar and every good sales letter includes an “a little about me” part.

Why? well for a couple of reasons…

For starters, stories capture and hold your audience’s attention, they create an instant connection between you and your audience, and they shine a spotlight on your audience’s pain, fears, and hopes.

And get this! Stories give your audience an escape route and position YOU as the answer to their struggles, their way out.

It works like this…

As you begin to reveal your own personal story or struggle, you begin to pull your audience in – because they then begin to relate their own pains and struggles to yours – they become one with you.

Then, as you show them how you broke through your pain and struggles to finally achieve your goals, your audience will grab hold of your story and will begin to start seeing themselves overcoming their struggles as well.

And more importantly…

..they will see YOU as the person who can now help them (if they do what you tell them to do)

Powerful, right?

Now, what if you can start leveraging the power of stories in your ads?

Do you think you’d begin to start seeing massive results? (vs. spamming friends and “like-minded” people)

Heck, do people don’t open up their Facebook just to get spammed? No, they go to Facebook to be entertained. They want to share what they’re up to with the world and see what their friends are up to as well.

And what do stories do? Yep, they entertain.

So if you want to start creating ads that actually get people to know, like, and trust you (almost instantly) on social media –  then you need to start learning how to write a kick A$$$ Facebook story ad.

And in order to help you to do just that, you need to see what a Facebook story ad looks like. Let’s go…

By the way, I’m sharing with you a post by Mark Harbert (at markharbert.com) Mark is a successful home-business owner and trainer. Although Mark’s specialty is video marketing, he is pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to everything and anything getting more leads for your business using the internet.

see Marks original post by clicking here

Mark’s Example Story Ad

image by: Mark Harbert

As you can see, Mark rocked it with this single ad!

O.K. so now that you know what an effective story ad looks like, let’s break it down in 4 simple steps so you can learn how to write a winning ad for your business.

How To Create An Effective Facebook Story Ad In 4 Simple Steps

by Mark Harbert

Step #1: Get Their Attention!!

“So what grabs attention best on Facebook?

Think of YOUR time on Facebook. What makes you stop when you’re scrolling through your feed? If you’re like 99% of all other Facebook users (which you are), then you probably scroll through looking at pictures right?

That will be your main attention grabber! You want to choose an image that’s going to stop your potential prospects dead in their scrolling tracks.

One thing that us humans love (besides cute puppies, of course, see my ad example below) are other humans. Is an instinctual appeal to humans because we’re always looking to connect.

So using an image of a person is always a great start. That, of course, can be YOU, or someone else who you’re story will be about!

Regular old lifestyle pictures work best on Facebook. Again people can smell a sales message a mile away. They want to see photos of people doing things people actually do. These are called lifestyle pictures.”

Step #2: Get Them Wanting To Read more with your opening sentence.

“In your Facebook ad, your opening sentence will act much like your headline. Only you don’t want it to look like a sales message, so you need to hook them in with your first sentence.

  • “I still remember it like it was yesterday…”
  • “I’ll never forget the day I walked into the kitchen, my worried wife staring blankly into the refrigerator, saying the words “The baby needs food.”
  • “It was one year ago today my 2-year-old daughter touched my belly, playfully pinched me, and said, “Mommy you’re fat!”

All those opening sentences above lead with a dramatic event and set the stage for what’s to come next. They leave you wanting to know what happens next (hopefully).

That’s what an opening sentence does. It sucks people in wanting to know more!”

Step #3: Draw Them Into Your Struggle!  

“If you’ve identified your market properly, then your audience will recognize and insert themselves in your story.

They’ll recognize the upcoming struggle that’s about to come in your story, and they’ll want to know how it ends. The body of your story ad should tell that story.

Here’s an example of how that might start…

“When my wife closed the refrigerator door, and looked at me, I immediately felt like the biggest loser in the world.

There was a total of $7 in my Paypal account, hardly enough to run out and buy the food we needed.

It shook me on a level I never thought I’d have to experience.

I knew at that moment something had to drastically change. I also knew that it was my fault that we were in this mess. Besides the immediately problem of getting food on the table, I promised myself that this would NEVER happen again.

That night was one of not just tons of serious soul searching, but the night of the most important Google searches I’d ever made.”…

Through the rest of the story, you can explain how the hero was able to find help, someone to help him learn to grow his business online. How he got busy, and for 90 days figured out how to create online videos that attracted endless prospects to him, changing his business forever, and therefore his family’s life (that’s a summary!)”

Step #4: Tell Them What To Do Next

Of course, the goal for all marketing should ultimately be to get a lead or sale. Your best bet is to always get the lead and their contact info (email, phone, or FB Messenger) to have permission to contact them over and over!

So you’ve basically got to tell them where they can go to get the solution to the problem that they just read your story to solve.”

It might look like this…

“Click below to see the marketing solution that changed my life in just 90 days”

“Click below to get the exact solution I used to lose those 10 extra pounds”

If You’re Not Using Story Ads In Your Business Your Missing Out!

And now that you know what a story ad is…be on the lookout! I bet you’ll start noticing them all over your Facebook news feed now.

Start paying attention to the photos. Start looking to see if the text in the ad leads to a story.

And remember, storytelling is a learned skill, so just keep practicing until you write a winner.

One more thing. If you’re interested in learning all about Facebook ads I recommend you pick up my FREE 21 page Facebook marketing cheat sheet and start getting leads today.

Get The Cheat Sheet Here

Speak Soon,

Randy Ross

via How to Create Facebook Story Ads That Grab Attention and Get Leads on DEMAND!