A good story will be far more effective than any list of facts and it will be remembered long after the facts have disappeared. Back in 2019 I read about Major Tunde, the lost Nigerian astronaut. I still remember the story to this day, long after the facts have faded.
Ohh how I laughed.
I saw a report several years ago about a Nigerian astronaut who’s been trapped in space since 1990, when he went on a secret mission.
His cousin only needed $3,000,000 to pay for a rescue mission, which will be repaid as it can come out of his $15,000,000 salary he’s accumulated since he went to space.
It’s probably the funniest scam email I’ve read, (sorry to spoil it for you!), but still some people will fall for it.
You can read all about it here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nigerian-astronaut-lost-in-space/
Why?
Because it’s built around a good story that might, just might, be plausible.
“His other Soviet crew members returned to Earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humour, but wants to come home.”
Before you laugh too much, just think for a moment if the email was about a secret CIA mission and an American astronaut was left orbiting the Earth. How many conspiracy theorists would have latched onto it by now and be demanding an enquiry?
Some people want to believe, they want a bit of whimsy in their lives. Others are greedy and want to make a quick buck. The standard Nigerian prince scam has been working for years, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t got an email from a prince or a banker with access to millions of dollars and just needs a bit of help to release the funds.
And yet if they weren’t successful, they would have dried up years ago. Advance Fee Fraud (to give it its more common name) still costs victims billions of dollars. I am sure that most people suspect they might be getting scammed, but never underestimate the power of a good story.
That is the whole point of this article… start using stories and build your content around them. You’ll grab people's attention and hold it for much longer than a dry boring article full of facts.
Your stories don’t need to be epic or far-fetched, they just need to be memorable or entertaining. On the one hand, I’ve told stories about afternoon tea with famous fire-starting musicians who turned out to be polite, and generous and not at all like their stage persona, on the other, I wrote an 800-word email based on the hunt for a ripe avocado at the local supermarkets.
The only things they need to do are to entertain and keep the reader reading to the end, where you can present a lesson and the day’s offer.
Story => Lesson => Offer.
The skill isn’t in the telling of the story, frankly, it can be about anything you want… the skill is to turn that story into a lesson.
Look back at this article; I started with a story about Major Tunde, it’s what you’ll remember later, I then used that story to talk about how you need to use stories to get your audience to the lesson, which was to use stories in your writing in case you missed it and finally it got you to this point in the article where I can remind you…
That there are only a few copies of Write to Earn left at the launch price, and the new module is being added next week once the price goes up… you’ll get the new module included at the launch price. (The new module is all about how to write articles and emails that convert readers to buyers) Drum roll, maestro, please.
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