Who doesn’t love a good story?

Kids love stories. Teenagers love stories. Adults love stories. Different people might prefer them to be packaged in different ways – in TV episodes, comic books, movies, romance novels, whatever – but everyone loves to be swept away by a well-told narrative that gives the imagination a little exercise.

Since it’s easy to hook someone in with a story, including one is an excellent strategy for your direct mail marketing pieces.

It Worked For Them

Just ask the parade of people who purchased The Wall Street Journal after reading a direct mail piece by Martin Conroy that incorporated a now-famous story. You can check out the full text of the story in this article, but in a nutshell, Conroy presented a little narrative comparing two men who graduated from the same university but experienced different levels of success. Conroy’s letter then argued that knowledge leads to success and that such knowledge could be found in The Wall Street Journal.

Now, Conroy certainly could have just started the letter off with his point – knowledge leads to success so buy The Wall Street Journal and gain knowledge – and gone from there. And the letter probably would have been a lot more succinct and the printing company could have saved some ink. But the letter would have been so much less effective. Abstract concepts like “knowledge” and “success” probably aren’t going to draw a reader in. But a story might.

Weave Your Own Tale

So, next time you mail out a marketing letter, tap into your creative side and try starting with a story. Depending on your business, it could be anything from a true anecdote to a story about a random fictional job interviewee named Gerald to a piece set in a fantasy world. But if you can lure them in with a compelling story, chances are good that they’ll want to stay around to see how it ends.