Big messages don’t always need a big story

There’s a few core memories I have across my life where I’ve had that true click moment with a learning. I find these are often stored away in my mind, almost forgotten, until my brain somehow sieves through all the pointless stories I’d like to keep and brings them back to the forefront just when I needed to hear that advice again.

One of these golden nuggets came back to me as I’ve been repositioning my own business.

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I was in my A level English Lit class and my teacher, your stereotypically eccentric, mid forties female, handed me back an assignment with the simple words of “big messages don’t always need a big story” on it.

Having been in the midst of texts from the most profound authors with the biggest writing legacies, think Emily Bronte and Shakespeare, I wasn’t really thinking of anything but BIG stories, so I found this feedback pretty confusing.

The classic English Literature A-level books I was engrossed in.

We’d been set an assignment to write an essay about being faced with a decision, either in first person, or third person. Ultimately conveying a lesson about decision making, but doing so in no more than 1,000 words.

I approached this by trying to write a third-party story about a man who had to decide whether or not to turn his elderly fathers life support machine off when he was in a coma. Heavy hitting stuff. But what better way to portray decision making in action than one of the biggest decisions you could ever make right?

After handing back our papers, my teacher did her usual spiel on different writing techniques we could’ve used in our story to get across our points, and then put up an example from another girl in the class. She had written her essay in first person, about seeing a woman drop a £10 note, with the decision of keeping it for herself or chasing down the woman to return it.

Her essay was perfect. Using such a trivial decision allowed her to really get to the point of her essay. Where I had spent half of my words just setting the scene of the decision and trying to get the reader on my journey, I was in her world within the first two lines. We’ve all had that exact same decision to make before, and so we were so easily transported into her shoes. Allowing her to spend the majority of the article explaining the message she wanted you to take away.

If you’d have read my story, you’d probably come away feeling sad and a bit stressed about the potential of ever being in my example scenario. But after reading hers, you came away understanding, and likely agreeing, with her message on how to make decisions. You’d definitely have wanted to follow up with her more.

Reminding myself that sometimes the simplest stories are the most effective

Since I’ve started my own business, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get people onto my same page. Trying to deliver those big hit stories that capture attention and stop people in their tracks (or from scrolling their Instagram feeds). But my brain reminded me of this story at the perfect time. Big messages don’t always need a big story.

I’m never going to pretend that I am the only person out there offering my services (website design and business strategy). I’m just one of many solutions in the sea of service providers. So in order to connect with my customers, they need to be able to see themselves in my solution and in my story. They need to be able to connect with the examples that I give, the reflections I have, and the journey I want to take them on.

Whilst big stories may seem like a fail-safe way of capturing attention, if it’s not a relatable story, it’s a fail-certain way to not convert that attention. And if you’re not converting, you don’t have a business.

My new marketing tactic (yet to be trialled or proven by myself), will be to get back to basics. To focus on the simplest way to portray my message. Whether that’s the transformation I can deliver or the learning I want people to take away. I should be able to get people onto my same page instantly. Especially if I am always talking to my same target customer, there should be no real work needed to get them onto that page. No “are you a X struggling with Y?” first slide on my IG carousel or line on my website. And definitely no long paragraph describing to them what their current scenario likely is. They already know that and should be able to instantly see themselves in my story. Just straight to the point of my message, and the ending transformation I can provide.

Because you don’t need to use the biggest example available to make the biggest point possible. You need the example that your reader will be able to connect with. They need to be able to see themselves in your solution.

My customers aren’t coming to me with a life or death decision. Just a question of what they do next with their business. So I may be over ten years late, but I’m finally ready to take my teachers advice. From now on, I will focus on presenting my message, rather than using up all my word count to reaffirm the readers problem.

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