Facts may work in a courtroom but they rarely work in marketing.
Still, amateur marketers believe that all they need to do is to recite a fact to make marketing successful.
Stats like 65,000 likes, 2 million views, 500 comments for a social media campaign rarely equate to business conversions.
If facts were enough, no one would sms whilst driving, everyone would be exercising and every health practitioner would wash their hands because there are enough facts to prove why we should do those things.
On the other hand, storytelling wins all the time.
You see someone become fit with exercising. You say, “That is inspirational”, and you are moved to exercise.
You share a story of a patient who died, not because of the disease he or she had, but because the health practitioner who was looking after the patient did not wash his/her hands and the patient got infected. You become careful about washing hands.
Why and why are we moved by storytelling?
It is simple, because it feels right, not because it is right and factual.
As Seth Godin says,
Your position on just about everything is based on the story you tell yourself, not some universal fact from the universal fact database.
So then, why are we so fact obsessed?
Because it is easy. What is harder is emotional labour that comes with storytelling.
"I attended your story telling course some time back. And I've enjoyed keeping up my knowledge with your blog. You may not have realised however, that the Whole of Government is implementing Internet Seperation. Hence I'm not able to access the links to read your articles. Could I suggest including a QR code in your emails so that I can use my mobile to scan it and gain immediate access to the article? It would be most helpful"
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