Focus on emotions
As science shows, readers feel more connected to stories that engage with their senses. Use them to set the pace in your story, creating a strong emotional connection between you and your audience and stimulating your customers' minds.
It is not the same to say “Pablo kicked the ball” than to say “Pablo, invigorated by the constant encouragement of his imaginary fans, ran with momentum, feeling the wind caress his face and ruffle his hair, leaving his fears behind. And staring into the goalkeeper’s blue eyes, he kicked the ball, which went out like a cannon shot.”
It is the second option that draws our attention the most and leads us to read it to the end.
In order to persuade and stimulate the minds of clients, it is necessary to have their trust. If they netherlands phone number example do not trust what we tell them, we will not be able to change their minds about things. A very natural and effective method of doing this is through personal anecdotes. When the story you tell comes from your personal experience, it is much more credible and trustworthy.
However, more than once we will find ourselves faced with situations in which we do not have enough experience to approach the subject from personal anecdotes (because we do not have them). In these cases, it is advisable to get input from experts on the subject. You can ask someone prominent and well-known in the field to provide you with an illustrative quote or phrase on the subject, or you can cite articles that they have previously published.
In this way, you reinforce your story with a background of experience that, despite not being yours, gives credibility and reliability to your content.
3.- Use stories that people are already familiar with
Creating a narrative for your content to stimulate the minds of customers doesn't necessarily mean you have to use a personal story or create a story from scratch. You can also rely on stories that are already known to your target audience, such as movies, books, TV shows, short stories, contemporary and current events, recent or past history, etc.
There are thousands of stories that your interlocutors already know and you can connect them with those memories to illustrate your point, or exemplify what you say, thereby stimulating other areas of their brains related to long-term memory, to keep their attention on your content.
4.- Simple and good, twice as good.
Just like in the movie “Inception,” where Leonardo DiCaprio and his colleagues try to introduce ideas and concepts into someone else’s mind. You should keep in mind that overly complex stories are very difficult to remember.
If you have a complex concept or idea that you want to share, it's best to break it down into its simplest, most basic components. And from there, craft the narrative to explain it. That way, your interlocutor will be able to remember at least the basic concept and re-elaborate it later based on the story you've told them.
But this doesn't just apply to the concept in general. You should keep it in mind for all your sentences as well. The complexity and length of your sentences sets the pace of the narrative. Too many short and concise sentences make the narrative fast and boring. Flavorless. While sentences that are too complex give the interlocutor no respite and he gets lost in them.
To better understand this point, I share with you a poem (translated) by Gary Provost, quoted in the excellent book “Writing Tools” by Roy Peter Clark:
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. These sentences are fine. But too many together they are monotonous. Listen to what is happening. Writing gets boring. The sound gets drowned out fast. It’s like a scratched record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. As I vary the length of sentences, I make music. Music. The writing sings. It has a nice rhythm, a melodious intonation, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I’m sure the reader is rested, I’ll hook him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the momentum of a crescendo, the beating of drums, the clashing of cymbals – sounds that say listen to this, it’s important.”