The Intrigue-Story-Go Method: Effectively deliver your message.
Intrigue
This is anything that grabs your audience’s attention. It might be an action-packed opening to your fiction novel, or it might be a compelling question that gets a client to question a certain aspect of their life. Whatever it is, it should be designed to incite a deep urge within the person consuming your message to continue reading, watching, listening, click the button or whatever action you want them to initially take. It’s simple to think about but rather difficult to execute.
With the proliferation of online sales, we all have a keen eye for sales copy. We’ve all seen the ads that scream “Buy my stuff!” from an unauthentic mouth hungry for your dollars. If what you offer is action and adventure, then you better give it to them instantly like in the Flash example. If they want to lose weight, you have to intrigue them to ask, “Is this the person that will help me lose weight?” If you want your first date to believe you are a great person, you have 30-60 seconds upon meeting to give that great first impression.
If they don’t believe within the next few seconds that you can answer the question they ask, they’ll keep scrolling or ghost you when you ask for a second date.
Once you intrigue them with your opening conversation, scene, headline or fifteen second video, you must answer their next question,
“What’s in it for me?”
They’re interested in reading, watching, or listening to more but if you don’t answer this question they will move on. Remember, we all know that if we scroll past one piece of content, another just like it from a competitor will follow right behind yours. This is the same with personal and business relationships. If you don’t get it right for that person, someone else will. The key to all intriguing messages is to deliver them with as much authenticity as possible. Don’t be like the guy whose only desire is to sell you his product or service. It’s easy to see he’s only in it for himself. If your why is truly important to you, it is something other than personal gain for yourself, and you don’t do what the shady sales guy tells you to do, then your why will also be important to your audience.
When you answer your audience’s question, “What’s in it for me?”, you have to simply tell them what’s in it for them. If the question you get them to ask is how to lose weight, then tell them how to lose weight. If it’s, “What happens next?”, then make sure you give them a way to see what happens next. Your messages should never include “I”, such as, “I want you to do this,” or “I am so great at doing that.” Always phrase it in a way that focuses their attention on themselves, because let’s face it, most people are only concerned with themselves and their own issues. They don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. They just want what they want, and they can believe you will give it to them or they will find someone else that can. Believe in yourself and your why. Speak from your heart even if your content is a cartoon or quote graphic. Ensure you get what you feel into the minds of your audience and they will trust you and consume your message.
Story
Everyone loves a good story. This is the meat of what your goal is – your “story” is the plot, the education, the health or whatever your goal delivers. It is what you are trying to convey, to do or is a solution to a problem.
Anyone that can educate, entertain, and inspire with their stories will be immensely successful.
When you incorporate stories to whatever it is you do, your message will be exponentially more powerful. When you craft your message in story form, you have the power to engage your audience’s attention in an entertaining and memorable way. With even the briefest of stories you can subtly include everything you want the listeners to know about you such as interweaving relevant experience and influential facts that help them relate to you and your offering.
To further relate who you are in all your messaging, add your personal successes in story form to show you can help your audience realize the benefits of continuing to listen. Tell stories about challenges or failures that you overcame that your audience just so happens to share. Tell how what you learned from that failure can help them avoid it.
I can’t emphasize how important framing your initial message to be interesting is to your success. Express who you are with a fascinating story. Perhaps, tell the story in a meaningful video. Intrigue your intended audience or you will lose them – possibly forever. In the story phase, you answer your audience’s questions and if you’re are especially creative, you answer them in a way they didn’t expect.
There aren’t many second chances in this fast-paced world. If you don’t intrigue your audience and provide a compelling and interesting story, they will lose the benefit of your great thing which could be detrimental to them. However, your audience will never know because your message was substandard. It was rubbish. It couldn’t catch water with a bucket. You get the point. Don’t spend all your time and effort developing something amazing and then let it die with a poor message. It’s not selling if your audience needs it. It’s not begging if you believe intently that if they don’t hear you, they will be worse off.
You have to put in at least as much effort in getting your message out as you did to finish the entire project.
“But I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what words to use,” you may say. It’s ok. Most people say that and use it as an excuse to avoid the work in creating a great message.
People are always looking for something that will improve their lives. However, most people don’t know what that thing is and most of the time it’s not a thing in the first place or other people they think they need. Most think it’s something or someone that will make them “happy”, so they watch entertaining videos or episodes to live vicariously through the actors or go on terrible dates or enter difficult relationships. These “things” activate a place in their brain that temporarily satisfies the desire they want.
Many others look for stuff to buy to make them happy. But what they don’t realize is something I mentioned earlier but worth saying again, happiness is already in them. They simply need to choose to express it. But they don’t know or believe this is possible, so they continue to look for stuff and meaningless relationships – over and over again. Hopefully, your final product will help them find the thing they need but you must first give them what they think they want.
20%/80% Rule
Knowing the truth about first giving them what they want then what they need is powerful in getting your message to your audience. When you craft your message, you must show them what they want in an image, video, or compelling words. Once you catch their attention, you must give them at least 20% of what they’re looking for on your first contact with them. Only then will you be able to deliver the 80% that will be what they actually need. There’s no better way. You have to give them some portion of what they want. But that’s often not what they need. They need your completed project; they just don’t know it until they stop to find out. Once you get them to stop and give them what they want, there’s a good chance they’ll stick around for what they need, especially if you mix in their need throughout their want.
Something else to supercharge your messaging is to acquire the ability to enter the conversations your audience is already having in their heads.
When you think about what you should say, think about your audience and what they are constantly thinking about. This shouldn’t be too hard especially if you created a product or service intended for them.
There’s a good chance you had or are still having those conversations with yourself. You may have created your project because it solves a problem you once struggled with. I wanted an AI powered investment platform that could crunch data better than I can, so I built it.
What to say doesn’t involve catchy headlines or sales tactics. It only has to do with you entering the conversation that they are already having which is probably one you’ve had with yourself and answered with your project.
So, when you’re creating your message, don’t waste time on a boring self-interested intro. Open with that business failure and what happened after that gave you the skills to help them in their business. Get them to identify with you, to say “me too” to the stories you tell them – the stories that each of them has gone or are going through. You know when you’re doing this as you look into a crowd of nodding heads. Then you know you’ve entered the conversation they are having regarding human resources, accounting, marketing, advertising, or whatever it is that you do.
You intrigue them with your compelling story and enter the existing conversation. If you don’t have that particular story because you are young and inexperienced, you can either wait until you have that experience, which I don’t recommend, or you can use someone else’s such as a mentor, friend or biography from someone well known. Stories are powerful regardless of who’s in them. Tell a compelling story. Enter the conversation. Give them what they want and what they need in an interesting way and you’ll have the influence you need to achieve anything.
Go
The Go of Intrigue – Story – Go is exactly what you think it is. Once you Intrigue someone by understanding them on their level and then tell them a Story that enters the conversation they are already having with themselves, the next step is to get them to Go do it – whatever it is you want them to do.
Your Go for your audience may be to sign up for your course or maybe stick around to hear another song or get a second date,
Whatever it is, you first intrigued them to listen then you told a story and now you want them to go do something. This is the case in each part of your goal.
Intrigue – Story – Go works for any message you want to effectively convey. Start working now on each part in relation to the goals you are now closer to achieving.