This guest post is by Amy of Harrisonamy.com
From Jack and the Beanstalk, to Little Red Riding Hood, to Cinderella, fairytales have been enchanting audiences for thousands of years. They are constantly being retold, modified and even made into blockbuster movies. Despite their apparent simplicity, they enrapture and engage audiences time and time again.
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1. Create desire
Every fairy story starts with some desire. Whether it’s Cinderella wanting to go to the ball, a poor man wanting to be king, or a girl taking some food to Grandma’s house, the story starts with a desire for something.
No enchanting tale starts without some kind of hope, dream, want, or wish. Even if it’s the wish for things to stay the same, the characters have to want something.
So how does this relate to your blog? Well your customers are reading your articles because they also want and are hoping for something, whether it’s entertainment, advice, or tips on a particular subject.
One of the best ways to stimulate that desire is by using your headline to show them that you have something they will want. For example:
- 7 Ways To Go To The Ball If You Are A Beautiful But Poor Step-Sister
- The Best Way To Get To Grandma’s House While Avoiding Wolves
- How To Get Your Magic Beans To Grow In Just 2 Days
2. Overcome challenges
In every good story, there’s some kind of challenge or obstacle and your blog readers are experiencing the same thing.
The challenge is usually stopping them achieve what they truly desire. Red Riding Hood had to face the wolf, Cinderella had to get past her wicked step-sisters and Jack had to try and get round the giant to get his treasure.
So what is it that your blog readers desire and what is their ugly step-sister, wolf, or ogre that stops them? Perhaps your blog readers desire more traffic but are confused by the different methods to attract more readers. Or perhaps they want to write a novel but are getting stuck with writer’s block.
When writing a blog post, ask yourself what challenges come between your audience and what they desire, and how you can help overcome them.
3. Give them a hero to help
You might not be a woodcutter, a fairy godmother, or a king, but on your blog, you are your reader’s hero! Heroes have experience, knowledge, and special skills, and your blog is the perfect place to show your readers that you are the right person to help them on their adventure by:
- explaining how you’ve done something that they want to do
- pointing out mistakes you’ve made on the way so others can avoid them
- giving them shortcuts and tips to get results quicker than learning first hand.
If your audience grows to see you as their own fairy godmother of marketing, crafts, or blogging, they’ll want to keep coming back for more.
4. A transformation
Fairy tales always include some kind of transformation. It might be a pumpkin into a chariot, or a wolf into an old lady, but the most popular transformations are the ones that satisfy our desire for the fairytale ending.
So we love Cinderella becoming a princess, or Aladdin becoming a prince, and your readers are also looking for a positive transformation when they visit your site.
For example, after reading your blog post:
- Can they do something they didn’t do before?
- Do they feel better and inspired, or not so alone?
- Do they have access to resources that will give them results?
Try and give some form of transformation, and your reader is more likely to not just enjoy your post but bookmark it and come back to it again and again.
5. A happy ending
Most fairy tales have happy endings. Now that doesn’t mean every blog post you have has to end on a high note, what it means is that your reader should be satisfied that they got what they were looking for.
So if they were coming to your blog for satirical remarks on celebrity relationships, then a photo casebook of embarrassing shots of the latest A-list couple is going to be their happy ending. If others are looking for mediation advice, finding out how to turn their office into a centre of calm is going to be their happy ending.
Consistency in delivering to your audiences expectations is important when writing a blog. You are essentially writing stories every time that you publish and just as we want a happy ending when we decide to read a fairy tale, your customer wants that same consistent experience when reading your blog.
Now it’s over to you. Are you already using these five fairytale elements, or do you have a different approach in writing irresistible content? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
Amy is a copywriter for entrepreneurs and in addition to writing for clients, she coaches others to smash through their copy obstacles and get their message out to their audience. She provides free copywriting and content marketing advice on her website Harrisonamy.com
