“I don’t know what to write.”
If you’ve ever sat down to draft an email to your audience, stared at the blinking cursor, and felt your mind go completely blank, you’re not alone. I hear this from business owners all the time.
You might have years of experience.
You might have helped hundreds or thousands of customers.
You might know your industry inside out.
But when it’s time to write a marketing email… nothing.
Here’s the good news: the problem usually isn’t that you have nothing to say.
But when it’s time to write a marketing email… nothing. This can make you feel frustrated or unmotivated, but understanding that storytelling taps into your natural strengths can inspire confidence.
Telling stories.
Once you stop trying to sound like a marketer and start sharing real stories, writing becomes easier, helping your audience feel more connected and trusting.
Why Story-Based Emails Work So Well
Think about the last email you actually read all the way through.
Chances are, it wasn’t:
- A dry list of “5 tips to improve X”
- A feature dump about some product
- A random collection of links to blogs, podcasts, or videos
It was probably a story.
Maybe it made you feel something: curiosity, empathy, recognition. Sharing stories that evoke these feelings can make your emails more compelling and memorable.
That’s the power of storytelling in email marketing:
- Stories make people care.
- When people care, they keep reading.
- When they keep reading, they click, reply, and buy.
- And when your stories stick with them, they remember you.
Facts tell. Stories sell.
If your emails feel flat or are getting ignored, adding a story is often the missing ingredient.
A Simple 3-Part Framework for Storytelling Emails
You don’t need to be a professional writer to tell a good story.
Most effective story-based emails follow a simple three-part structure:
- Person with a problem
- Introduce someone (you, a client, or someone you know) facing a problem your reader can relate to.
- The person tries something
- Show what they did to try to solve or change the situation. This is the journey.
- What happened
- Share the outcome and the lesson learned—the insight, solution, or shift that made a difference.
Let’s look at what this looks like in practice.
The “Bad” Email: Tips With No Story
Here’s what many business owners default to:
“5 tips for better productivity.
Tip 1: Start your day earlier.
Tip 2: Use a calendar.
Tip 3: Track your time…”
There’s nothing wrong with these tips, but it’s just so boring.
There’s no emotional hook, no reason to care, no sense that this matters to the reader right now. It’s just information, and in a crowded inbox, information alone rarely wins attention.
The Story-Based Email: Same Idea, More Impact
Now here’s the story version:
“Last month, I missed my son’s baseball game because I was overloaded with client work. It wasn’t the first time. That night, I made a promise that it wouldn’t happen again. I made one simple change to my weekly project scheduling, and I haven’t missed a game since. Here’s what I changed…”
What’s different?
- It starts with a specific moment.
- There’s an emotional stake (missing a child’s game).
- There’s a problem (overload, poor boundaries, no system).
- There’s a promise of a solution (“one simple change”).
You’re hooked, because you want to know:
- What did they change?
- Could this help me too?
The content that follows can share the same “tips,” but now those tips are anchored in a real, human story. That’s what makes the email memorable and compelling.
“But I Don’t Have Any Stories…”
You might be thinking: That’s nice, but I don’t have any interesting stories to tell.
You do.
Every part of your business and personal journey is packed with stories your audience would find valuable, if you learn how to identify relatable moments from your experiences and frame them effectively.
Here are some places to look:
- Client transformations
- A stressed client you helped overcome a major challenge
- Someone who went from stuck to successful because of your product or service
- Mistakes and lessons learned
- A decision that backfired—and what it taught you
- A time you dropped the ball but came back stronger
- Customer service moments
- Turning a bad customer experience into a win for everyone
- A time you went above and beyond for a client
- Your origin story
- Why you started your business in the first place
- The moment you realised, “I have to do this differently”
- Behind-the-scenes moments
- A challenge you’re currently working through
- A change you made in your own process or mindset
These don’t need to be dramatic, life-or-death situations.
In fact, ordinary stories are often the most relatable.
If your audience sees themselves in the struggles you share, they’ll lean in.
How to Turn a Story Into Your Next Email
Next time you sit down to write a marketing email and feel stuck, ask yourself one simple question:
“What story can I tell?”
Then, use this simple structure:
- Start with a person
- This might be you, a client, or someone from your community.
- Make it human and specific: a name, a moment, a scene.
- Give them a problem your audience recognises
- Something your ideal reader has felt themselves:
- Overwhelm
- Confusion
- Frustration
- Fear of making the wrong choice
- The more concrete the problem, the better.
- Something your ideal reader has felt themselves:
- Show what they tried—and what happened next
- What did they do differently?
- What tool, mindset, offer, or process did they use?
- What was the outcome—good, bad, surprising?
- Tie it back to how you can help
- End by connecting the story to your product, service, or expertise:
- “If you’re in a similar spot, here’s how I can help…”
- “This is exactly what we work on inside [your program/service].”
- “If you want to avoid [problem] and get to [result] faster, here’s your next step…”
- End by connecting the story to your product, service, or expertise:
This last part is crucial.
Story for its own sake is entertainment.
Story with a clear link to how you help is effective email marketing, but ensure your stories balance entertainment with genuine value to build trust and avoid sounding overly promotional.
What Story-Based Emails Can Do for Your Business
When you consistently send story-driven emails instead of generic “marketing messages,” you’ll start to notice real changes in how people interact with you:
- You’ll have much higher open rates
- People remember you as “the one who tells good stories,” not “the one who sends boring newsletters.”
- More engagement
- Stories naturally invite replies like, “This is exactly what I’m going through,” or “I needed this today.”
- More clicks
- When your lessons and offers are grounded in real human experiences, your links feel like an extension of the story—not a hard sell.
- More sales, without feeling pushy
- When people see themselves in your stories and believe your solution worked for someone like them, your offers feel safer and more relevant.
Most importantly, story-based emails deepen trust and connection. Your audience stops seeing you as just another brand and starts seeing you as a real person who understands them.
Your Next Step: Tell A Simple Story
You don’t need to change your entire email strategy.
On your next email, try this:
- Use a true story from your business or life:
- A moment of frustration
- A recent win
- A client breakthrough
- A behind-the-scenes change you made
- Use my the three-part framework:
- Person with a problem
- Person tries something
- What happened (and what it means)
- Close with a single, clear next step:
- Hit reply and tell me if this resonates
- Click here to learn more about [your offer]
- Book a call / grab the free resource / start a trial
Your story doesn’t need to be big, dramatic, or perfectly written. It just needs to be real.