… listened to an election-related anecdote on the radio.

You know, the kind where they interview some random person who has had an experience that supports the position of one of the candidates.

The anecdotes are offered as evidence.

Of course, they are nothing of the sort. One person’s experience (or even those of one thousand persons) in a country of 320 million is beyond immaterial.

You may as well trot out somebody who was bitten by a runaway lobster in the supermarket and claim that it’s indicative of “a growing trend of rogue lobster attacks.”

And yet it’s very persuasive. Because we like and understand stories way more than we like and understand statistics.

If you’re relying on statistics at the expense of stories in your marketing, you’ll find it equally hard to persuade prospective lobsters. I mean clients.