What is content storytelling?
“Storytelling” has been being bandied about on marketing buzzword bingo cards for a few years now. If you get that it’s useful, but don’t know where it fits into your marketing plan, read on.
Why does storytelling matter?
Storytelling is, and this genuinely isn’t an overstatement, the backbone of society. Don’t believe me? Consider money, as a prime example.
Money, separate from society, hasn’t got any objective value. If you were stranded on a desert island with a mountain of pound coins, money wouldn’t get you anywhere. You couldn’t fill your belly with quids or use them to build a shelter. Stacks of cold coins won’t be any help keeping you warm on winter nights.
Nope, money only begins to do useful stuff when everybody buys into the same shared fiction and agrees to assign value to pointless chunks of gold, scraps of paper or imaginary numbers on a screen.
So if some clever clogs can change the world by getting the whole of humankind to buy into a fiction that effectively, imagine how powerful your marketing could be if you harness the power of a good story.
I’m not just talking about Once Upon A Time. If you can find a way to utilise the power of a well-told story, you can transform presentations, social posts, print ads, the FAQs page on your site, and everything else in your marketing arsenal from bland to bewitching. From soulless to sparkling. From underwhelming to unputdownable.
Here’s the definition of a story; or, why you should bother reading all these words
Okay, let’s recap real quick. Because reading the rest of this post is largely pointless unless you understand what I mean by storytelling. Obviously, you’d still enjoy reading it, but I’m all about the value alongside the good times.
Storytelling is when all your messaging follows basic narrative rules to build an emotional connection with your brand.
If you aren’t using storytelling to enhance your marketing, you’re missing out on maximised memorability, awesome attentiveness, and potent poignancy for your brand. This isn’t just a flash in the pan marketing scam; storytelling is here to stay.
To get you started, I’m gonna give you a few frameworks you can work within to start to get the hang of storytelling, cover off the basic ingredients that make up decent storytelling, and then go over the best places you can sneakily deposit a dollop of narrative juice into your copy.
How to figure out what story you’re telling
It’s all well and good me pointing out the bare bones of decent storytelling, but I’m kind of assuming you’ve got a decent story to tell. If you’re looking at your brand and wondering where to begin with crafting an engaging, relatable, memorable and authentic narrative, I’ve got three tips to get you started.
1 - Champion your values
Some people call this “finding your brand heart”, but I think that’s way too wanky to say with a straight face. But the point is solid. Cultivate an understanding of your mission, vision, and values to better shout about all that crap.
2 - Create your character cast
Define the hero of your story, get to know your brand’s own role of guide, and figure out how you want those two personas to interact. You should be holding these specific personas in your mind at every point of your story creation, so don’t skimp on the deets here.
3 - Conflict and resolution
One of the simplest ways to make a story compelling is to engineer a gratifying level of conflict against a unified enemy. Can you shout about a challenge you overcame? Or a problem systemic to your industry that you can cast as a villain?
Alternatively, that conflict could be hiding inside your own past stupidity. Adding a level of culpability to the conflict may also serve to humanise your brand and tickle the sympathies of your audience.
Narrative arcs you can use in marketing
There are eight classic narrative techniques that hark back to every piece of fiction since Aesop first put quill to parchment. Those were the days.
The Basics
The Hero’s Journey
Pop culture example: The Lord of the Rings
Act One
The hero hears the call to arms and embarks on their journey. e.g. In "The Lord of the Rings", Frodo discovers the significance of the ring and accepts the quest.
Act Two
The initiation begins and the hero starts to understand the depth of the challenge facing them. e.g. The Fellowship fractures and Frodo sees that the quest will ultimately cost him his life, but he continues anyway.
Act Three
After a final fight with the villain the hero triumphs and then returns, victorious, to normal life. e.g. The battles are fought, the ring is destroyed and Frodo makes his way back to the shire - changed for the better by the quest.
Overcoming the Monster
Act One
The hero discovers the monster and sees it arrive on the scene. e.g. In "Jaws", the big bad shark appears, claims its first victim and the hero realises the scope of the job ahead.
Act Two
The monster arrives and the nightmare begins. The future looks uncertain as the monster seems to triumph. e.g. The shark terrorises anybody who dares to enter its territory, and seems invulnerable to any attack.
Act Three
The hero finally finds the strength to defeat the monster and emerges victorious. e.g. The police chief, marine biologist and shark hunter band together - combining their strengths and eventually succeeding.
Rags to Riches
Act One
Introduce the flawed, sub-par reality the hero is presenting living in. e.g. In "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", Charlie's poverty-stricken family is introduced and begins to secure our sympathy.
Act Two
The hero begins to rise, but is struck down by the villain and sinks to their lowest point. e.g. Charlie watches as his golden ticket companions are all stripped away and faces the final conflict alone.
Act Three
The hero faces the villain and comes away victorious. They're rewarded with treasure, acclaim and/or contentment. e.g. Charlie survives the day, wins the factory and rescues his family.
Sparklines
Act One
Begin by painting a bleak picture of reality as it is. e.g. In his "I have a dream" speech, Martin Luther King began by describing the racist, intolerant society he wanted to change.
Act Two
Show an idealised version of a dream reality. e.g. Martin Luther King then went on to create a resonant image of a tolerant, equal society.
Act Three
Add as many of these sparkline arcs as needed to convey your story. e.g. Martin Luther King's speech traverses a number of ebbs and flows to crescendo the emotion of his words, finishing on an exultant peak.
In Medias Res
Act One
Dive right into the middle of the story and skip the intro. e.g. In "Forrest Gump", the story opens after the action has already taken place, with the hero recounting events from a position of safety.
Act Two
We jump back to the story's beginning and walk through the conflict. e.g. Forrest's retelling transports us back to his childhood, and we tag along on the story with him.
Act Three
Work through the story until you reach the same point as your opening scene. e.g. We accompany Forrest through his life until we are sitting beside him on a bench, waiting for a bus and eating a box of chocolates once more.
Man in a Hole
Act One
The hero begins at an emotional high point, often mistaking this for success. e.g. In "Monsters, Inc", the hero is introduced at a false emotional peak, which makes the conflict-climax all the more resonant.
Act Two
The conflict draws the hero down into the depths of despair. e.g. The hero's life is upended by the appearance of an antagonist and the ensuing conflict.
Act Three
The hero successfully fends off the villain and emerges, stronger and wiser than before. e.g. Sully defeats the fake villain and then the real villain and goes on to reap the rewards of success.
More advanced narrative techniques for if you’re feeling clever
Nested loops – this is a tricky one to explain, but it’s a structure where your climactic narrative sits at the centre of your story and is surrounded by less important stories. The least important piece is started first and finished last.
Pop culture examples: Slumdog Millionaire, any episode of House - they’re all EXACTLY the same, Game of Thrones
False start – begin to tell a story that feels routine, and then disrupt your audience with something completely shocking. Begin the story anew. Render the familiar unfamiliar and you’ll grab attention right away.
Pop culture examples: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Psycho, The Sixth Sense
Petal structure – hone a narrative centre that has your important message at its heart. Allow separate strands of story to weave around this narrative centre, overlapping where they need to, but complete in their own right, so no single story loses its impact.
Pop culture examples: Gone Girl, Reservoir Dogs, The Usual Suspects
Lots of these examples borrow from other narrative structures, too. Because there are no hard and fast rules for storytelling, and sometimes the most effective way to give your story narrative weight is to break the rules. But sticking with a structure is a good place to begin, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Where should I, a marketer, shoehorn storytelling into my work?
Everywhere you can, pal. Here are some places storytelling can be particularly powerful.
Content marketing and case studies
Engage your reader, build up your brand, and cultivate a deliciously rich relationship with your audience by incorporating storytelling into content pieces and case studies.
These are arguably the easiest places you can rustle up some narrative structure, as you’ve usually got a chunkier word count to work with. So, before you begin crafting that next case study or bulking up that blog post, carefully consider the journey you’re taking a reader on.
Adverts and social posting
Consumers and B2B customers alike are all become increasingly jaded by interruption marketing. Which might explain how productions like John Lewis’s annual festive tear-jerkers have such high levels of engagement and success.
John Lewis ads are a perfect example of how storytelling tactics can be artfully utilised, even with very limited on-screen time. If you’ve somehow never watched one of their Xmas ads, you can watch the full compilation here. Then ask yourself how you ever got along without them for all these years.
You can achieve the same effect across your own ads, and in your social posting, using storytelling. Individualise and up the emotion of your social media output by utilising narrative arcs across a post, or a series of posts. The same with all your ads. Succeed at doing that and you might just cultivate a following of people who actively seek out your fresh content. Which is pretty much the dream.
Oh, and incorporating a cast of endearing characters is entirely optional, and only to be used if it fits in with your brand.
Brand comms and press releases
If you’re trying to build, or maintain, the reputation of your brand, you should be storifying your brand comms. And if you’re not trying to build, or maintain, the reputation of your brand, you should be.
Integrating a storytelling dialogue between your brand and your audience does a few handy things: singles you out from the crowd, shouts about the value of your brand, humanises you to your audience, and helps make sure you’re attracting the right kinds of prospect.
Landing pages and microcopy
Lil mini stories can come into play across even your snappiest copy on your landing pages and microcopy. Think about some of the best value propositions – loads of them will be telling their own little stories. Here are a few I like.
How is this a story? Okay, this might be my favourite bit of storified microcopy, because it’s so cleverly compact without sacrificing a shred of impact. The “let’s” puts the reader into the same boat as the brand – forging an immediate in media res intimacy. It renders us all equals. Contemporaries. Buddies. Ready to “ride”, with all the excitement, energy, and enthusiasm that word encapsulates.
How is this a story? Instead of jumping in with their reader, Evernote have chosen to address them directly in a miniature hero’s journey. This second person vibe forces the audience to put themselves into the picture, envisaging their own disorganised life and then seeing the calm that this product will cultivate. A relentlessly relatable chaos to clarity journey.
How is this a story? Miro don’t put themselves shoulder to shoulder with their reader like Lyft, nor do they put their reader into the frame. Instead, they show a snapshot of a reality different from yours, where their product has made teams perpetually productive. Almost a sparkline, but played out across five simple words.
And, of course, presentations.
Obviously, it goes without saying that you should be using storytelling across your presentations. Storytelling is the most valuable presentation tool in your creative arsenal.
Because it’s not facts and figures that persuade prospects to pick you, get investors flinging their wallets in your direction, and get any board backing your next big step – it’s stories and emotional connections.
Characteristics of strong storytelling
Every story you tell is, of course, going to be slightly different, depending on where and how it’s being shared. You can’t transplant the 1,000 words from your most recent blog post onto the side of your advertising blimp and expect to get the same engagement. There are, however, some characteristics that all your stories should share.
Consistent
The strength of storytelling is in the consistency of the story you tell. Everything you output should be cohesive enough to be instantly recognisable, and every interaction with your audience should be done in line with your story voice. Because your brand, communicated through your story, is your promise. You’re making a commitment to your customers that you’ll do what you say. If you waver on that consistency, you’ll damage the trust in your brand faster than you can say “sorry”.
Engaging
Every story should strive to keep your reader reading by making the story entertaining and engaging. Often, the more novel a story is the more engaging it will be. Find a USP and use that as the basis for your story.
If you genuinely don’t have a USP, you can craft a unique way to talk about your non-unique selling point.
Relatable
Let your audience see themselves in your story and you’ll forge an intimacy that could just end up being invaluable. To do that well, though, you need to properly get to know your audience. Understand who you’re talking to, and tailor literally every word you use to speak directly to that person.
Memorable
The basic storytelling format is something the human brain finds inherently memorable. But you can still use a few tricks to increase that unforgettability. The most effective of these tricks is to conjure an emotive response from the audience.
Build suspense, foster aspirations, drive empathy, and get dead inspirational to bring your prospects fully on board with your brand. In short, become more than your stats and you’ll float around in someone’s brain for ages. Because stories are way more memorable than facts.
Authentic
Authenticity adds authority to any story. If you understand the basic human truths driving your audience, and then find a way to speak genuinely whilst addressing those truths, you’ll unlock the power to create stories that people want to believe.
If your brand is seen by prospects as authentic and meaningful, every interaction with you will feel more valuable. That connection won’t last if you’re not being genuine, though, so make sure to only nail your colours to masts you’re willing to stand behind in the long term.
Armed with the above, you should now know how to use storytelling tools in your marketing. So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking. Smack your audience in the face with those emotional hooks. Engage attention using familiar narrative patterns. Stroke their collective egos by championing them as the hero of your story. Simple. Effective. Satisfying af.
