CHAPTER 2
Tell a Story
When you meet someone for the first time and the conversation begins, do you brag about your big home or the cool car you drive, or do you talk about where you're from or what you do for a living? If the former, you're talking about your features; if the latter, you're framing a story about who you are.
All of us, every day, are living out our own life stories. And storytelling is baked into our DNA. We naturally want to pass information on to each other for many reasons, not the least of which is to make sense of things and the world we live in. To make it easier to understand, and to remember the important parts. So, it stands to reason, to have a good conversation, you must tell a good story.
When companies publish content, often their first instinct is to focus on the company, their products and services (the what), and why they're awesome because the first box in the content checklist is to just get the content out there. What happens next? (Crickets chirping.) They end up publishing useless content. They're participating in the conversation, but no one is listening. Why?
Read the following examples on the super boring and complex subject of statistics. Which strikes a chord with you?
In statistics, mean refers to one measure of the central tendency either of a probability distribution or of the random variable characterized by that distribution. The mean is equal to the sum over every possible value weighted by the probability of that value.1
Or this one?
The Price Is Right is the perfect game show for math geeks. . . . Each pricing game leading up to the much-anticipated “Showcase Showdown” relies primarily on the fact that most contestants guess somewhere in the middle on the price of a pack of gum or a new car—what's called a “mean” in statistical terms.2
Unless you're a professor of statistics, I'm going to guess the second one sounds better, correct? The first example qualifies as content. The second is conversation wrapped in story. You may never need to know what a statistical mean is, but now you're less likely to forget within the next few days if asked. And that's the point. How do you hold someone's attention long enough to break down a topic, engender his or her trust, so he or she remembers you and is left feeling a little smarter than a few minutes ago? The answer lies in good storytelling.
Historically Speaking
Think about it. The most successful books and movies tell a story well and draw readers and viewers in with ease. Architecture and art weave a story amid lines and design relating details of times past. Religions are filled with storytelling intended to impart wisdom. News outlets seek to tell stories designed to evoke emotions and encourage action. Even today, oral stories told through the ages are familiar to nearly everyone.
The art of storytelling is as old as time and continues to serve us as an effective vehicle for sharing information as well as building trustworthy relationships. Storytellers have long been respected and well-liked, defining and binding humanity.
The Power of Story
Human memory is narrative driven. We literally live in a story that is unfolding every day, and each experience we store in our brain has a story attached to it. To that end, storied narratives drive people, not features and benefits, or products and services.
When businesses engage marketing firms, they often utilize instant gratification to capture the audience's attention rather than employing lasting contentment or happiness to reach their audience. Though the two may seem synonymous, they aren't. Using contentment and happiness are the most valuable in attracting and keeping audience attention because those are the things that shape human narratives. The narrative (story) is the root of everything we are as humans because our stories are shaped by our experiences along with what we read and think about. In “The Pleasure/Happiness Gap,” Seth Godin, marketing guru, explains:
Marketers usually sell pleasure. That's a shortcut to easy, repeated revenue. Getting someone hooked on the hit that comes from caffeine, tobacco, video or sugar is a business model. . . .
On the other hand, happiness is something that's difficult to purchase. It requires more patience, more planning, and more confidence . . . we're more likely to find it with a mature, mindful series of choices, most of which have to do with seeking out connection and generosity. . . .
More than ever before, we control our brains by controlling what we put into them. Choosing the media, the interactions, the stories, and the substances we ingest changes what we experience.3
And this is where your storytelling can set your brand apart. Unless you're inventing a time machine, you're likely selling a product or service in a competitive market with basic, valued attributes that you share with everyone else in your space—low prices, great service, quality products—and only a few key differentiators. Your content could serve as one of those differentiators that truly set you apart. The secret sauce of effective content lies in your ability to tap into human emotion through the power of story.
For companies and brands, the handshake moment at the business level is the way in which the world experiences a brand for the first time. If you don't tell your own story, the world will tell it for you, and it might not be pretty. Take, for example, the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–2009. The companies left standing because they were “too big to fail” had a tough road in regaining public trust, particularly because, up until that point, there was no narrative to guide public perception. There was brand recognition, of course, but few banks and financial institutions could make the claim they were well-received because of their altruistic sensibilities. Nope, the public categorically decided for them—and the broad consensus was they were the bad guys.
Your Story
Goldman Sachs discovered that creating a brand story helped the world understand they were in fact helping people all across the country as a direct result of investments. Your story should do the same, instantly and effectively communicating your history, your values, your beliefs, and more. And it's that story—your real story—that earns the attention and admiration of your audience. Your story shouldn't be filled with jargon and other gibberish but must be communicated in authentic language. Your truth and the genuineness of your story are the hook that gains the loyalty of your following. They are what shines through in your content. Your story should be so candid and straightforward that your audience completely forgets they are reading a business blog about your brand.
To accomplish this goal, you must remember that human beings literally live in story. Most businesses think they're data driven, but what truly drives a company (at the core) is its narrative. Without the narrative, the only thing a company has is the what, not the why. Eventually, a company that markets products and services alone without a narrative is susceptible to a negative disruption. Their brand has never clarified what they're doing and why they're doing it, and their audience has no idea who they are.
Think about it: Apple's story isn't about selling great computers; it's about innovation. Volvo's story isn't about luxury cars; it's a narrative entrenched in keeping families safe and together. Uber isn't selling fast rides; they're changing the way the world travels. You'd be hard pressed to find an ad or a single word of content that only discusses the features and benefits of their products from any of these firms.
Why Storytelling?
Storytelling, at its heart, is an essential human activity that must be the cornerstone of any meaningful content strategy. It's the ideal channel to capture audience attention and keep it. As Eileen Sutton, one of today's great brand story architects, so eloquently put it, “If the story is the nest, the content becomes the baby starlings hatching, growing strong, and flying off as they carry compelling messages to everyone. Stories are fundamental to culture, to society, and to every individual life.”5 There are several benefits of story to consider:
- A story translates complex data through a narrative lens. Instead of talking about the topic, product, or service, wrap a story around the data and make it more human. Bring it down to eye level for the audience. Appeal to their mind and heart through feelings and emotions, not facts and data. Your story makes the subject understandable, relatable, and more memorable to the audience. Not only will they understand your story, they're more likely to do something meaningful with it. (This is the holy grail of conversation marketing.)
- No one can argue with a story. As soon as we hear facts and data, our brain immediately begins to argue with them. In contrast, your personal experience or someone else's story is true—and persuasive. It may not move us, and it may even make us angry. But we can't argue with it. A story is processed in a completely different way than data-driven facts.
- A story elicits an emotional response. And that's a good thing. Emotions easily influence people. You may not remember what someone said to you today a year from now, but you'll remember how they made you feel. You will remember the emotion you felt when you interacted with them, and that can be a powerful igniter of action.
- With a story, the brain turns cacophony into song. There's a rhythm to external messages that repeat over time, and the human brain normalizes them. If those messages are bad and we hear them repeated, they become normalized and ignored. The best example of this are negative political campaign ads that have driven our elections at every level for decades. On the other hand, a storied narrative that touches the hearts of the audience, becomes a harmony that is embedded in our minds. We are reminded of it in a positive way every time we hear it and listen as if we are hearing it for the first time.
Market From the Inside Out
This honest narrative you're trying to tell means marketing from the inside out. You aren't simply spewing words, but rather sharing the true story of your brand. You are sharing your rich history and what sets you apart in both philosophy and purpose. To do it, you must dig deep. True storied marketing must convey your brand values as well as your corporate ethics, explaining why your brand is the unsung hero of your industry.
The Story Starts the Conversation
Chipotle used “The Scarecrow” as a storied tale that aligned the message of their cause perfectly with their brand and in doing so started a conversation among millions. “The Scarecrow” became an effective marketing tool for their message and their brand as it engaged audiences on both sides of the conversation.
The task was accomplished, first and foremost, by keeping their target audience in mind throughout the story. Any marketing campaign is only as successful as the power it has to generate a healthy and relatable conversation with the target audience based on the story being told.
When creating your story relaying your message to the audience, use content channels specific to your business. Chipotle had successfully used YouTube in the past and understood its power to reach the audience in a grassroots effort that would be driven by effectively by that audience. The word was then spread about Chipotle's cause (animal rights) and message (“food with integrity”), reaching new customers on the recommendation (shares) of current followers. Your story may be ideally suited for YouTube distribution or may be more effective using other content channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, a blog, a newsletter, a microsite). Once your story is told in a relevant way, you have created a base from which you can launch on other content/communication/social channels.
As you continue to tell your story, you must monitor audience engagement. Analyze your target audience's responses as well as the actions they take as a result of your story. You can use a number of analytical tools to accomplish this task: following audience purchasing and its origin; gaining an understanding of what drives your audience, what turns them off, and what piques their interest and instigates a positive exchange or transaction. Remember: Your goal is not necessarily the number of clicks to purchase, but a connection and a call to action by your audience. It is the customer's journey that brings them to align with your story, your mission, and your brand that you're seeking.
As you share your story, you must remember there is never a “one size fits all” scenario. Your potential customers— your target audiences—are looking for sincerity, energy, honesty—a story they can relate to and one that seems to be told specifically for them, not to the masses. In order to achieve that kind of storytelling success, you must know your audience, of whom no two are alike. And this requires research and well-thought-out storytelling that has the ability to connect with your customers, engage them, and motivate action beyond hearing your story.
You have a global audience, but you must keep in mind your story is only heard by one person at a time and your goal is to gain a customer for life, not simply a single sale. To achieve that goal, you must learn to infuse storytelling into your content.
How to Infuse Storytelling into Your Content
We've talked a lot about storytelling from a brand story perspective. No doubt you've heard a great deal of chatter among your peers about the need to infuse storytelling into your content marketing. After all, with so many companies-turned-publishers, it stands to reason that if you're putting out content, you should be a good storyteller. But the sad truth is, many are not.
As important as storytelling is for your content, it's largely misunderstood in practice. Gaining the knowledge and understanding of storytelling will give you an edge. Among the daily noise, a good story with an immediate impact is key.
The problem with talking about storytelling is that you might assume you have to craft a novel every time you publish an article. This just isn't true. What matters is using simple storytelling techniques to develop your article so your content resonates with readers and elicits an emotional response of some kind. This doesn't have to happen with only a single article. After all, you're adding to or starting a conversation, which takes place over time, through many pieces of content, possibly across multiple channels.
Not every article has to follow a story format. It's the rules of storytelling that matter the most, not the structure of the story itself. The key is, in every piece, long or short, to borrow from storytelling techniques to develop the stories and content that becomes your brand story.
Consider Proctor and Gamble's “Share the Load” campaign, which utilized these storytelling techniques to create a message that was eventually heard around the globe.
Final Thoughts
You may be asking, “If storytelling is so great, why isn't every company doing it?” The main reason is because it challenges the marketing status quo and most people are uncomfortable going outside their comfort zone. Crafting your unique brand story negates established storylines even if those stories are fragmented and weak (we're the biggest, we're the oldest, etc.).
Creating a likeable personality and developing a tone that engenders trust involve good storytelling techniques that are authentic. When you do, you can effectively reach your audience with creative storytelling that shares your mission and goals, while promoting your brand.
Icebreaker
Think about a pain point your company addresses (your solution to your industry's problem). What is a situation your audience might find themselves in that you can craft a simple story around?
Answer these questions to sketch out a story framework:
- Who are the hero and villain? (Hint: It's not you, your brand, or your products/services.)
- What is the setup?
- What is the conflict?
- What is the unexpected twist? (What can you tell them that hasn't already been said?)
- What is the resolution (the save, what they need to know)?
- Finally, what is the punchline? (This is the call to action. What do you want them to do next? Hint: Don't ask them to buy anything, yet.)
As you write your story, try not to mention your company or your product. Get to the heart of the problem and create your best prose!