contentchampion.com
http:/ htt p://www /www.c .co o ntent ntentchampio champio n.com/sto ryselling-fict ryselling-fictionion- as- tru truth/ th/
Storyselling: Storys elling: Fiction As Trut Truth h In I n Cont Content ent Ma Marketin rketing g
Image Ima ge cre dit
Storyselling: A Literary Perspective “Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality.” Robert McKee. [1] When Whe n trying to s ell your brand, products and services, services, it’s all too easy to present your pitch as a series o f
lifeless , f eature-based pro nouncem nouncements. ents. Nearly Nearly everyone everyone does it. Blan Bland, d, inef inef f ectual content is every everywhere where – and bus ines iness s o wners and marketers market ers wo wonder nder why it do does esn’t n’t se sellll anything. anyt hing. Of course, mos mos t marketers marketers worth t hei heirr salt know that using sto rie ries s is the key to succ successf essf ul sales sales content – Claude Cla ude Hopkins Hopkins has been advising advising marketers marketers t o ‘tell your f ull sto ry’ since 1923 1923 [2]. Bu Butt not just any old st ories; import import ant, vital, engagi engaging ng st ories that are interwoven with with you, your business and the very heart heart o f what you do. As Seth Seth Go din puts puts it: “Marketing “Marketing is is s to rytelli rytelling. ng. T he st ory o f your pro duct, built built into your product. The ad might might be part part o f it, the copy might might be part part o f it, but most ly ly,, your product and your service service and your people are all part part o f the s to ry ry.. Tell Tell itit on purpos e. e.”” [3] I know what yo u’re thinking. Easier said than do ne. If we were all all able able to write such s uch compelling compelling sto ries we would all be milli millionaires onaires . But here’s t he thing. If we all tr ied to tell even just s lightly mo mo re compelling compelling st o ries, we may may not become rich – but we would certainly become richer. richer. Don’t believ believe e me? Cons ider the po wer of product placem placement in f ilm ilms, s, where sales are made made purely purely on the basis o f ass ociation with a lif est yle aspiration. T he classic example example is the 1986 Tom Cruise Cruise f ilm Top Gun. “Navy recruiting shot sho t up bet ween 20 percent percent and 30 percent f ollo wing the release o f Top Gun,” [4] [4] said Ogden Naval Reserve Recruiting Chief Chief Bob Whiteley at t he time – leading leading Ben Ben Settle at Copybl Copyblogger ogger t o labe labell the f ilm “an extremely extremely prof prof itable sales letter .” letter .” [5] [5] Sett Se tt le went went on t o no te t he f ilm ilm’s ’s ot her major major marketing marketing boo n; sales of “ RayRay- Ba Ban n Avia Aviato to r s ungl unglasses asses (the kind To To m Cruise’s Cruise’s character “Maverick” wore) jumped 40%” as well. T here are countless countless ot her exam example ples s f rom the corpo rate world t oo : “At Nike, Nike, senior executives executives are called called ‘corporate storytellers’. The 3M company banned bullet points and replaced them with writing ‘strategic narratives’. narrative s’. Proct Proct er & Gam Gamble ble hired hired Hollywoo Hollywoo d directors to teach their executives executives s to rytelli rytelling ng techniques. techniques. Business Bu siness schoo ls have st oryt ell elling ing courses in their curriculu curriculums. ms.”” [6] So how do we even st art t hin hinkin king g about t ryin rying g to create this irresist ibl ible e content that engages our t arget audience audi ence? ? It It all begins begins with t he right mind-s mind-s et, an underst andi anding ng and acknowled acknowledgm gment ent t hat o ur st ory – the st ory o f our brand, product o r service, service, can can create create an essential truth within the psyche of our t arget audience – helping them to literally buy into into what we’re selling. Not because we f o rce them, but because they very much wan wantt t o. They don’t just want to buy our stuf f , they believe in it. In this context , the narrative narrative of our brand and and the success success st ories o f our happy cli clients, ents, (even though true to us), will will at f irst always be f ictions t o o ur prospects . Yet t hrough the engagem engagement ent o f high qual quality ity market market research and equall equally y to p st anda andard rd cont ent, o ur st ories sho uld quick quickly ly create create a new ‘trut h’ in the minds minds o f our pot ential cust cust omers. A trut h in which which they walk with with us as pro tago nists in a shared journey, journey, visualising visualising themselves themselv es experiencin experiencing g t he same emot emot ions, co ming to the s am ame e conclusions and taking the same actions as o ur existing clients clients – ultim ultimately ately leadin leading g to more s ales. Sounds impressive impressive does n’t it? Bu Butt I’m not not just maki aking ng this st uf f up. Am Amongs ongs t ot hers, we have Sam Samuel uel Tayl Taylor or Coleridge Colerid ge to thank f or expl explaini aining ng this interaction, with his ‘willi ‘willing ng suspension o f disbel disbelief ief ’ – where an audience readily accepts t he emo emo tive engagement engagement o f st or ies on a deep perso nal level, level, creating what Coleridge called called ‘poet ic f aith’. [7] Best sellin Best selling g author Chri Christ st opher Booker adds t o t his not ion o f shared experien experience, ce, explai explaining ning the universali universality ty of significance besto wed upon us all by goo goo d sto rytelli rytelling: ng: “T he real real signif signif ica icance nce of our ability ability to tell sto ries is t wof o ld. Fi Firs rstly, tly, itit pro vides a uniquely uniquely revealing revealing mirro mirrorr to the inner dynamics dynamics of o f huma human n nature. But But secondly,, by laying secondly laying bare the uncons cious f oundations whi which ch underlie underlie so much of the way we view view the wo rld, this can in turn cast an extraordinarily revealing light on history, politics, religion, philosophy and almost every aspect o f hum human an tho ught and behavio behavio ur” [8] – including including sales and marketing. marketing. Because on a s ubconscious, primordial Because primordial level level we we all want want t o list en to st ories, we want to beli believe eve them as a f orm of uni universali versalised sed ‘truth’. We cannot cannot help devouring devouring new st ories, o ld sto ries, any st ories – we need need them in in order t o make sense of the world around us. We We instinctively instinctively need need to buy into into aspirations, inspiratio inspira tio ns, desires, visions, visions, hopes, f ears, loves and and lives lives through the power of st ories – but o nly thro ugh
the evocation o f our o wn insight. insight. It must be t hrough choice. choice. In marketing marketing terms, terms, we all hate hate being sold to – but if we can can hold our pro spects ’ hands on a jo urney they voluntarily take ownership of with their o wn emot emot ive imagi imagination nation – once t hey really really believ believe e in t he personal mani aniff estation o f the unive universal rsal truth at f irst s et bef ore t hem as f ic iction, tion, but then made made real real – you would then then f ind it hard, if not im impos pos sible, to convinc convince e them NOT to buy what what you’re of f erin ering. g. In short , the literary literary histo ry of st orys ell elling ing tells us s to ries really really are are that po werf ul to t he marketer marketer.. If we create a compelling brand story, we engage our audience on an emotional and empathetic level so potently – t hey themselves t hemselves creat e a cert ain veracit y, a cert ain trut t rut h f ro m our ‘f ictio n’. This in turn t urn t akes away the t he last las t layer lay er of resist ance – t he f ina inall emot emot ional objectio objectio n bef ore making making a sale. However, perhaps a word wor d of warning: ‘with great po wer comes great respo r espo nsibility’ (as I think Obi Wan Wan Kenobi tells Luke Luke Skywal Skywalker ker in Star Wars Wars). ). We can’t can’t abuse t his level of t rust the reader ’s empathy bestows best ows upon us. What What the hell does t hat mean Loz Loz ?! It me means ans we must must alw always ays o f f er great value. value. Be Be honest and use your st ories t o s ell st uf f you’d be happy to sell to your own mother. Respec Respectt yo ur audienc audience e and respect your cust omer omer..
Image Ima ge cre dit
Storys Sto ryselling elling:: A Scient Scientif if ic Perspect ive The science and psychology behind creating empathy in the subject through storytelling is well documented. Researchers Research ers have f ound that f iction simulates simulates real life events and as such has an all to o real ef f ect on t he reader.. “Of ten when someone reads a f ictional sto ry reader ry,, identif identif ica icatio tio n with the characters characters and emot emot ional involvem inv olvement ent in t he st ory causes t he reader to symp sympathize athize with t he characters, characters, and perhaps even experienc experience e the events in the s to ry as if the reader experienc experiences es t he events events him him/herself. /herself. Consequently, Consequently, the reader practices being empathic while while reading reading a f ictio ictional nal st or ory y.” [9] So when we em empathize with t he themes, themes, narratives and characters characters of a st ory, we we are in a sense anchoring
our real self in the actions and events events of f ictional people people in order to make sense of our o wn reali reality. ty. “T he simulation simu lation o f real-world experienc experiences es in f iction might might be ass ociated with process es t hat people use in daily daily life to comp comprehend rehend what what happens in t he world. Consequently Consequently,, t hrough t his s ensem ensemaki aking ng process , people gain a bett er underst underst andi anding ng of the world and how they sho uld interact interact with o ther people.” people.” [10] It is als o argued by psycholo gist s “t hat f ictio iction n experiences experiences enhance imagi imaginative native thinking,” [11] [11] meaning meaning we we can use empathy empathy and and imagin imagination ation t o literally put ours elv elves es in the shoes o f the st ory’s pro tagonist – sus pend pending ing disbelie disbelieff thro ugh ‘poetic f aith’ to alm almos os t compl completely etely ‘live’ ‘live’ the events we are reading reading about, hearing or watching. Research also sho ws the eff ects o f comm commerci erciali alized zed non-f iction mess mess ages simply simply wea wearr of f over time time – but but audiences being inf luenced by f ictio ictional nal sto ries react and behave in in a very very dif f erent way. way. In this regard, “a f ictional narrative narrative is more likely likely to be read with with a wi willi lling ng const ruction o f disbel disbelief ief : the reader reader accepts accepts ass ertions f rom a fictio nal narrative unl unless ess t hey are are highly highly mot iva ivated ted to rejec rejectt t he assertio n based on availab avai lable le knowledg knowledge. e. Hen Hence, ce, the poss ibl ible e ef f ects o f st ories o n empathy empathy are expec expected ted t o be greater f or f ic iction tion readers readers t han fo r non- f ic iction tion readers. readers.”” [12] Further to this, psychologist s have also Further also do cum cumented ented three specif specif ic em emot ions t hat help st ories evoke such empathy emp athy in readers. Thes e are “identif “identif icatio ication, n, sympathy sympathy and auto biographical memory memory..” [13] Thes e process es act in combi combination nation to create the powerf powerf ul feelings feelings o f em empathy pathy that can of ten cause cause real-lif e behavioural changes in the reader o r viewer viewer – such as jo ining the US Air For Force ce af ter wat ching To To p Gun. So what what do es all this mean mean f or t he sales process? In In short , studies have reinfo rced that when readers readers or viewers “become transported into a narrative, personal change is more likely to occur.” [14] This psychologic psyc hological al process process o f ‘tran ‘transport sport ation’ is therefo re at the heart heart o f wh what at gets your prospects t o buy when utilizing st oryselling techniq techniques. ues. As to uche uched d upon, there is also evidence evidence that the ef f ect of f ictional st ories last s much much longer longer than non-f iction narratives narratives such as newspaper newspaper report s, because because of the way our brain st ores and organizes organizes f ictional inf inf ormation. T his ‘sleeper ‘sleeper eff ect’ [15] means our pros pects may may act act o n the st ories we tell them days or weeks weeks af ter t hey firs t empathize empathize with the sto ry – maki making ng the ef f ect even even more powerf ul and and f ull of pot ential f or t he marketer marketer.. However, there is o ne cautionary However cautionary not e. Researc Research h also s hows t hat f or an audienc audience e to expe experien rience ce such st rong empathetic empathetic ef f ects, they must must t ot all ally y buy buy into into the st ory we are tellin telling. g. If they are only transpo rted half- heartedl heartedly y, t hen st udie udies s high highlig light ht that lev levels els o f em empathy pathy actually actually decrease. decrease. [16] [16] T his means means as marketers we must compl completely etely underst underst and our target audi audience ence and and conduct t horo ugh market market research bef ore writing our sales st ories – o therwise as with with ot her fo rm rms s o f adve advertising rtising they will will simp simply ly miss t he mark.
Image Ima ge cre dit
Sto ryselling ryselling:: A Busin Business ess Perspec tive “T he proliferat ion of info rm rmation ation in late late Capitalism Capitalism lead leads s no t t o a ‘declin ‘decline e of the value value of expe experienc rience e (but rather) to a mass mass ive process o f turning inf ormation into experienc experience, e, of signif iers into into s igni igniff ieds, thro ugh the medium medium of st ories.” [17] [17] Su Such ch organisat organisat ional use use o f st ories t o s ell brands, ways ways of working working,, lif lif est yle yles, s, products and services services – is no w comm commonplace am amongst successf ul marketers. marketers. As bus ines iness s expert Phil Johns o n comm co mment ents s o n Forbes For bes..co com, m, “the “th e ho t t es estt t rend in market ing to t o day just jus t might be the ancient ancient art of st oryt ell elling. ing.”” He cont inu inues, es, “I’d “I’d make make the case t hat t here’ here’s s a direct direct lin link k between the Internet, s ocial networks, content ma marketing, rketing, and sto rytelli rytelling” ng” – and Johnso n concludes: “In “In an environment environment where you don’t st and a chanc chance e to win anybody’ anybody’s s at tentio n without so me magi magic, c, a good s to ry migh mightt save you and your brand f rom o bli blivion. vion. [18] Yet, if no t t o s ave ours elv elves es f rom oblivion, oblivion, how do do we go about actually actually using using sto ries more more ef f ective ectively ly to connect with our pro spects and make make more more s ale ales? s? A great st arting point f or your o veral veralll approach comes comes f rom marketing marketing expert expert Alexand Alexander er Jutkowitz : “A content marketer has t o think like like a journalist abo ut craf ting a narrative and and providing providing either a tho ught- provoking idea or accurate, accurate, t im imely ely inf inf ormation t hat helps people to better navigate navigate t he world. world. Bu Butt like a publ public-relations ic-relations pro f ess ional, he he or s he has to think strat egi egical cally ly about the o rgani rganizat zat ion’s larger goals and t he audience audience itit wan wants ts to reach reach.. Like Like an an advertiser, advertiser, the s ucc uccessf essf ul content marketer has to know how to tell these s to ries visually visually and tap an emot emot ional vein. vein.”” [19] More s peci peciff ica ically lly,, Phil Phil Johnso Johnso n gives gives us a great set of gui guideli delines nes f or creating compel compellin ling g st ories abo ut o ur brand, products products and services: services: “If your st ory does not revea “If reveall something perso nal and unknown unknown about t he perso perso n or brand, it’s going to be boring.
If your st ory does not tap into a s peci peciff ic em emot ot ion – whether it be fear, desire, anger anger,, or happiness happiness – it will will not move people to act ion. If your st ory does not take people on a journey where there is a transf ormation between the beginning,, middle, beginning middle, and the end, it’s not a st o ry ry..” [20] Further t o this, Brandon Further Brandon Yanof Yanof sky at Co pyb pyblogger logger recomm recommends a “prot agonist, ant agonist, plot and moral’ moral’ [21] led led approach approach to craf ting your sales s to ries, while while going back back to Be Ben n Sett Sett le at t he same same site, we see a case made made f or “personal, histo rica ricall and ‘meet ‘meet t he guru’” guru’” [22] type st ories. Al Alll of these approache approaches s can be highly high ly ef f ective ective,, as can the “po sitive, empowered, empowered, hero-in- the- wai waiting” ting” [23] approach highli highlighted ghted by marketer marke ter Laurie Bennett Bennett in The T he Guardian. Yet when itit co mes t o writing st ories f or yo ur own brand, brand, you do really have to work harder harder than just creating archetypes. ItIt all co co me mes s do wn to perf o rmi rming ng detailed ma market rket res earch, co co nst ructing an ideal ideal avatar avatar to comm communic unicate ate with, and craf craf ting a personalised st ory about your company company, products and services services that really reall y reso nates with t he people who who are precisely pos itioned to buy into into them. T his t hen becomes becomes a quest ion o f transparency transparency,, as Jo anna Lord Lord writes on Entreprenuer. Entreprenuer.com: “I “In n a lot of ways, way s, people don’t buy products anymore anymore – they buy your business’s s to ry ry.. One of the best things a company compa ny can can do is be transparent about why itit is doing what what it does. My My f avourite model to help brands brands push past the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of their s to ry and find f ind their ‘why’ ‘why’ is Simon Simon Sinek’s Sinek’s Go lden Circle Circle Theo ry [24]. T his theo ry f ocuses on ‘Why do you wake up in the morning?’ morning?’ and ‘Why ‘Why are you so passio nate about t his?’ [25] If you’re not not sure how to f ind the ‘why’ ‘why’ of your business business , Lord Lord suggest s reaching reaching out to your custo mers and employees employees f or f eedb eedback ack,, or engag engaging ing with with o nli nline ne communities communities (by Goo gli gling ng yourself ), such as f orums and social media sites where real people are discussing your brand. Furthermore, Lord also recommends extending extendi ng the transparency transparency of your brand st ory t o your prime prime online real est ate platf orms such as your homepage, social so cial med media ia prof iles and company company blog. [26] ItIt s eem eems s t hat o ne paragraph on the ‘About us ’ page simply won’t cut it anymore. Anot her great gr eat s t rat egy to t o help you yo u art iculat iculate e your yo ur brand br and st s t o ry more mor e ef f ect ectively ively,, is s imply to lo loo o k at ho how w ot her people people are are doing it. T his f antast ic inf ographic I f ound on Content Bridge Bridge shows how to use st oryt ell elling ing technique techniques s in creating your content :
Inf ograph ographic ic courtesy courtesy o f : Content Bri Bridge dge For f urther ideas, Storyselling expert expert Bernadette Bernadette Jiwa [27] [27] gives gives s ome great example examples s of brand brands s that are using st ories t o sell themselves themselves with st yle yle.. Here are a couple of them:
Storys Sto ryselling elling:: In Conclusion If the Charity Charity Water Water example example above above doesn’t get your creative jui juices ces f lowing on ho w to use st ories t o s ell a brand whilst whilst simu simultaneously ltaneously respecting your audi audience ence – t hen perhaps perhaps yo u’re in the wrong business Storyselling is not about using f iction to pul pulll the wool over the eyes of your audience audience,, it’s about creating powerful empathetic empathetic realities realities that hel help p o pen the eyes o f your audience. audience. So if you’re not making making enough sales sales o r connecting ef ef f ective ectively ly with with your custo mers, take a st ep back back and and ask yours elf ‘wh ‘why y am I so passio nate about my business business or brand?’ If you can’t can’t answer the question, o r worse st ill ill,, don’t beli believe eve in your your brand enough to compl completely etely buy into into it – then ho w can you you expect anyone else el se to ? Your brand story doesn’t have to be long, complicated or delivered through technologically advanced media – it merely has t o be t rans parent and ho nes nestt abo ut what yo you’re u’re t rying t o deliver t o all your yo ur s t akeho akeholders lders , includi inc luding ng manage managem ment, st af f and cust cust omers. If you take time to craf t yo ur st ory f rom the beginni beginning, ng, thro ugh the middl middle e and right to the end – you’ll f ind that s to ryselli ryselling ng can can transf orm your business business , not o nly in terms terms o f your bot to m line line – but also in helpi helping ng you get out of bed in in the morning morning with with a smile smile on your face. Tellll me Te me the s to ry of your business and help help me belie believe ve in what what you do…
Sources [1] Ro bert McKee, St o ry ry,, p12, p12, Met huen, 1999 1999 (Pa (Pa perba ck ck))
[2]] Claude Hopkins, Scient [2 Scient if ic Advert Advert ising, p37, p37, Mort onG regory regory.com .com (PDF)
[3] Seth G odin: All All Marketers Are Liars
[4] Desere t News, Dec 8-9, 198 1986 6
[5] Copyb Copyblogger: logger: Market Market ing With St ories
[6] Forbes: Da n Schawbel Schawbel
[7] Samuel Taylor Coleridge
[8]] Christ [8 Christ opher Bo oker, T he Seven Basic Plot s, p 571, 571, Cont inuum, 2004 2004 (Paperback)
[9-12] Sto ry rytt elling in Organizat Organizat ions: Fact Fact s, Fict Fict ions, and Fant asies: By Yianni Yiannis s G abriel
[13] Keith O at ley [13] ley,, Why Fic Fictt ion May Be Twice Twice as T rue As Fact: Fict Fict ion as Cognitive and Emot ional Simulat Simulat ion, p 114. 114. Univ Universit ersit y of Toront o 1999 (PDF)
[14-17] Sto ry rytt ellin elling g in Organizat ions: Fact Fact s, Fictions, a nd Fantasies: By Yianni Yiannis s G abriel
[18] Forbes: Phil Johnson
[19] Ad Age: Alexander Jutko witz
[20] Forbes: Phil Johnson
[21] Copyb Copyblogger: logger: Sto ry rytt ellin elling g Mark Market et ing
[22] Copyb Copyblogger: logger: Market Market ing With St ories
[23] The Guardian Guardian:: Laurie Laurie Bennet t
[24] Simon Sinek: The Go lden Circle Circle
[25 & 26] En Entt repren repreneur: eur: Joanna Lord
[27] Bernadett e Jiwa: Jiwa: The St St ory of Telling
Get more co ntent mar arketing keting strategies on the Content Champion blog…