鈥淭ell the story of the screws we produce in such a way that the story is as moving as the tale of Romeo and Juliet.鈥� A seemingly impossible task, right? But people in charge of public relations forming or content marketing in many companies very often have to face the topic of storytelling in marketing. How do they go about it? To find out how to master some tricks of marketing trade and sell screws like bread, dive into our read.
When it comes to storytelling in marketing, first you have to consider the role of a narrator. A content marketer is partly a journalist, a copywriter and a traditional writer.
These three professions differ when it comes to writing goals:
Rarely do we need to fulfill all of these roles simultaneously. Think of the Romeo and Juliet story mentioned above. Here the author didn鈥檛 particularly have a lot of facts to stick to. He also didn鈥檛 care that we had to do a specific thing when the reader finished.
Emotion was all that mattered in this case. The same is true for you. Think about the goal you are trying to achieve. And then choose the arsenal most appropriate to it.
When you write, realize who you are writing for. Imagine your reader: where are they, what are they doing, what might draw them away from your text?
When writing an article, start by describing the persona for whom the text is being written. Sometimes it鈥檚 more than one person. Right now, I鈥檓 imagining you 鈥� you鈥檙e reading an article, with a smartphone and laptop lying next to you, right? These are my enemies, the 鈥渄igital distractions.鈥� I have to face them, challenge them to a duel where your engagement is at stake. If I write well, you鈥檒l find that the incoming email can wait.
Robert Cialdini, one of the most important social psychologists you may associate with from his book 鈥淚nfluencing People鈥� had a very similar work with his students. They ignored his story whenever they heard the bell ring.
This frustrated Cialdini greatly, so he decided to find a solution in his typical scientific way. He went to the library and pulled all the scientific papers he could from the shelves. He then read them and sorted them 鈥� interesting to the left, not so interesting to the right.
When he was done, he took the papers from the left-hand stack and tried to 鈥渄istill鈥� what interested him. He described the results in the mysterious article, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the best secret way to engage students? The answer is in the title.鈥�
A mystery is a great way to draw your reader鈥檚 attention. But it鈥檚 not the only one.
Sally Hogshead has written a brilliant book called 鈥淔ascinate them!鈥�. In it, she defines 7 keys of fascination (mystery being one of them) that will keep your reader鈥檚 engagement from wandering to different places鈥�
Many people in charge of storytelling in marketing think that their job is to convey facts. More often than not, they are wrong 鈥� facts have been devalued a lot.
This does not mean, of course, that you can lie. It鈥檚 just that a reader who has already once acquired knowledge of facts (for example, that your company has launched a new product model) is not interested in reading a text from which鈥� Well, exactly. From which he will learn about things he already knows. That is why your task, when working on storytelling in marketing, is usually to cover the story with emotions. And this is a completely different story鈥�
Creating emotion in the text is relatively easy, I would say templated. You only need to master a few basic tools.
The first of these is monomyth. The word comes from a book by Joseph Campbell called 鈥淭he Hero with a Thousand Faces鈥� and it means a kind of the main body of a story that we are used to constructing a young age 鈥� it can be found in myths, fairy tales, commercials, and movies. What does this skeleton consist of?
There is a hero, like Simba in 鈥淭he Lion King鈥� or Cinderella. He lives his life without bothering anyone when at some point he experiences what Campbell calls separation 鈥� his or her life takes a sudden turn for the worse. Luke Skywalker鈥檚 uncle is killed by Empire soldiers, Simba鈥檚 father dies, and Neo learns that our world is an illusion created by machines.
This moment of separation is a very important part of storytelling in marketing 鈥� it鈥檚 the moment of building emotion, it鈥檚 a source of conflict.
A character wants something they can鈥檛 have (like Romeo wants to be with Juliet), is separated from something they care about (like Jean Claude van Damme in any movie where his family is kidnapped), or seeks redemption for something stupid they did (like Simba for Mufasa鈥檚 death). Your reader, at this point, already knows if they want the protagonist to achieve his goal and鈥� starts rooting for him.
Big brands use those rules of storytelling in marketing a= they present their stories as a conflict, a clash of Titans 鈥� Google against Apple, Apple against Microsoft, Microsoft against Google, etc.
Your brand should also have an enemy 鈥� and not necessarily in the form of a competitor. Very often the enemy of a brand is a certain idea against which the brand is acting. But let鈥檚 go back to the monomyth.
In its simplest form, the monomyth is the hero鈥檚 journey towards conflict resolution, mentioned by Campbell (van Damme gets his family back, Hamlet avenges his father, Luke Skywalker deals with the Emperor).
When it comes to storytelling in marketing 鈥� it鈥檚 usually not that easy 鈥� at the beginning of the journey the hero is completely uninformed, he doesn鈥檛 know how to go about solving the conflict. He needs a wise man, a mentor who knows the rules of this world.
Morpheus in 鈥淭he Matrix鈥�, Obi-Wan Kenobi in 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� and so on鈥�
How is a wise man to know that the hero is up to the task? In many variants of the monomyth, there is a motif of trial 鈥� as in the fairy tale when a fairy disguised as a beggar asks Johnny to share his slice of bread with her.
Eventually, the hero reaches the end, to the place where his nemesis is waiting for him, the last element of the monomyth is the confrontation, the climactic moment, followed by the hero鈥檚 triumph (if you want to watch a happy ending) or downfall (if you鈥檝e seen the movie 鈥淪e7en鈥� by David Fincher, you know exactly what I鈥檓 talking about).
Once you 鈥済et鈥� the concept of monomyth, you鈥檒l start to see it in the most compelling ads and stories you read or watch. And you鈥檒l realize that monomyth can add excitement to even the most boring products and services.
Remember the Volkswagen 鈥淭he Force鈥� commercial made for the Superbowl? The entire commercial is an account of his 鈥淗ero鈥檚 journey鈥� until the finale, in which 鈥� with a little help from his father 鈥� he manages to use the Force on a Volkswagen parked in front of his house.
Or the Procter & Gamble commercial filmed for the London Olympics? The protagonists here are athletes, we follow their journey from humble beginnings to Olympic gold. The journey from the point of view of鈥� the guardian, i.e. the mother. This commercial is very touching, although, as I showed you a moment ago, it is very template-like. This template is precisely the power of monomyth. Every time you watch some 鈥渉ero鈥� struggle with adversity, your brain suggests memories of all the other similar struggles you happened to cheer for. And it accumulates the emotions you are experiencing.
So if you want to tell a story for content marketing, don鈥檛 forget about emotion. And stick to a proven formula: a conflict whose solution is your product. As you become more proficient in using the tools described above, you鈥檒l be able to afford more and more 鈥� building complex characters whose motives aren鈥檛 entirely clear, suspense, incorporating humor, or showing events from the perspective of one side or the other. The possibilities are endless.
Just remember one thing: the conflict is the focus of your story. There is a big gap between what we would like to experience (a peaceful, predictable life where no one points a gun at our child) and what we want to read about. That鈥檚 why storytelling in marketing needs to be 鈥渄ramatized鈥�.
Want to stay in touch with our content? Join our
The article appeared on Pawe艂 Tkaczyk鈥檚 blog.
Author: Zofia Lipska
With over 10 years of experience in digital marketing, Sophia not only knows the rules of this industry but above all knows how to break them in order to achieve outstanding and creative results.
Pinterest, which made its debut on the social media scene a decade ago, never gained…
Thinking carefully on a question of how to promote a startup will allow you to…
A podcast in marketing still seems to be a little underrated. But it changes. It…
Video marketing for small business is an excellent strategy of internet marketing. The art of…
Are you wondering how to promote a startup business? We present crowdfunding platforms and websites…
How to use social media to increase sales? Well, let's start like that. Over 2.3…