Storytelling process -Demystified!

You can build one on your own for your brand

It is widely believed that Marketers are the enigmatic souls in the world of business responsible for bringing out an engaging story that would make a brand. No other business function owns the responsibility of positioning the brand or have necessary skills to communicate the bigger persona of the label. PR firms, freelance marketers, bloggers and founders sometime pitch in to save the scene, in case of non-existence of a matured marketing function within the organization.

But, I firmly believe no business or brand can sprout without an inspiring story. Be it a startup or a small business or an enterprise, the Founder of the organization would experience the story before it gets translated into product. With startups hunting for ideas and experiments to master the art of persuasion and positioning, I wanted to take a dig at the process of storytelling.

Why is Storytelling perceived to be a daunting task?

I believe, the lack of systematic understanding of what a good story is, makes it hard to build one.

What is a STORY?

A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result.

• “What happens?” is the plot, which should be a well articulated problem statement that the audience could identify with
• “Someone” is the protagonist, which is your persona who should inspire oneness from your audience
• The “goal” is what’s known as the story question, which is literally where your brand should lead the protagonist to
• And, “how he or she changes” is what the story itself is about

Now, what makes your story a GOOD one?

You can only hold the attention of your audience, if only every bit of your story is enticing and makes readers wonder what would happen next. The story should humanize your brand and bring out the emotions that your audience could relate with, be it when you talk about the problem that your audience face or when you talk about how your brand could solve the plot.

In a nutshell, a good story, will: move one deeply, wake one up, make one want to share it with her best friend, make one want to rally to the cause &, once in a great while, make one want to buy.

You could also refer to these TED videos on this topic.

How to build the SCREENPLAY to your story?

Let us imagine you are building a story for your software product.

First thing, decide whose story is it that you are trying to tell. Your audience should feel driven by what your protagonist feels and in your case that should your Buyer-Persona. Define the persona in a way that your audience feel your narration from within your persona’s skin.

Once you explain the background and life story of your lead, jump into the reality. You could highlight the aspirations, environment, stakeholders, influencers and what matters most to your lead, personally and professionally. Present a scenario that gives your audience a glimpse of the ‘Big picture’ of the problem your Persona would solve eventually.

Once you help your readers get into the story and move along with life of the lead, dig out the specifics; the conflicts that your protagonist must balance out to emerge victorious. You could bring in the best of excerpts of use-cases that appeal to the majority of your target market.

Now is when you need to talk about what your brand can do to your protagonist to help her lead the change. Now go back and show them how you un-conflict their troubles with your brand, dramatically.

That’s the process in general, but you would also need to remember the following cues:

1. Don’t forget your goal: Cut through the clutter and keep things focused on that one thing that is key to your brand.
2. Don’t make it look like your protagonist is working on a dead cause: The strength of your problem statement and the way your tie it to the life of your lead is key.
3. Don’t forget your personal goal: i.e., to change the minds of the reader and that requires you to highlight unavoidable conflicts and their impacts, from the realms of your hero’s everyday life.
4. Talk about the specifics, clearly: Abstract illustrations kill your story or dilute it, at the least.
5. Iterate and optimize your message.
6. Also refer this blog to get a different perspective to what not to do.

And finally don’t forget,

A story is real life with the boring parts left out — Elmore Leonard