Storyteller Marketing Template
As you know, storyteller marketing is vital for creating lasting, meaningful, emotional relationships with audiences. You can use stories in your video marketing strategy, your newsletter, on your website, etc. Stories happen everywhere, but how do you craft a great story? Use our storyteller marketing template to get started and let your creativity guide you from there.
The Basics of Storyteller Marketing
We’ve covered it before (as have many) but one more time for the cheap seats in the back, let’s go over the components of storytelling that you must understand to be a successful storyteller marketer.
Your audience is your story’s protagonist. They should recognize themselves in your story. Photo credit: Brooke Cagle
Your audience is your story’s main character, not you.
Your audience has a problem. Your job is to figure out what it is.
Your product or service or brand is the resource your audience will use to solve their problem.
Your story concludes by revealing the outcome of your audience using your brand / product / service to solve their problem.
Though you can use more than a three-act structure, the fundamentals are this:
Act I: The problem. We meet the audience and learn their problem. Here, the audience is ready to take steps to fix the problem.
Act II: The rising action. The audience learns how you’re able to help them solve their problem. They figure out how to use your product and are ready to take action.
Act III: The audience acts on their problem and resolves it. This act reveals the outcome and concludes with a call to action.
Your story should always end with a call to action whether it’s clicking on a link, signing up for a newsletter, contacting you for more information, or making an actual purpose.
Note that in terms of structure, the first and third acts take about 25% of your time (you can adjust accordingly), and act two takes 50%. Your second act is the one where your audience is actually learning about what you do for them. You don’t want to rush this part.
Storyteller Marketing and Audience Motivation
Now that you have the structure for your story, you need to establish what motivates your audience. Some of our most basic desires are the desire for security, for autonomy, to be loved, right? Audiences are also compelled by fear, greed or desire, shame, etc. Ideally, you’ll find a way to tap into your audience’s positive motives for taking action.
Fear mongering is effective (for example, people buy excessive home security systems or Internet protection or weapons that they may not actually need or really know how to use because of fear), but in the long run, it will not create a positive emotion between your brand and the audience.
Again, consider what motivates your audience. Here are some motivators that many audiences have in common:
Understanding human motivation is an important part of storyteller marketing. All people have an underlying motivation to be loved, to be seen, and to be heard, for example. Make that part of your marketing story. Photo credit: Manuel Meza
To do good, to help others, and to improve their community
Health and self-improvement
To love and to be loved
Approval
Achievement
Personal security
Advancement / professional growth
Knowledge and information
Monetary security
Now, ask how your brand addresses these (and other) motives. Make a list of everything your brand does for its audience and then list the underlying motive that action addresses. These are your stories in your storyteller marketing strategy.
Using Storyteller Marketing to Show How Unique You Are
So far, we’ve covered the basic storyteller marketing template and how to get your stories. Before moving on, we would be remiss not to mention that while your audience is the protagonist of your brand’s story, you must demonstrate how you are unique from your competition.
Say you are a tax accounting firm. You can successfully show how you can solve your audience’s problem, right? But how are you doing it in a way that is better or more unique than your competition? Why should audiences choose you? Do you get them more money? Are you faster? More reliable? Lower fees? Whatever it is, it needs to be something that lines up with your audience’s motives, so when it comes to taxes, a bigger refund and expedience are usually reasons to pick one brand over another.
Storyteller Marketing Template Review
To conclude, let’s review our storyteller marketing template:
Know what motivates your audience as it relates to your brand
Know what makes you unique to your competition
Act I
Introduce the problem. Consider your audience’s perspective on their problem. Show their underlying motivation through story.
Act II
Reveal how your brand helps your audience solve their problem. Show this step. This should be the longest part of your story, so your audience can clearly see how your brand’s product or service empowers them to fix whatever problem they want to overcome.
Act III
Show your audience fixing their problem with your support and the outcome. Part of the outcome reveal should be your audience’s underlying motive being addressed.
Again, you can use storyteller marketing anywhere in your marketing strategy. This template can be used for video marketing, your blog, your newsletter, social media marketing, etc. Stories are truly powerful because they are memorable, and they lead to audiences forming deep, emotional connections. In a culture where audiences are overwhelmed with content, storyteller marketing is one of the few ways to actually make a lasting connection.
At The Storyteller Agency, we love stories, and we would love to help you tell your audience’s story in various genres and mediums, so it resonates with your audience. Storyteller marketing truly is for everyone, so click here to contact us, and let us help you make it a winning part of your overall marketing strategy.
