Did you know that messages delivered through a story can be up to 22 times more memorable than just facts?
I'd say no wonder given that stories provoke emotions, refer to our own experiences (when planned and told well) and so engage our subconscious minds.
In our information, channels and apps overload era, that's a pretty significant number for businesses to consider when they are trying to engage with consumers or any other stakeholder group. Good stories can clearly sell.
A lot of companies jumped on the bandwagon of storytelling or should I say on content creation as we saw the benefits in terms of SEO and user engagement.
But as the mass of content grew bigger and our attention spans got shorter, that focus on quantity versus quality is not doing you a favour anymore.
What businesses, PR and marketing professionals alike need are fewer, but better stories that can capture hearts and minds at scale.
We call this break through storytelling that can cut through the noise.
Planning for this is easier than executing on it so let me help you with that.
A few years back, I developed an infographic on how to tell break through stories based on a workshop that I attended run by Petra Sammer from Ketchum - an absolute expert on storytelling!
The infographic below guides you through each and every step of how to create remarkable stories: from planning the why of your story, defining its hero, conflict and emotions, to giving it viral power.
My biggest piece of advice, though, is to take this seriously and invest the time in planning, developing, creating and measuring stories.
You are probably underestimating the amount of effort and energy needed to do this well so rather than spending a ton of time writing mediocre blog posts, shift your focus to fewer but breakthrough stories and campaigns.
I hope the infographic helps you get there!
How do you tell break through stories?