Marketing has always balanced on the edge between art and business. It is the intersection of words and numbers – a no-man's land where stories can be told, desires born, and attitudes formed.
A good marketing story is told with ease, but leaves a lasting impression. It not only attracts attention, but also holds it – with depth, meaning, emotionally impacting elements and precise selection of expressive means.
That's why this story is so enticing to share – it doesn't sell products, it creates desires. It doesn't advertise a product, it provokes a need to satisfy a certain need – be it real or newly created.
To tell a good story, a skilled writer must know their audience and their needs, have a reasonable assumption about their attitudes, and be able to transform selling into an act of art. And while there is a spark of improvisation in every good story, here are the essential components you should definitely consider when sketching out your draft.
Hero
Every story needs a protagonist – whether it’s a person, an object, a phenomenon, or anything else. Unfortunately, it’s often mistakenly assumed that this protagonist is the business itself. This reflects on the final product and robs it of much of its charm and effectiveness. That’s why professional copywriting agencies always place a huge emphasis on this key component – creating characters that are vivid, memorable, and most importantly, relatable to the reader. This, in effect, turns the reader into a hero – which is exactly the goal of any good marketing story.
Purpose
The goal of a good marketing story is to show an easier, better, more seamless version of reality, and then to show how to make that version happen. The best stories are rooted in reality, in this case, the buyer’s profile, their immediate concerns, long-term goals, and dreams. The high level of personalization of the story creates an excellent effect when the marketing campaign is properly targeted. This way, the character’s goal coincides with the customer’s goal, and the two together – with the business’s goals.
Read more: Marketing during a pandemic: how to prepare your business for the consequences of the crisis?
Obstacles
Victory is not sweet when it is not won. That is why a story without obstacles cannot arouse much interest, nor create real drive and longing to achieve the ultimate goal. The story of overcoming difficulties is one of the most important characteristics of a winning campaign – it can tell a vivid story about the ways in which the business breaks down barriers and leads the consumer to their cherished goal.
Mentoring
A story rarely succeeds by wags its finger and “teaches” immutable truths about life. By this logic, winning business and marketing stories are, above all, mentors – they guide the client on their path to their goal, suggest successful moves, and provide the most direct path to achieving goals, without doing so in an overly invasive, pushy, and aggressive manner.
Honesty
Even the best marketing story is meaningless if it uses an outright lie. Winning the consumer’s trust is the most important victory that guarantees an ever-increasing number of satisfied and loyal customers. That’s why a good story must be realistic – show the full picture, not be afraid of its vulnerability and preserve the human face of the brand.
Because story is the universal language that unites people. And the only way to maintain a strong, positive brand is to make it speak that language.
