Master the Art of Storytelling

Proven Techniques for Copywriters

Why Storytelling Matters for Brands

Do you know how many message are thrown at us daily? In 1970 this was already around 500 to 1,600 ads per day according to a study done by Media Dynamics Inc at the time. So today this number is exponentially more. How many? 4000–10000. You can imagine whatever you try to tell people instantly drown in an ocean of messaging.

Image from Unsplash

The average person is only consciously aware of about 98 of those according to this study by Mark Blackwell. 

• 2.5% we are aware of.

Let alone retelling the story in it. That’s why your ad, the story you tell needs to be good, be memorable.

The Power of Storytelling in Copywriting

People buy based on emotions and justify with logic. When you use storytelling, you tap into your reader’s feelings, creating a bond that goes beyond mere product features. When that bond is there it becomes a lot harder to look at price as the all deciding factor.

Salt

One day I was at home, waiting for my girlfriend to come back from a night out with her friends. I was sitting on the couch going down the rabbit hole on YouTube.

Fleur de Sel, read on and you’ll see what this has to do with storytelling.

I like cooking, so I ran into a story on the difference of salt. About how the ocean would hit the beaches of warm coastal regions. How over centuries people there have had shallow pools that collected and trapped the water during highs and lows. How the sun would dry out the water and leave nothing but salt. The people would then come and manually scrape of the first top layer of what remained: Fleur de Sel. Sea salt in its purest form.

5 minutes later I found a webshop selling varieties of salt. 

Paid €25,- for a pound of salt. 

It tasted just like cheaper salt. 
But the story got to me.

Key Storytelling Techniques for Copywriters

1. Identify Your Hook

The hook is what grabs your reader’s attention right from the onset. It could be a provocative question, a surprising fact, or an unexpected statement. For example, “Did you know that most people waste 40% of their workday on tasks that don’t matter?” This technique ensures your story stands out in a crowded market.

2. Build Emotional Connection

Sell the hole, not the drill.

Storytelling that moves people typically resonates on an emotional level. Use relatable characters and challenges to draw readers into the world you’re creating. This can be achieved by using real customer stories, which provide authentic social proof and make your product or service more relatable or like in the example above, the history and effort that goes into something. Highlight how your product or service solves a problem or improves someone’s life. Sell the hole, not the drill.

Photo by Esteban López on Unsplash

3. The Hero’s Journey

This classic storytelling framework transforms your copy into a narrative. The Hero’s Journey is about creating a storyline where the protagonist, often your customer or client: 

• embarks on a journey,

• faces defeat or despair,

• overcomes a challenge, 

• achieves success (with the help of your product or service). 

This technique makes your message a lot more memorable and persuasive.

4. The Dance of Dialogue

Engage with your audience and make them part of the conversation. Use language they can relate to (so stop talking all specs) and rhetorical questions to engage them directly. Incorporating this kind of dialogue in your storytelling can make add a lot of dynamics and realism, bringing your characters to life and breaking up the long slabs of text.

5. Strong Narrative Arc

Every good story has the following three: beginning, middle, and end. This helps readers follow along without getting lost and ensures your message is effectively delivered. A well-structured narrative arc keeps your audience engaged to the story.

6. Future Pacing

This technique allows the reader to imagine themselves in their ideal future. By focusing on the singular benefit your product or service offers, you help readers visualize their dream life — the life they’d have after you help them overcome their problem. This method is particularly powerful in creating a compelling vision of what could be.

7. The Before-After-Bridge (B-A-B) or Problem-Agitation-Solution (PAS)

Simple yet effective techniques like these can move your prospect from focusing on features and tools to how your solution will tackle the issue they face in their life. 

Start by showing the reader their world before your solution (the problem they face and hate), then transition to the improved state after using your product or service, and then, close the gap by explaining how your solution achieves this transformation.

Emotionally Driven Copy

This is the art of poking into your audience’s desires, guilty pleasure, fears, and aspirations instead of solely presenting facts or features. Might take you a while to figure it out, but once you do. Making use of the emotions in them, you‘ll create messages that truly penetrate the wall they unconsciously built up against advertising.

• Focus on Emotionally Charged Language: Use words that evoke emotions relevant to your message. ”Love,” “freedom,” or “success” can evoke positive emotions, and on the other side: “fear,” “loss,” or “miss out” can stimulate a sense of urgency or anxiety. 
  Bet you’ve seen that “Miss out” being used around Black Friday 😉

• Use Sensory Descriptions: Incorporate descriptions that appeal to the senses to make your copy more tangible, vivid and immersive. This allows your audience to visualize the story you’re building. Smell the green grass on the pastures walking through the hills in Ireland? Exactly that.

• Align with Their Values and Beliefs: Understand what matters most to your audience and align your copy with that. Highlight how your product or service fulfils or aligns with their values or contributes to their beliefs. That way you can create a stronger connection based on emotions that motivates action and start to overrule logic.

Engaging Your Audience

To spark engagement, comments, shares, and other interactions, your copy needs to resonate deeply with your audience.

• Pose Questions: Start with questions that make readers think and want to find out the answer. For instance, “What if you could double your productivity with just one simple change?”.

• Create Controversy or Curiosity: Sometimes, sparking a bit of controversy or curiosity can drive engagement. For example, challenging a common myth or presenting an unconventional solution can encourage readers to participate in the discussion.

Stop Merely Communicating, Start Telling Stories

Using the art of storytelling is not just about telling a story as you see. It’s about creating a story that draws people into your brand’s offer. That makes them forget logic, because it resonates with them on an emotional level. Use techniques like the hook, emotional connections, the Hero’s Journey, and emotionally charged language and soon you’ll craft copy that captivates, that inspires, that drives action. 

Remember, behind every purchasing decision, even for salt, lies an emotional impulse waiting to be ignited by skillfully crafted copy.

So what’s gonna be the story to your salt?