Stories have always played an important role in marketing because they play an essential role in how we communicate — and if you want to be successful in marketing, you need to understand communication.
Stories matter because they’re how our brains are wired to learn. Throughout our time as a species, we’ve told each other stories to convey important things like where to find water, what berries are safe to eat, and when we should migrate from one area to another.
Stories also help create bonds between the teller and the listener — especially happy stories.
For a marketer, stories create an opportunity to relay information in a way that gets remembered and that builds trust with the audience.
In the past year alone, the number of job descriptions on LinkedIn that use the term storytellerdoubled.
With trust being at an all-time low on the internet — according to research reported by Talker Research, 78% of Americans “agree that the internet has ‘never been worse’ when it comes to differentiating between what’s real and artificial” — it’s no wonder companies are looking for marketers and copywriters who understand storytelling.
There’s another advantage, too. AI tools can’t replicate personal stories. So, incorporating true stories into content-marketing campaigns makes them stand out. It makes them memorable. It can also make it easier for them to rank on search pages, get cited by AI search tools, and get shared on social media.
You, as a savvy digital copywriter, likely see an opportunity here. A big one.
Why Now Is the Time to Start Seeing Stories Everywhere
If you want to be a storyteller, you need to learn to see the story possibilities that are already there for the taking.
If you’re like most copywriters, the chance to be creative in your work and to use your love of words to earn a living is what brought you to this lifestyle and career choice… at least in part. So, you probably already feel confident in your ability to weave a story into your work.
The thing that will differentiate you is being able to find the stories that will strike a chord with your audience.
And that means becoming a story collector.
What Is a Story Collector?
A story collector is someone who recognizes the potential for a good story, who knows how to tease out the details, and who holds onto the story for just the right moment to share.
Step 1: Know Where to Look and What to Look For
The first step to becoming a story collector is to understand that there are stories everywhere.
Here are just a few to keep an eye out for…
Product Development Stories: What process did a client go through to create the product you’re writing about? Ask about the decisions they made along the way, the details of the product and why they are the way they are, the moments of frustration and revelation that the product development team experienced… all of these things can go into writing a story about a product that reveals the care and purpose of the people behind it.
Company Origin Stories: How did the company you’re writing for come into being in the first place? Ask about its original mission, the values it holds dear, what it wants for its customers, and how it’s grown and changed over time. You’ll likely uncover several stories worth telling here.
Customer Success Stories: What experiences have customers had with the product or company? Ask about what led them to seek out a solution to a problem, what their life was like before finding a solution, why they chose your client’s product or service, and how it’s worked for them. These kinds of stories help your audience to see themselves using and benefiting from a product.
Everyday Experiences: Think about how day-to-day experiences can illustrate or relate something important about a product or service. Things like gardening, playing sports, people watching, and traveling can provide a new way of understanding a familiar problem in the context of a story.
Lessons Learned: Talk to your client about hardships they’ve overcome, mistakes they’ve made and lessons they’ve learned the hard way. These can lead to relatable stories that help create a bond with the audience.
Defining Moments: Also talk to your clients about the moments where they discovered something profound about themselves or that changed the way they think.
Draw from History: History is full of discoveries, stories of perseverance, and surprising and inspiring tales from real people’s lives… all things you can draw lessons from or use to illustrate an insight about a product or service.
Draw From Media and Conversations, Too: Conversations with friends, movies you watch, books you read, podcasts you listen to — they are all full of story possibilities.
Step 2: Create a Simple System
The second step to being a story collector is to… collect the stories you encounter.
When you have a good system for capturing stories, you’ll always have them right at your fingertips, so you can pull out the right story to support whatever situation or campaign you’re working on.
Your story capture system doesn’t have to be complicated.
Start by setting up a folder or file on the note taking app on your phone. As you go through your day, take note of the story opportunities you come across. Jot down a sentence or two — just enough to jog your memory when you come back later.
Then once a week, go through your story notes. Flesh out each story enough, so that when you come back to it, you’ll know why you captured it in the first place. Especially note the details that will bring the story to life or who you might need to interview to develop the story further. It doesn’t hurt to write down the ideas you have for where you might use the story in the future.
As this file grows, you’ll be able to refer to it both for your marketing materials and for the content and copy you’re writing for clients.
For example, a couple of weeks ago, I attended a screening for i48, a film festival where the entrants have just 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and submit a short film.
From that experience I noted the following:
- Marketing without respect loses the audience. One of the films was a thinly veiled commercial (AI slop), and it got booed.
- Doing a lot with a little — working under such a tight timeline — requires you to think about how to make the best use of resources and to leverage what you have. That’s important when creating any content, even when you have more time.
- Plan, but not forever. It’s easy to get caught up in the planning stages, to want to consider every little thing. But it’s better to spend a set amount of time planning as best you can and then quickly start executing on your plan.
- Crazy deadlines force you to get creative. Set a big goal and a short deadline, clear your schedule, and see what happens.
These notes are four story ideas I can use for my own blog, email newsletter, and LinkedIn posts. I can also draw from them in the future for clients who have information products around creativity or marketing.
Using the Stories You Collect
Now, whenever you’re thinking about writing a piece of content for a client, whether it’s a sales letter, a landing page, an email newsletter, a social media post, or something else, review your stories and see if one connects well with the point you want to make.
If you have an ongoing relationship with a client, think about the top three topics they talk about and start keeping those things in mind as you collect and make notes about stories.
For example, my three topics are user experience, content strategy, and human connection. Anything I write about, any story I tell, I’ll connect it back to one of those three things.
Figure out your clients’ main topics in the same way, and you’ll streamline this process even more.
When you become known as someone who can uncover a good story and use it to boost a marketing campaign, it will set you apart as a writer and help you land better clients.