How to Create a Persuasive Story Using This Simple Technique [SlideShare]
Storytelling is a buzzword that has inspired more passion recently. Presenting information as a story rather than a rational selection of facts increases a brand's engagement and memorability. The demand for intentional, compelling, and result-oriented videos, speeches, and presentations from brand marketers is what lead the Setup team to attend a General Assembly workshop on persuasive storytelling.
Daniel Roberts, CEO of Friendly Human, started his presentation by challenging the audience to make their next story their best. The problem with current storytelling patterns is that they’re only effective for narratives. Instead of using the tried-and-true story arcs and hero’s journey (monomyth), a more effective method is incorporating a message that will move people, and most importantly, persuade.
Roberts explained that persuasive storytelling starts with identifying the "what is," the intended audience’s unappealing current status quo, and introducing the "what could be," the audience's desired destination. This process is called Sparkline, a methodology he learned from a TED talk by writer, speaker, and CEO of the largest design firm in Silicon Valley, Nancy Duarte. Duarte created the Sparkline to illustrate and visualize the arc of storytelling persuasion. After trial and error, she drew a basic shape and realized it worked when she overlaid it with Steve Jobs’ iPhone launch in 2007 and, by contrast, with Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
See related - Marketing Experts Share Storytelling Tips for Brands
Check out the SlideShare presentation below for more details about Sparkline and Daniel’s advice for crafting a powerful brand story. And remember this: “People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.”