The Power of Story and Storytelling
Storytelling can be the most powerful engagement tool in your communication, teaching, entertainment, art, and marketing.
We all love a good story!
We love telling stories and listening to them. We consume stories all day long. We tell stories to one another. We scroll through Instagram stories and TikToks. We binge-watch television shows on Netflix and stand in line for hours to get the latest novel by our favorite author.
Let’s agree that stories are powerful! Stories entertain and capture us. They move our attention from one emotion to another, from fear to hope, to terror, to laughter, to triumph. We wait months and sometimes years for the next Game of Thrones book or the HBO series to come out.
Sometimes, a story can touch a deeper dimension in you and help you change. A great story can help you make the moves you were hesitant to make, and sometimes that changes your life. The power of the story over us is in our brains and hearts, it is in our human wiring. We think in stories.
But what makes stories so special? Why do we resonate with stories so much? Why can storytelling be so powerful in your marketing toolkit? As it turns out, there are several reasons why stories are so impactful. Let's take a look at some of them.
The story is a way of communication that is older than language itself.
Stories are a timeless form of communication. We are wired for stories on a genetic level. A story can captivate, engage, and influence us in ways that other forms of communication cannot. We all know that stories are used to entertain, educate, and engage audiences. But what exactly makes stories so powerful?
Storytelling has been a timeless aspect of the human experience. Since the dawn of time—long before language was even invented people shared stories through drawings and signs to learn, tech, and survive. Our brains have been wired for stories since the cave days.
We use stories to make sense of the world around us and our place in it. Stories help us message what and why we need the things we ask for. Stories allow us to connect with one another and create a deeper emotional connection as a teller and listeners.
There is something really special about how as a reader, you start to care about fictional characters and how these characters start to live in your mind or on the screen.
We are wired for stories. This is why we get captivated so easily through stories.
Stories Help Us Escape from Our Everyday Lives
Another reason why stories are so powerful is that they allow us to escape from our everyday reality. Through stories, our minds can transport us to different worlds, real or imagined, the excitement of sitting on the edge of the chair while watching a movie or leaning closer and closer to the page while reading the last chapter is known to many.
Sometimes we learn something new while being emersed in the story. Stories can give us an experience without the risk of danger at the same time. This type of escapism allows us to take a break from hard and stressful reality, relax, recharge and get back to it with a refreshed mind and new perspectives. Through stories, we can explore something completely different without leaving our homes.
Understanding the Hero's Journey in Storytelling
Have you ever heard the phrase Hero’s Journey?
Hero’s Journey is a narrative structure that has been around for centuries and is still used in storytelling today. Also known as the monomyth, this narrative structure was first described by Joseph Campbell in 1949 and has been used in literature, film, television, gaming, and marketing. Let’s look at what the Hero’s Journey is and how to use it to craft an engaging story.
What Is the Hero's Journey?
The hero's journey describes an archetypical story about a hero who goes on an adventure, faces various challenges and adversaries, and ultimately returns home successfully with new knowledge or power. It consists of the three general acts and the 17 steps that take place over the three stages:
Departure - the hero leaves home.
Initiation - the hero experiences trials and tribulations.
Return - the hero finds their way back home.
Sidenote: In the future, we’ll discuss these and other story elements, also known as story beats, in detail.
Here are the 17 steps of the Hero's Journey
Ordinary World
Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Meeting with the Mentor
Crossing the First Threshold
Tests/Allies/Enemies
Approach to the Inmost Cave
Ordeal/Supreme Ordeal/Reward/Seizing the Sword
The Road Back
Resurrection
Transformation
Return with Elixir
Return Home
Reintegration into Society
New Life Begins
Master of Two Worlds
Freedom to Live
These steps show how our hero, the protagonist, transitions from being a regular person to becoming a superhero or legendary figure within their respective world or universe! This formula is often used by writers, filmmakers, game designers, and other creators to create engaging stories that will draw audiences in and keep them coming back for more.
The Hero’s Journey can be so helpful when it comes to creating compelling stories for YouTube videos, Instagram posts, TikToks, books, or even games. It provides an easy-to-follow story structure that helps make sure your content sticks with your audience long after they finish watching or reading it. If you want more advice on utilizing The Hero’s Journey for your creative endeavors, don’t hesitate to reach out - we would be more than happy to help.
Stories Can Be Used as a Tool for Marketing and Persuasion
Understanding why stories are so powerful and knowing story structure can help you tell your own stories better. Whether you’re writing for business, social media, marketing campaigns, or fiction, understanding how to craft an effective story will give you an edge over your competition. The more engaging your story is, the more likely people will remember it and be influenced by it—which means more sales for your business. Best marketing campaigns are the best because they persuade and influence through stories.
The majority of businesses, artists, influencers, brands, schools, and all of us share our stories digitally online and hope it resonates with people and we gain more followers, impressions, engagement, sales, and conversions. And, as far as story and marketing are concerned, in marketing, we tell stories through content, blog posts, Instagram reels, TikToks, or YouTube videos.
The best content that gains traction are stories that resonate with people. These storytelling elements will help you make better TikToks and Instagram stories or write your next essay or presentation.
Here is an example of a marketing story conversion formula that uses elements from the Hero’s journey. You can easily adapt it for your next post.
Story Conversion Formula
There are many ways to measure marketing effectiveness through impressions, site and page visits, content views, likes, and shares, but the conversion rate is the most important. The conversion rate measures how many units of sales/conversions you’ve generated with your marketing. And it always comes down to the copy.
The copy is the text, the script of the offer for whichever media form you will present. Your offer can be a video or written as a web page or an email, phone call script, meet and greet script, etc. All of the copy mentioned above comes from the master script, also known as the core story, master story, blueprint, or conversion story of the given brand or business.
There’s much written and explained about story power for the benefit of conversions and sales. Read a few fundamental advertising books. It will all be there, the Hero’s Journey and power of the story, how stories generate images in your consumer's mind, and how images and text help to bridge the gap between decision-making and purchasing in your prospect's mind.
Here is a story conversion formula template I’ve adopted for some copy in the past. Maybe these story elements can help you as a starting point for your next offer or post or whatever you’re doing.
Defining the ending.
First things first. What is the ending of your story? What happens at the end? Define the specific action you want your ideal reader or prospect to take. Is it subscribers you need or, let’s say, online purchases? That will be your ending call to action. If it’s purchasing, you ask your prospect to buy here by clicking on this. If it’s a subscription, you ask to subscribe here by clicking on this. So now that we have the ending and know where we’re going, let’s work on the beginning, the starting situation.
The Starting Situation.
The starting situation is where you state why someone might need to subscribe or buy something without selling the prospect anything. When you start at the absolute beginning, your starting situation is your prospects starting situation. People relate by recognizing their needs and desires in others. This helps us make connections. Describe the problem you’re solving. What problem is your subscription solving? This is where you engage people.
Tried and tested.
In tried and tested, you talk about your experience with this product. How others you’ve tried didn’t help you, but now finding a subscription service like this helped you solve your problem. Vivid stories of trying, failing, and prevailing help you earn credibility. Helps prospects relate to you. They think they can’t do it, they're not good enough, and they won't be able to do it. But they need to keep trying.
Breakthrough.
Consumers feel loyalty to products and services that help them gain consistent, predictable, and sustainable results. When a company gets a product right, customers feel like they found something special, like the iPhone or Amazon’s stellar service. Testimonials and reviews are great for this section.
Call to action.
Ask them to try whatever your offer is. This is where you place your ending. Be genuine and offer things that will benefit people, be specific. Tell them what exactly you want your ideal prospect to do through the power of storytelling.
Use these formulas, and you will see conversion improvement in your communication. I hope these above-described five elements of the story conversion formula can help you in your endeavors and increase your conversions.
This is a long article, around 1800 words, yet I feel like we barely touched the surface of the story's power, structure, emotional arcs, the three acts, different story beats, and so much more.
Obviously, if you’ve read so far, you may be a bit like me. You’re into stories and understand the power behind powerful storytelling techniques. Isn’t it amazing to have so much power? But there is so much more to write and talk about stories, so there will be more stories on zar.ink that will keep unpacking the power of story.
Please, subscribe with your email to the newsletter to be able to receive our news and find me on social media platforms. My username is the same as my name, @haykzar. Let’s be friends and tell stories together.
Thanks for reading!
Hayk