8 Tips That Will Help Your Storytelling Deliver – Entrepreneur

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Youve likely heard the saying that Companies dont sell products, they sell stories, which is at least partially true. To seduce todays consumers, its critical to show them more than flashy merchandise, as their Instagram feeds are already awash in glossy photos of the latest luxe loungewear, NFL merch, dating advice a myriad of pitches. To differentiate a company, you need to tell a story, to engage their values, and to create a sense of community and connection. This is why Jack Daniels claims that it has been turning nights into stories since 1866, and why Ancestry.com promises that behind every question is a story. Even the U.S. Forest Service is in on the tactic, encouraging Americans to make the forest part of your familys story.

But of course, storytelling can also run the risk of becoming another corporate clich, an empty platform that entrepreneurs trot out to make their companies simply seem relevant. Savvy consumers and investors will then likely tune out, their eyes glazing over when they hear yet another warm and fuzzy invocation of corporate values in a shopworn yarn. Far too many companies tout stories without any substance or commitment, trafficking in a limited, and limiting, understanding of this actually nuanced communication technique. Entrepreneurs need powerful language and narrative to create meaningful connections, but to do so, its critical to think more intentionally about what storytelling is and how to do it in a way that will create lasting value.

For all the emphasis business leaders place on innovation and disruption, we sure love clichs. Scrolling through LinkedIn is like playing buzzword Mad Libs. Another floundering founder turned serial entrepreneur, followed by another ex-private equity, ex-Facebook, ex-Google accelerator grad bootstrapping a way to fame and glory? So, first and foremost, take off the turtleneck and tellyourstory, not Steve Jobs. If your business has a unique history or an uncommon path to success, celebrate that. Embrace what distinguishes you, not what reduces you to a predictable caricature.

Related: The Reason Good Businesses Tell Boring Stories

This was likely your creative writing teachers favorite lesson, and for good reason. However, telling a story isnt like writing an English paper; you dont need to have a thesis statement in the first paragraph, and you dont want to hit your audience over the head with multisyllabic words that are too witty by half. Good storytellersshowtheir audience instead oftellingthem. Use anecdotes instead of elaborate justifications, examples instead of conclusions. Follow this rule, and your copy will come alive.

Storytelling is about connection. Recent good examples include how Dollar Shave Club capitalized on a comic monologue to groom a dull topic (puns intended), razors, into an edgy backstory. Or consider how Milton, Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewery, among the founders of the micro-brewing revolution, links its beers to things like the Grateful Dead. These are more than focus-grouped marketing decisions; they represent a companys human realness in a way that creates connection.

You want to be honest and human with customers and investors, but you dont want to overshare. Its a fine line, and finding it takes time and practice. The more you experiment with a story, the more details will emerge that lend it life and humanity, and the more youll identify the duds: anecdotes that fall flat or sound whiny. To help, we designed the app Biograph to tell and gather stories in real time, since memory fades and never does justice to the vibrant reality of original experience.

Storytelling takes many forms, but good practitioners of the art have at least one thing in commonthey respond to their audience, shifting style, tone and narrative to meet or challenge its expectations and reactions. Because, the vibe of a room can shape or stymie an approach, and so can the zeitgeist. Witness the missteps of a company like Tushy, a start-up selling portable bidets.After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, it tweeted support of the Black Lives Matter Movement, smearing posts with toilet humor. We stand in solidarity with the families and loved ones of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Keep fighting. We got your back(side), read one. Talk about not reading the room. So, be prepared to shift approach for different audiences and settings. Dont get locked into one story or one way of telling it. Cultivate flexibility, and by the way, your moms golden rule still applies: if you dont have anything nice to say, dont say anything at all.

So far, this creative process overall sounds great, right? Youre creating a connection, a community, with customers and investors. Every entrepreneur wants that, but unless the stories you tell reflect your core values, chances are the resulting narratives and tales will unravel. Good stories reflect, as well as create, our values; theyre how we know ourselves and others, and how we help others know us. Take the case of the jewelry brand Dannijo, which advertises its commitment to doing good in part by using the phrase that its, label is rooted in philanthropy. Sounds like another clich, but listen to how the writer(s) weaves products and values into a meaningful story: [Our] debut in 2007 was a fundraising project for the first health clinic in Lwala, Kenya. Danielles time in Kenya subsequently influenced the brands iconic collection of Maasai-inspired bib necklaces, usage of bright colors and its bold aesthetic. Briskly worded, and compelling.

Its not enough to say how important your commitment to philanthropy is. Unless you can connect it to your experience, values and story, itll ring false. So, before you start telling a tired corporate chronicle, spend time reflecting on your values as an entrepreneur and an enterprise. Assemble stakeholders and focus groups. Understand where youre coming from and where youre going. The best stories will grow from that.

Related: 3 Steps to Establish Authentic Core Values

What happens when a story reallylands when it lights a fire in an investor or inspires lifelong loyalty in a customer? How does that happen? Its certainly part magic, beyond the boundaries of rational explanation, but part also springs from an elemental connection at the level of values. Take, for example, John Lewis Insurances YouTube 2015 commercial, in which music, humor and gentle risk are synergized as the camera follows a little girl dancing around the house, nearly colliding with vases and potted plants. Not exactly an inspiring business subject, but the company hones in on values that connect us to truly precious things. It also describes the freedom felt when people have the right insurance transforming a policy from a depressing chore into something inspiring. You can create the same connection if you focus on your customers values and weave a tale from there.

PepsiCos Naked Juice recently got caught slinging fiction: the company claimed this product line was all natural and non-GMO. Turns out, not so much, and the resulting scandal de-fizzed its bottom line. It also soured relationships with customers people who trusted PepsiCo to be open and honest. Its always better to be honest from the first sip, because nobody likes a bait and switch, a broken vow or bubbly hopes flattened against reality. Its part corporate strategy (you must first commit to honesty and transparency), but its also a narrative matter. Try turning down the volume. Avoid purple prose. Simple storytelling hits home and inspires trust conveys that youre not hiding anything in the thickets of language.

Related: Why Entrepreneurs Are Well-Equipped to Write Powerful Books

So, dont promise that your scented candles will put consumers in touch with the eternal, or that your energy drink will turn teenagers into honey-tongued raconteurs. Customers and investors will know youre telling a tall tale, and a stale one. Be honest about who you are and what your product or service does. Save your time and experience for when you cantell real, meaningful stories and truly deliver on their promise.

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8 Tips That Will Help Your Storytelling Deliver - Entrepreneur