The Art of Storytelling: The No BS Guide

Occasionally, when I meet new people and I’m asked what I do for living, I get a blank, glazed look in return when I give my answer.

‘I’m a copywriter,' seems straightforward enough. But you’d be surprised at the number of people it seems to flummox.

Sometimes people confuse it with ‘copyright’ or ‘copyrighting’. Sometimes people think it’s all about ‘copying’. Others just ask, ‘What’s copy?’

I should, perhaps, cut my losses, avoid any possible confusion and just say…

‘I’m a storyteller.’

Because that’s what I am. At least people would understand that.

Everybody loves a good story

Before I became a freelance copywriter, I was a teacher. This essentially means I was a storyteller back then too.

As an English and Media specialist I perhaps dealt in ‘stories’ more than most teachers do, but all teachers are storytellers.

Subject knowledge is a prerequisite quality of a good teacher. However, being able to get important information across in an engaging way, motivating your ‘audience’, and making a subject or topic more about them (the pupil) than you (the teacher) are all vital components of great teaching.

And, in a nutshell, all those qualities are what you need for great storytelling too.

During my years in the classroom, I came across my fair share of ‘reluctant readers’, but I have never ever come across a single person of any age, ability, shape, size, class, colour, creed, race or religion who doesn’t like a damn good story.

From the days of the cavemen, and the stories they daubed on rocks (the original cartoons), through theatre, film, TV - to the visual storytelling of Instagram Stories, billions of people have fallen in love with stories over the centuries. They will continue to do so.

Why storytelling is important to your brand

Stories have always been popular. They’ve always ‘sold’ and they’ve always put bums on seats. Brand storytelling might just be another spin of an art form that dates back to Paleolithic times. BS (not to be confused with another acronym using the same letters) is certainly a hot topic and buzzword.

But don’t underestimate the power of brand storytelling. Don’t dismiss it as a passing fad, and don’t misunderstand what it is and isn’t.

Storytelling isn’t cramming your ‘About Us’ page or LinkedIn profile with the tiniest minutiae of detail about ‘your journey’. Customers don’t want to know your life story. They want to know what you can do for them.

Storytelling isn’t every piece of content you share, an advert or a sales pitch. It isn’t an anecdote about something (you think is) ‘interesting’ that has happened to your brand.

In fact, storytelling isn’t really about your brand or you at all. It’s about your audience.

Storytelling is about your customers and what your brand stands for. It’s about connecting, interacting and showing your audience that they share the same values as you.

What makes a good storyteller?

Knowing a story inside-out doesn’t necessarily make somebody a good storyteller. Great storytellers fine-tune their set of skills in order to educate, entertain and engage their audience.

The process of storytelling and the ‘how to’ of telling a story can wait for another time. For now, it’s just worth remembering why people love stories in the first place.

First published on LinkedIn.