Four Keys to Content That Drives Action

Have you ever wondered why some things you read or watch compel you to want to take action and some things simply entertain you?

I've wondered about this a lot. I've spent most of my career trying to create better communication that drives action from either a screen or a stage.
But I never really knew why something worked or didn't work until I had a framework to compare different pieces of content to.

In 2018, I was introduced to and trained in the Story Brand framework and things started to make more sense. I had the framework that I needed to do good comparisons between different pieces of content that we created.
The more you can turn messaging into a story format, the more it will engage people. People love stories.

Most of us resonate with a good story more than we resonate with logic or facts. That's generally why storytellers who paint a clearer picture of the future beat policy wonks in elections, and actors and rock stars generally have bigger followings than accountants.

For the record, I love wonks and accountants. I worked in finance for a time and I have a business degree, so I have spent my fair share of time building spreadsheets.

The main 4 things that I've learned about telling great stories that drive action are:

1. Make sure you're telling the story from the right perspective. In marketing material, we tend to make ourselves and our companies the heroes. You'll get more buy-in if you make your customers the hero of the story and position yourself as the wisened guide, working to help them accomplish their goals.

2. Set up the problem that you're solving for your customers or audience really well. Good stories don't exist without good problems to solve. The better you set up the problem, the better the engagement you'll have with your audience.

3. Tell how you or your organization can uniquely solve the problem you've set up. Talk about yourself only in the context of how your expertise helps your client. People are always listening for how something affects them, so when you talk about what you do, tell them just how it helps your audience.

4. Give one clear call to action. It's hard to get someone to take a next step. It's lightning in a bottle to get someone to do two next steps. Just ask for one thing and people are more likely to do it.

There are, of course, lots of other things that make a great story: humor, aspirational identities, stakes, time devices, and much more. For tips on more creativity check out my blog here, and here.

But starting with the above points gives me criteria to evaluate why something worked or didn't work. Happy storytelling!