Service Business

Storytelling - what does a good story consist of?

Do you want to tell your customers about the brand you create? This is a very good solution as long as you know well how the story should be constructed. A good structure of the story allows you to interest and keep the audience's attention, guiding them as if in a string through the successive twists and turns to the moral. Storytelling has rules that are worth following in order for your story to sound its best!

Storytelling - what do you need to know about a good story?

A well-told story turns out to be a magnet for the audience and it has its justification. We like to listen to interesting stories and we easily identify with their heroes. Pictures drawn with words remain in our imaginations longer and are more suggestive than the rigid facts given in tables and graphs. That is why storytelling is so eagerly chosen by many marketing and advertising specialists.

However, does every story reach the audience in a similar way? Storytelling experts have identified six different types of storylines that particularly appeal to the audience - these are stories such as "who am I?", "Why am I here?", "I know what you are thinking", learning stories, stories about values in action and the presentation of a vision . All types, however, share certain characteristics that form the backbone of the story.

What does storytelling have to do with a school essay?

Do you remember from school times the statement repeated by Polish teachers that a good essay must have an introduction, development and ending? There were also certain proportions, according to which the introduction or the ending could not be too long in relation to the development, etc. It is similar with the story - it is also constructed from three important elements:

context
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moral

Although the aforementioned ratio of the length of each of the parts is not so important anymore, the sequence of these elements is important. The context allows the listener to be introduced to the atmosphere of the story, the characteristics of the characters, the specificity of time and place. Action is everything that happens in a specific context. The moral - as it happens in stories - summarizes and gives the message. Let's look at each of the elements separately.

Context

Context is a very important element of the story, the proper introduction to it. Although many storytellers ignore the context or treat it casually, it can have a decisive influence on the listeners' further reactions and their emotional attitude to the story. A well-presented context makes it possible to properly understand the message of the story being told. In order to give your audience the context of the story well, you should ask yourself four questions before starting the story:

Who is the main character of the story?
Where and when does the story take place?
What obstacles does the hero face?
What is its purpose?

If you pass the answers to these questions to your audience, you create context for the story. The form in which it will be presented is entirely up to you - however, it is important that it appears in the early stages of the story.

What the action of your story will be depends on what type of story you choose. A very often used model, however, is the one based on failures, from which the protagonist draws appropriate conclusions, persistently strives for success and ultimately achieves it. Almost always, the key element for all story types are obstacles or hostile characters - so think about how your hero will have to overcome them. Obstacles will build up an element of tension throughout history, but remember that there must not be too many of them either.

Moral

It is an important part of almost every story. Just like in a fairy tale, and in marketing storytelling, the moral crowns the story and presents what the heroes learned during their adventure, what conclusions they drew, what they achieved, etc. useful for advice.

Once you choose the right type of story and fine-tune each of the above-mentioned elements of your storytelling, take into account the emotions that appear in the story. Decide which emotional labeling is appropriate for your brand - do you choose to be a go-getter, strong emotional stimuli, or a calm and subdued family atmosphere? When you have buttoned everything up, all you have to do is present the story to your audience. Good storytelling will attract them to your brand like a magnet.