There’s been a fevered interest in the art of storytelling among the marketing crowd recently.
The masters and the hacks alike are thumping from every available pulpit that storytelling is the most powerful device on earth in regard to human influence.
We are told that story — applied to salesmanship, preaching, advertising, conversation, marketing, songwriting, and blogging — contains the power to deliver the world to the deft storyteller’s door.
This is correct.
But what is a well-told story? How do we know we’re getting down to the true thing?
Libraries are filled with books on craft. You can (and should) read everything from Aristotle to McKee to get your chops. Today, let’s get into a simple note or two from the pen of a contemporary legend.
David Mamet, America’s greatest living playwright, has forgotten more about all this than ten internet marketing gurus sipping mojitos in San Jose will ever know.
A few months ago, a memo surfaced, written by Mamet to the clan of writers working on his television show. This little “memo,” as Movieline states, is actually more a master class in writing and storytelling.
Let’s let Mamet take us to school …
Information is … information
The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in and stay tuned in to watch drama. ~ David Mamet
50,000 people were waiting. Untold thousands would watch online in the hours and days ahead.
He walked onto the dark stage in faded jeans and running shoes at 10 am sharp. In his right hand was a simple clicker that moved the images behind him as he spoke.
For two hours, the audience laughed, roared and gasped as the unassuming everyman showed them exactly what they wanted. And then gave it to them, in spades.
Steve Jobs runs one of the greatest theater companies on earth.
What is drama?
Drama, again, is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him from achieving a specific, acute goal. ~ David Mamet
He landed in this country a small child with nothing but his family. He grew up oppressively poor, but found early on that he had a taste for hard work and persuasion.
He was going to make it in this new world. No matter what.
With a Big Wheel and a fistful of pocket change, he worked to find in-demand products to sell to his buddies in the neighborhood. The kid from Belarus was on the move …
A chain of lemonade stands.
A baseball card empire.
Earning four-figures a week before turning teen.
Then it came to an end. His father demanded he show up every day at the family liquor store to carry out the most menial tasks in the place. Day after day, week after week, he slogged it out for a fraction of what he’d been making on his own.
A few years later, flipping through a wine magazine, he made a connection between the guys who’d bought his baseball cards and his father’s customers that collected wine.
From packing boxes in the basement, to shipping wine out the door, he grew the family business from $4 million to $60 million in less than ten years.
Gary Vaynerchuk was only getting started.
Who cares about drama? I’m in business
If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it will bore the actors, and will, then, bore the audience, and we’re all going to be back in the breadline. ~ David Mamet
Read Mamet’s first quote again, about what the audience will or will not tune in to watch (or read, or listen to).
The Information Age is coming to a close. It is crumbling around the ancient foundation of the human desperation for meaningful story, unadorned truth, and compelling drama that holds a mirror to life.
Information is simultaneously too much and not enough.
Information is impotent to reach the hearts and minds of those who can use your idea, product, or service.
If you think I’m swerving into hyperbole, check in with the infobesity epidemic.
Or the minimalist revival.
Story is virile, rare, unforgettable. And when done well, more true than plain fact.
You, me, Mamet — we all eat or starve in direct proportion to how good (and truthful) a story we tell.
Every marketer a playwright.
Each prospect an audience.
Every retweet a ticket to your show.
Enter, stage left …
About the Author: Robert Bruce is VP of Marketing for Copyblogger Media, as well as its Resident Recluse. Get more from him via Twitter or Google+.
Lost of people use the tactic to do story telling to advertise or just up sale something, and when done right it can be very powerful and fulling.
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
I couldn’t agree more.
That’s why i don’t like some websites like ezinearticles. You have the feeling that you’re reading something really informative and at the end you discover that the guy was kind shaping the story so that he could in the end place his affiliate link
Lolz,
You are correct. I don’t like it too. But still its one of best method to generate leads and getting traffic. People are using it and they will continue to do it.
I agree that it’s kind of a bummer to see the impending affiliate link at the end of a very detailed article on a product/service/whatever, but you do have to realize that (if it’s coming from a trusted source) that the article still stands on it’s own merits.
If you are going to put time and effort into a detailed post accurately and truthfully describing something, it’s not such a big deal to list an affiliate link once you’ve made your case, and as pointed out by many others here it is a great conversion tactic.
Story telling triggers our mind to be imaginative and creative. This is why older people seems like to be more intelligent compared to us now because their minds were always exercised to be imaginative. Today, most of us were spoon fed by something that we ought to think about.
Story telling is really great and it can indeed be applied in marketing. The key? Helping your audience see themselves having your product giving them exactly what they need.
This is smart.
Thank-you for the dramatic tips that inspire us all.
GiRLStreetVintage on Etsy
I loved this post about story telling.
For years, while I was running an IT consulting business, I took many creative writing courses at the College of DuPage, over the years. You learned to tell a story in many formats – screen plays, novels, short stories, poetry, etc.
In the past three years, I’ve turned my attention to technology marketing communications. But telling stories is central.
In fact, I have seen great quotes from copywriters Dan Kennedy and John Carlton, on utilizing stories for sales literature. Heck! Clayton Makepeace and his band of direct response bloggers, bring home that point – again and again.
“Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these…what might have been.” – William Shakespeare
Randy
Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller of all time…his comedies (and tragedies too) keep the reader riveted, hooked on every word, breathless to find what will unfold at the next scene. Robert Bruce had almost the same effect. He definitely tells a good story and nothing appeals to a reader better than that. Mamet knows his stuff.
Very nice read! Thanks for the same. I come to online marketing via a decade in animation. So I have never underestimated the importance of storytelling.
About drama…its a coincidence but just the other day I wrote on Mitch Joel’s blog (If I remember right), regarding his podcast with Mark Schaefer, that it lacked ‘drama’. This was half in jest but it was true that the podcast did lack the drama of the written to and fro, in the comments section, on the original blog (Bringing down the Twitter snobs http://www.businessesgrow.com/2010/10/26/bringing-down-the-twitter-snobs/)
Robert,
Inspirational. Mamets words with the concrete examples of the great entrepreuers who have gone out there and, “made it happen” is awesome and very true.
It is all in presentation.
Drama and keeping interest! Awesome. Thank you very much for the inspiration and lesson.
I too have noticed the trend of story-telling in marketing, but it didn’t occur to me that this marks the end of the Information Age.
I think you are absolutely right – people don’t just want lists of statistics or the latest scientific research – they want something they can relate to. They want something they can embody, and something that has purpose and direction, struggle and triumph.
Undoubtedly, there will always be a place for reason and empirical evidence, but if we can’t weave that into a meaningful story, then people won’t pay attention.
Love the first quote as well!
The trend of storytelling in marketing probably goes back to when the first beads and amulets were traded for meat and nuts and berries.
Marketing is just communication. (“Here’s what I’ve got. Here’s why it’s good. Here’s what I want in exchange.”) And storytelling is and has always been the most powerful way to communicate.
The nice thing about the new communication technology is that it lets us tell longer, more complex stories over time. That was hard to do with print, direct mail, or traditional broadcast media because they’re expensive.
Before working marketing & Communications, I worked at a summer camp with an English Lit. degree. I stressed to the campers and staff alike that the right story could create an army – for whatever purpose we need.
As I started my “real life career”, I have come to find out just how true that statement was.
A wise young colleague of mine from Leads, UK said this to our campers: “You’ve heard how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well a story tells a thousand pictures.” – smart kid.
* Leeds
Just saying……
Cool post – the story telling resource for both understanding stories and actually writing them is The Hero’s Journey. Either check out Chris Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey). Or go directly to Joseph Campbel for the source material – The Hero With A 1000 Faces.
The Campbell/Joseph Moyers lectures are well worth watching on DVD too – The Power oF myth i think they are called.
HTH.
Paul
If you’re a fan of Campbell (and Vogler’s adaptation), Robert McKee will probably interest you a lot. He gets right into the marrow of story structure. He has a screenwriting manual called Story that’s an amazingly rich resource.
Sonia
I’m familiar with Story – I think my dog eared copy was from teh first print run in the UK. But from a writing point of view I find the Hero’s Journey connects storytelling to the human experience in a much more elegant fashion than McKee’s theories.
Back in the day when I wrote screenplays and novels I used the Hero’s Journey to write and some of McKee’s material for editing.
I’ve heard great things about his ‘Story’ seminar though – and would love to experience that in real life.
Paul
Great Post, was writing an article when i read this and after reading it, I couldn’t help but add a personal story to the article i was working on. And guess what? In the end, it did turn out to make more sense than the initial informative, rather than narrative version i had written.
Thanks for sharing!
Brilliant! I’m just starting a blog for my freelance copywriting website and in need of writing inspiration … this was just what the doctor ordered. Thank you!
Love telling a story.
It makes writing fun, which leads to the reader having more fun reading it. WIN WIN.
Awesome post Robert, well written.
Chat soon
Dwayne
David Mamet over Woody Allen? Oh, the scandal…
Seriously, though… This post needed to be written. Right now. On this site.
That said, I don’t believe we’re at the close of the information age. I think we’re inputting and processing information in a different fashion than ever before, but I hardly think we’re becoming bloated with knowledge.
As one of the freaks who actually reads white papers and tech specs for fun, I respectfully disagree that “the audience” won’t tune in for information. In fact, I think the heart of this statement rests with one of the critical rules of marketing: know thy audience.
We’ll likely agree that the high road is not paved with plastic, but that doesn’t mean the low road is any less captivating for its travelers. Stories take as many forms as there are storytellers, just as a poem has as many interpretations as it does readers.
This post has given me a bit to think about, and for that I thank you.
Also, big thanks for linking to that Unit memo. Good stuff.
Woody is, of course, the man. just not as quotable overall
I think you make a good distinction between information and knowledge. Might argue it’s simply semantic, but it makes the point fairly clearly.
Knowledge, well crafted, is always valuable. It’ll carry well over distraction, disinterest as well as the appointment to get new tires on the car.
Mere information is heartless, and evaporates quickly, even in technical circles. A scientific research paper will never, and shouldn’t be, a novel. But there is story there, and should be for the sake of all who read it.
And in marketing, much more so. Right?
There a tons of stories, and sometimes conspiracies, in a single research article.
Brilliant piece, please write more Robert!
Woody Allen, huh? I got deflated because I had my fingers crossed for Edward Albee, who is still kicking around. Agree that it was a great article, and the title hook obviously worked very well on many of us.
Great post about the importance of story. It speaks to the human mind in a way that bare facts simply cannot.
Coincidentally, I’ve written a guest post about using story in article marketing that’s published today at the Comment Luv site.
I have read your article in CommentLuv. Nicely written.
Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff.
Oh baby that’s good stuff. I have plenty of room to grow on this one.
Robert, you got me thinking about that speech Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class at Stanford. A handful of dramatic stories woven together to make a powerful and unforgettable speech.
Joe
That is so money. Love it Robert. Love Mamet. Great way to kick off the post holiday week.
Nicely done. I agree that drama is what makes a story compelling and makes people want to tune in. For example, all the TV shows that are doing great right now are drama filled reality shows. If you can learn how to implement some drama into your content you can give both good information and captivate your target audience at the same time, which will increase conversions and develop a loyal fan base.
Hi Robert,
What a great way to tell us about story telling. I must say this IS the way to tell a story. The way you told the stories here was great!
Telling a convincing story to convince people to do something is hard sometimes but is well worth the time and effort to make it a great one.
Robert,
What’s the best way to accomplish this? Is the goal to make your whole blog/website/post to have a storyline, or is it to weave stories into your content as much as possible?
Joseph
My opinion is to do both Joseph.
Brilliant.
Robert, that was quite an engaging narrative and you are quite a storyteller yourself.
Right from the days when we used to sit around bonfires and tell stories to these days when many authors and enthusiasts are trying to create stories using text messages and Twitter updates storytelling still remains relevant and we still love them.
The best way to create a story is to properly understand exactly what you are offering and what sort of purpose it solves. Whenever something solves a purpose it can originate a story.
Robert – I have nothing to add except BRAVO. Way to tap into one of my favorite playwrights EVER and bring it full circle back to writers in general. Loved it and thank you.
IMHO – Way too much talk about the strategy of SEO, and far too little discussion about the craft of writing! One is all about “getting” something from the world, and the other is all about giving something to the world. Thanks for the great post!
It’s a good point.
Though I’d never drop effective strategies (I know you’re not suggesting this), there are plenty of folks out there who’ve seen massive success in spite of their inability to turn in a meta description
If you have to choose, choose powerful communication. Write something worth reading, tell a story worth listening to.
But you don’t have to choose.
I don’t see SEO as being “about getting,” I just see it as putting my writing someplace that people can find it.
I think you need both. SEO and great writing. Bad SEO and no one will see what you wrote, no matter how well written it is. Good SEO and bad writing means lots of people will visit your site without being moved to do anything about what they read.
Everyone can relate to stories when it comes to trying to get your readers to actually read your content or sale a product. If you are a great storyteller, you will do quite well online.
Just back from a conference where I listened to some great story-tellers – Wayne Allen Root, Joe Sugarman, David Bach, Peter Beilagus and Carl Bessey. These story-tellers had the audience in the palm of their hands, overshadowing those who simply gave information.
Great post – thank you.
This quote jumped out at me: “If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it will bore the actors, and will, then, bore the audience, and we’re all going to be back in the breadline.”
This could be said for any other content as well and reminds me that if the blog post I’m writing bores me, or the Twitter update I’m writing bores me, or anything else I’m doing or saying bores me – it’s not JUST boring me, but it’s boring the very people I’m trying to interest as well.
Thank you for this great reminder!
Storytelling can be powerful, if done it right. I will admit it, I am not so good at it online as I am in real life. Sometimes I surprise myself when people are convinced about something I am passionate about and I am not even try to sell anything, it is natural. When I purposely try, I suck at it.
I will have to read up more about Mamet, your storytelling made me intrigued!
The history of mankind is a history of stories. Everything begins and ends with a story.
All of us have stories to tell. We must therefore embrace our stories and share it with the world.
Life itself is a story, each one creates its own according to their beliefs and objetivos.Nenhum man tricks the other without your permission, we who have the power to accept or reject.
What else is there to do but tell a story? Everything else is mere persuasion. Better to lure one with the beckoning hand of a drama than to beat them down and twist an arm to boring copy. I loved this post. Great for scanners, readers, intuitives and thinkers.
Hi Robert,
This is a very timely and helpful post.
I have found that my own blog has becoming increasingly popular among my readers.
Like many other bloggers out there, I have worked hard at writing content and worked at marketing the blog through adding comments, adding links, and submitting to carnivals.
Almost out of nowhere, I began to get such great feedback from my readers.
As such, I was attemping to pin point why this was the case all of a sudden. Your post today puts things into perspective.
Naturally, I write a lot of my posts, as if I was telling a story. I find that it is this that my readers especially appreciate.
Thank you for brining this to my attention.
I now know that if I continue to write good stories that my readers are truly interested in, my blog will continue to gain popularity.
Thanks again for this post Robert.
All the best,
Neil Uttamsingh.
G’Day Robert,
Wow! Only last week Michael Martine told me “When I talk to you, you tell great stories . Get more stories into your blog.” Not too many people would regard the late John Wooden as a great storyteller. He was. And the drama he created in so few words……how about, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
Your post is so timely it’s uncanny. Given my Celtic origins, someone named Robert Bruce was always going to get my attention.
In the past, some of my clients have described me as a bit of a heretic. It’s true. But Graham Greene said, “heresy is just another word for independent thought.” I’m looking forward to receiving your monthly posts.
And thanks Sonia and Brian for giving Robert space.
Make sure you have fun
Regards
Leon
“What a dump!” said Martha, quoting Bette Davis, in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Albee happens to be my favorite greatest American living playwright now that Miller and Williams are long dead. Mamet is the best American dramatist working in theatre and films. Both are great storytellers.
Stories are the most powerful way to connect and convince people, which is the great point of this blog post. And many great storytellers, including Robert Bruce, are provocative, such as giving Mamet a title that the late Spalding Gray, another great storyteller, would dispute. (I can still remember him brutally dissecting one of Mamet’s plays as I walked out behind him in a New York theatre long ago….)
Spalding Gray was one of very few I’d listen to regarding criticism. You ever see him live in those days? Actually, don’t answer that, it’s too late for envy…
I’ll answer you anyway as it brings back some wonderful memories. Yes, I saw Spalding Gray perform live many times in NY and LA. He was an amazing storyteller. Some considered him rather self-indulgent; however, I was impressed with how he used his life experiences to craft fascinating narratives. His powers of observation were amazing, as well as his turns of phrases and his pacing. For instance, I think of him almost every time I’m driving in a new neighborhood in California hunting for street numbers. He said native Californians were born with the innate ability to read street numbers while driving 35 miles an hour; it was a skill very few others could master. I certainly haven’t been able to.
The astonishing Spalding Gray. I caught his one-man show at the Performance Garage in New York in the late 70s. He was doing a long biographical tale about his mother’s suicide. Toward the end, an old fashioned slide of his mother was projected on the back wall. Spalding walked over to it as if talking to his deceased mother. Then, he walked into the projection and became the screen. The mother-image was sized exactly to Spalding’s size, so it totally fit hi, encompassed him. The image light was so strong that it washed out Spalding details, his clothes, his face. He/she looked at us in the audience, He/she began to speak . . . in his mother’s voice. He had invoked her presence and become her, right in front of our eyes.
That was one of the most stunning moments I have ever experienced in the theatre. I have never forgotten it.
I am so glad others remember Spalding. Spalding Gray.
Ah, but not just any story. Audiences can spot a concocted story. Paraphrasing George Burns, authenticity is everything in storytelling. (If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.)
Thanks for sharing the story… Great tips in the importance of the story.
The story is the bridging of our humanness, and that I feel is what people are looking for today.
Storytelling done well can really help you personalize the information you want to share and connect with your audience. I love reading a really well told story as well as writing one.
Easily one of the best articles I’ve read in a while.
We, as humans, are by nature, relational beings – so our deep desire is to relate to others. So it makes perfect sense why we are so desperate for “meaningful story, unadorned truth, and compelling drama that holds a mirror to [our] life.”
“Information is simultaneously too much and not enough. Information is impotent to reach the hearts and minds of those who can use your idea, product, or service.” This just re-inspires me to go easy on the ethereal and conceptual, and heavy on the use of human stories.
Thank you!
Very good, well spoken points Keith!
I’ve always found that sharing ones passion in invigorating ways really helps motive people, especially when I worked with my fellow volunteers in the Humane Society. People (especially me) crave being inspired into action. Of course, this works well at Arts and Crafts Faires in person (I’m very passionate about the miraculous beauty of rocks and natural stones so they practically sell themselves), but it is a lot tougher to convey this online. Perhaps there is a way with compelling stories……hmmmmm.
Great Post. A great story can certainly touch people and help you connect with your visitors.
I love your blog. It was just what I needed. Now I am going to go write a story. Thanks
How did I miss this post? I had to bookmark it to read again later!
Simple. Profound. Clearly showing what my copywriting has so poignantly lacked.
Now, I’m off to change my writing and rock your world!
I followed the link and read the entire memo.
The thing that jumped out at me was how every 3 to 7 minute scene must be both a self-contained whole and a prelude to the next scene.
In a blog post or ad copy that same idea would apply. The text between each sub-head is the scene. If it has drama, even better.
The part about Narration was interesting, too. Can your copy be understood with the ‘sound turned off?’ Selling your product via a Silent Movie is an idea I would like to explore.
Rick
“Story is virile, rare, unforgettable. And when done well, more true than plain fact.”
Excellent line, Robert. Makes me want to write a story with a guy named Story as the main character. (He’d be virile, rare and unforgettable, of course. And perhaps a vegan fire-eater with a love of nickel-plated handguns.)
Thanks for an evocative post.
You are so right! I usually remember a story! … and most likely a good one will keep me reading! Thank you!!
the write up has left me speech less… it was just like watching a wonderful classic play being performed on the stage…. hats off…
Drama is everything. People watch television because they are bored. They watch news and read magazines also because they are bored, so they seek some drama and entertainment.
This is something that can be used in writing whether it’s blog or copywriting as well.
Bravo. Great post. Damn good.
Really great post, I am inspired after reading it. I was a film major in school, working mostly as a videographer now, but I just started getting into internet marketing and blogging mostly to express myself but also hoping to make a few bucks on the side, and bringing storytelling back into is just so obvious now. You have helped me link several of my jobs together, thanks for the great post!
- Tommy
switchtoveggies.com
Using stories is a great way to add passion and “character” to information or “facts.”
If you can provide value and do it in a somewhat “sensational” way, you’ll be miles ahead of those who try to hard sell – or who try to only use “reason” in order to “convince” prospects to take action…
This post just get better every time I read it.