Good stories are clear, real and evoke curiosity
So you want to create a video about your business, but where do you begin? What is the story you want to tell? Here are some simple ways to get you there.
CLEAR
REPEAT YOUR KEY MESSAGES
Firstly what is your brands key message, your why and your purpose. Our key message is that we and inspired by community, creativity and caring for nature and help your organisation grow by telling your real story. To be a clear communicator and attract attention to your business you need to have simple, concise and unique messages. You repeat these messages in your blogs, social media, to people you have meetings with and most importantly in this video you're about to make.
Now you may think that's going to become very repetitive very quickly, but remember you are the only one who sees all your social media posts, your blog posts and videos. So to other people it will just look like you're being consistent and clear.
Another thing that is important to remember is that your customer is the hero of the story not you. You are the helpful guide, the Rafiki to Simba. The story isn't about you, but what you can do for others, so for example if you sell solar panels your videos message would be about saving the earth and fighting climate change.
Andrew Stanton in his TED talk ‘ The Clues to a Great Story’ describes how ‘Storytelling – is joke telling. It’s knowing your punch line, your ending, knowing that everything your saying from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal and ideally confirming some truth, that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings. We all love stories.’
PLAN YOUR STORY
Traditionally we have been told a good story has to have a beginning a middle and an end. To be honest I don’t find that very helpful. A different way of looking at it is to think about
Normal, Explosion, New Normal
(some people say want, obstacle, need or internal, external, philosophical)
So lets begin with normal, this is how your characters life was at first. Then the explosion, this is something bad that happened or the conflict, something that they had to overcome. Then the new normal is how things turned out in the end. An easy way to think about it is the Lion King. Life was sweet for Simba living in the pride lands, life was good, then bam! The explosion, the death of Mufasa, this was a conflict, a situation he had to deal with. Then finally the new normal, peace was restored to the pride lands.
Ok let’s say you’re selling an experience, such as an amazing trip to a National Park to someone, how would you create the story? Firstly what is normal? The normal is their everyday life going to work. The explosion or conflict is they’re spending a lot of time working at their computer, they haven't had a break and it's stressing them out.
The new normal is that once they've taken this amazing trip they feel better, they're connected with nature they feel less stressed they've realised their passion for wild flowers. So your service helped the character over come the explosion or conflict and at the end of the story, we have the positive a new normal.
EVOKE CURIOSITY
Curiosity is the urge you feel to know or learn about something. Curiosity occurs when there is a gap between what we know and what we want to know. Think about the parts of you / your business that are unique and focus on them. You can also ask someone else what they see as unique in you / your business because it can sometimes be hard to see ourselves.
It might be that your use of colour makes people happy or you're funny. Is there an interesting process behind what you make or where the materials come from? What is your business inspired by? Can you teach or show your audience something they didn't already know? Beautiful visuals also evoke curiosity. Do you work in a beautiful location is your work inspired by nature, does your studio have objects that tell your story?
REAL
When your message is genuine, you create a connection with the right people and everything becomes easier. Your video should be honest and truthful, just be yourself! If you're talking about your business talk about it as if you are talking to one of your close friends who you know will be just as interested as you are. So show the real and human side to your business and capture the wonderful bits of the everyday.
As consumers we don't want weird marketing ‘tricks’, all we really want is someone to tell us the truth. Stories about something that didn’t go to plan, but also stories about the best days, the accomplishments, funny things that happened. The truth is relatable so think about ‘what can I share that’s true?’ Basically relax and have fun.
