What are some ways to add emotion and storytelling to your content?

Think of it like telling a fascinating story to a friend. Start with a personal story or a relatable example that connects to your topic. Use descriptive words to help people imagine what you're talking about, like painting a picture with words. Make characters or situations that your audience can care about and introduce some challenges or problems for them to overcome. You can also share how things turned out in the end. This makes your content more interesting and memorable because it feels like a good story, and it helps people connect with what you're saying.

An empathy map is a great place to start. It helps to identify what your audience is thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. It can help to uncover emotions they can relate to, goals they want to accomplish, things that may be happening when they encounter your content, etc. You can use all of this as inspiration for engaging content.

This is where I fall back on the "Jobs to be Done" framework to have a process to know the entire lifecycle of your audience. This framework guides you in uncovering what truly matters to them, their goals, and challenges. You not only discover the professional side of your audience but can also get a peek into the personal aspects of their job, from their go to place for getting their queries resolved, to upskilling themselves, etc. It empowers you to transform your content into compelling narratives that connect with your audience, creating a powerful emotional bond. It's not just about knowing your audience; it's about understanding them at their core and crafting content that speaks to them at a personal level.

Most of the people believe that adding emotions to your storytelling means modulating your voice in a way that listeners can feel that you are crying and they join you in that emotional path. but that's not true, storytelling requires emotion but that emotion needs to be added through the situation of the story. And emotion is an umbrella word. Emotion is when you sound angry, when you read smiling, when you feel concerned and when you sound romantic. These all are the shades of storytelling that one needs to learn. Storytelling is less about voice more about what you feel at heart.

One of the ways we can define our audience is to look at our own values and strive to answer potent questions such as: What characteristics define my dream clients? When you know what they value and you can find common ground it becomes significantly easier to think of relatable stories and analogies. You can also pick specific topics they may be interested in and test your ideas with content and live workshops. Ultimately the most important thing is that you test and refine through connection and conversation with those whom you serve. Starting with dream client characteristics requires introspection but it ensures you'll attract the kind of people you love spending time with.

If you’re writing for yourself you don’t have a brand voice. You have your voice. The problem people have is identifying what their writing voice is. It’s much easier to do this for a business than yourself. If you’re struggling, my advice is to create your own personal content guidelines. The key is to think about how you show up in real life conversations, then translate that onto paper. For example: -What’s your natural tone of voice? -Do you lean into humor? -Are you direct or more long winded? -Do you prefer to stay neutral or get opinionated? Yes, TOV varies depending on the content goal but it’s far more nuanced than that. You can entertain and be authoritative simultaneously. There’s room for both.

It's not about finding the right tone. It's about being yourself. You can only convincingly write in a tone that's yours. You can't fake this.

The right tone can be a powerful weapon to infuse emotion and storytelling into your content. It helps your company have a personality. However, if not timed well, this activity can backfire. Choosing the right tone is a double edged sword and can be dealt with in two ways ; 1. From an audience lens: Once you have done the knowing your audience exercise, you can chose to mimic the tone of your audience to establish a connect. This would be the safer route. 2 The more effective way is to take the time to find your personality. To view the company from the lens of a person and uncover its key characteristics. Once you do this exercise, you can work on developing a tone for your company that is unique, scalable and consistent.

It’s also about humanising your communication. For example, climate change is an issue that has been made complicated just because certain “players” do not want the masses to understand climate change, to make it feel like a distant issue. Hence it’s important to humanise such issues and make them feel more relatable. Associate it with daily lives - a clean glass of water, sports arenas, children’s health.

I began my career in an exceptionally formal work environment, where all forms of written communication, be it emails, articles, newsletters, or even social media posts, adhered to a formal tone. As I kept an eye on the latest trends and gathered feedback on our communication efforts, it became evident that a more "human touch" was needed. People were growing weary of the rigid formality. For instance, in 2020, amid the pandemic crisis, a colleague and I launched a corporate podcast. In it, our top management directly addressed the crisis and expressed gratitude towards employees for their dedication and patience. The episode was entirely unscripted and left a profound impact on our audience, stressing the significance of candor.

Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework is my go-to framework for crafting a narrative. In "Building a StoryBrand," Miller stresses that the customer, not the brand, is the story's hero, a secret understood by successful businesses. This framework mirrors a classic plot structure: - Character with a Desire: The website visitor with a need. - Encountering a Problem: Their challenge. - Meeting a Guide: Your business offering solutions. - Providing a Plan: Clear steps. - Calling to Action: A compelling call to action. - Achieving Success: The customer's purchase. - Avoiding Failure: Consequences of inaction. This approach isn't just for movies; it's a powerful way to add emotion and storytelling to your business content.

People need to relate to you, your company, your products on an emotional level. Sharing visual anecdotes and experiences helps. We tend to think it is easier to integrate storytelling techniques into B2C campaigns, based on comfort, joy, status, etc. While in B2B, we see organisations as super logical and rational. The truth is, it is a board of stakeholders; individuals with actual expectations, needs, pain points, etc. This is why conversations have shifted from a more conventional approach of including “features and specs” to more personalized ones. Here, the emotional connection you’re making to influence decision-making is based on trust, convenience, efficiency and convincing them that their lives are going to dramatically improve.

In some ways, social media has changed the nature of storytelling because we are now battling the thumb. How can you capture someone's attention in a mere second to stop them from scrolling past your content? Using strong imagery, including text or captions depending on the medium, and ensuring you have a strong hook that resonates with your target audience can help draw attention to your content.

One of my favorite hooks = a personal anecdote. For example, I might start a piece on the metaverse and augmented reality (AR) with: "Last time I was in London, I was fascinated by the many plaques denoting historical events that occurred centuries ago in this building or on that spot." * Makes the story personal * Piques curiosity of the audience ("What the heck is he talking about??") Then, I might tie the real-world plaques about historical events to how AR is creating digital overlays of history to IRL experiences -- those plaques are an analog form of AR that can be enhanced by digital AR. And then that can lead to the meat of my article -- how AR companies are carving out various solutions in the IRL landscape.

As marketers, we've been trained to shorten, shorten, shorten. While there's value in that advice (especially where space is limited), it's also pushed us away from narrative. This doesn't mean that you don't get to the point quickly, though - the best stories are both narratively interesting and clear in what they're trying to achieve. It's helped me to think about it less as content marketing and more as feature writing. Your job as a feature writer is to provide useful information like any other journalist, but you also have to include in-depth interviews, extensive research and make it something people want to read. Reviewing every piece you write through that lens can help you write more interesting stories (that still have a point).

Most case studies don't really show. They just tell, but poorly, because they're too short and telegraphic. Want to see a company that does case studies right, look at Ubiquiti.

Create a recurring content series that highlights individual employees' stories, showcasing their contributions and personal journeys within the company.

?? Use examples, anecdotes, or scenarios. ?? Make content concrete and specific. ?? Engage audience through visualization. ?? Drive empathy and relatability. ?? Elevate impact and storytelling. #ContentMarketing #LinkedInTips

Analogies are a powerful way to make abstract ideas concrete. A blue ocean, a red pill, and a cloud are all analogies that have become part of the vocabulary of business. A well-chosen analogy quickly conveys a complex idea in a way your audience can "see" in their mind's eye.

"Don't tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass." This quote by Anton Chekhov is a widely used example when illustrating the 'show, don't tell' technique, reminding us that to engage someone in a narrative, it's a good idea to let vivid descriptions and personal experiences paint the picture. With copywriting and business writing, balancing the two aspects becomes essential. Data, stats, and tangible benefits are our best friends for engaging readers - but clear, direct statements are also crucial for conveying value propositions and CTAs effectively, reducing room for misinterpretation. Striking this balance ensures compelling content that captivates and informs.

Using descriptive and power words is a great way to elicit emotion from your readers, but it's important to do one more thing: poke at below-surface pain points. So often, you're taught that great content should focus on the pain points of your ideal client or reader. That's half true. You should actually focus on the pain that lies beneath the surface. That's where you can elicit emotion through recognition. So don't focus on what's obvious, go one layer deeper. The surface level pain point is common knowledge. It's on you as a content creator to do some additional digging and figure out what's below the surface, because that's the pain that really matters, and the pain your reader wants desperately to go away.

People are emotional beings. Even before we had language, emotions and signs were the primary mode of communication. There is a reason, language leveraging emotions hit home. In my company’s home page, the focus was to address how doing a security compliance, bring down the entire company to its knees and slows down the organization. Speed is the only superpower for startups. You cannot take that away. And the goal was to say that with Sprinto, you can continue to innovate at neckbreak speed and you do not need to compromise and bring your rocketship to a halt.

Instead of thinking of emotional words, use strong nouns and verbs and eliminate as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. You want your nouns and verbs to convey all the action and emotion.

It depends on what you're writing. If it's a speech, power words and emotional words are important. If you're just talking about the latest iPhone, the key factors (like Titanium or USB-C) are the terms to use. They're not emotional at all.

?? Power Up Your Content: ?? Use Emotional Words: Evoke joy, rage, fear, or shock. ?? Boost Impact and Persuasion. ?? Create Urgency and Interest. ?? Emphasize Importance and Relevance. ?? Appeal to Values and Aspirations. ?? Build Trust and Credibility. ? Stir Emotions for Unforgettable Content. #ContentMarketing #LinkedInTips

Writing in a plainspoken, conversational tone can instantly convey authenticity. So write the way you talk. Don't try to sound fancy or super-smart by using words or phrases that you'd never say in real life. Say what you want to communicate out loud, transcribe what you just said and then clean it up.

3 ingredients that help brands build trust with their community on social media: - humor - humility - human touch It’s not an exhaustive list. And you don’t have to check all 3 for every post or interaction. For example, humor won’t be right for every brand. And when it’s forced, it shows. But adding humility and a human touch to your social strategy and engagement is something every brand can do. The more self-aware and empathetic you are on social, the easier it is for your community to trust and rally around you.

To infuse your content with emotion and storytelling, remember that people are inherently emotional beings. Even in professional settings, emotions play a pivotal role in connecting with others. Genuine authenticity is a priceless asset for any brand. You can only fake it for so long before your audience notices. Being transparent, honest, and embracing your humanity is key. Mistakes happen, but owning them and learning from them speaks volumes. By being vulnerable and showing your human side, you create a relatable connection with your audience. They see that, at the core, your brand or company is made up of real people. This fosters trust and a stronger rapport with your prospects, making them feel like you're on the same level.

"The Man Who Lied to His Laptop" should be mandatory reading for UX writers and designers. One of the key takeaways from all the studies, is that humans interact with computers in the same way they interact with other humans. And important for us as designers, they expect computers to behave the same as humans. Once you know this, content-first design makes a lot more sense. Your product should be designed like a real-life conversation with your user. It should feel like a real conversation, not a robotic list of steps and screens. We expect machines to understand our thoughts and feelings, to ask meaningful and relevant questions, and give us feedback to let us know what's happening, just as we would a real person.

?? Be honest, transparent, and consistent. ??? Engage respectfully and empathetically. ?? Share stories, experiences, or insights. ??♂? Ask questions, listen, and give feedback. ?? Celebrate successes and milestones. ?? Build trust through genuine connection. #ContentMarketing #LinkedInTips

If you are sharing your experience, be clear and make them feel like they should buy and get the same or similar experience Make your customers feel like a hero

Instead of merely evoking emotion in your content, try the paradox of detachment. Create stories that leave room for readers to insert their own emotions and experiences. This subtle approach can amplify the emotional impact of your content, making it more relatable and memorable. Remember, sometimes, less is more when it comes to storytelling.

Don't try to force a story when there isn't a story. Stories have a lot of power in creating the foundation for empathy. But they can also distort facts or interfere with the clarity of decision-making. For example, a case study is a story. It should be delivered in a narrative form rich with emotional details about the journey from before to after. But a description of technical features or regulatory requirements should not be delivered in a story format. I've been in actual conversations where people try to storify informational messages. It's a waste of time that leads to a mess and is ultimately a disservice to everyone.

It’s not today or yesteryears that pulled us to a story. The stories exist even before written communication came into play. And that’s the power of storytelling that can encapsulate a complex issue/ situation and make it easily comprehensible and connect emotionally to feel the urge to act or have a realisation. Relevance, resonance, empathy or getting into the audience’s shoe, creativity, humour, research based audience profiling will bring an appeal that we are aiming at.

Storytelling is one of the most ancient arts we continue to entice people. Tweak the tone, language and quirk to entice your audience. Be your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and think about their POV. What questions they may have? What problems can you solve? Address them with sensitivity and a little quirk. Be consistent with flow.