Written by: Vickie Sullivan | May 13, 2021
Give Your Story the Hollywood Treatment
We all know that emotion causes people to share our content. This spring PR Daily article does a great job explaining how Hollywood uses emotion to tell great stories.
The piece has of good overview information, but let’s move past the focus on video. Instead, I want to look at two techniques you can apply immediately to give your story emotion:
• Focus on human needs. I love the list of human needs under point #2. It includes the need to be heard, to be understood, to matter, and to be emancipated. This 30,000-foot view is easily forgotten in the midst of good ideas and handy tools. Idea: Create a first draft, then step back and ask yourself: What need am I highlighting here? Then edit accordingly.
• Personify the journey. My dead-on favorite is point #3: personify, personify, personify. To find the emotional buttons to influence your audience, find someone who achieved something, found something, discovered something, or overcame something. That person could be your interview subject or someone in your own story. Idea: Use the list as starting point for your background, sales conversations, speeches, etc. This criterion goes far beyond content marketing.
Listen: 3 Things Every Good Client Story Has
It’s easy to get so focused on the point of your story that you forget to consider the human element. Next-level stories use the latter to make the former come alive. When you resonate at that level, your content stands out.
Now Read This:
- 2 Strategies for Telling Stories That Sell
- Strategic Sounding Boards Give Real-World Advice for When the Rubber Meets the Road