Storytelling
I was a wide-eyed, frizzy-haired 25-year-old when I first got the offer of a lifetime: to be in charge of content for a small tech company called Contently.
When I asked my new boss for direction, he pointed to the freshly painted mural on the office wall. It read: “Those who tell the stories rule the world.”
“Just do your thing,” he said. “Tell awesome stories.”
Of course, content marketing is more complicated than that. You need to create content that will educate and inspire your target audience and drive meaningful business results. You need a smart distribution strategy and a mechanism for constantly optimizing your content. But if you don’t have great stories, you’ll fail.
For the past six years, I’ve been obsessed with understanding how storytelling can transform a business. While most people are looking for a magic solution or singular trick, the truth is that storytelling is an art and a science.
Contently co-founder Shane Snow and I recently wrote a book called The Storytelling Edge revealing all of our research and guidance—check it out here. Or better yet, learn more from best-selling author and content marketing luminary Jay Baer, who read the book and distilled his favorite storytelling lessons into a nine-minute video.
