How to create blockbuster B2B stories that sell [Kính màu hoa hồng]

How many times have you heard advice about being a great storyteller?

And how many times have you wished that advice would translate to content marketing more easily?

You're not alone. I often get questions about how to turn marketing content into great stories.

Earlier this week, I spoke with a group of content marketers who feel passionate about creating engaging content marketing for a medical device company. they work.

But they told me they struggled to craft compelling customer stories that included the details their product-marketing colleagues required. The product team regularly submits four-slide decks with product features and specifications that they want to see in the content.

The unwritten subsection of their claim: It's fun to do.

I told the content team that they needed a “pope in the pool.”

Read the sentence again to make sure you don't misunderstand – you need a Pope in the pool.

Try the pope #storytelling technique when you need to create #content that includes product features but doesn't annoy your audience, @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click to Tweet

Content presentation problem

Narrators often need to relay specifics to help people understand what's going on. This presentation (if handled improperly) is at risk be an audience bored and make them skip or skip ahead.

For example, consider what will happen when Clark Kent meets his father, Jor-El, in Man of Steel. Jor-El began a nearly five-minute speech filled with information Clark didn't need at the time. Screenwriters use speech to (theoretically) help the audience understand Superman's background, the history of his home planet, and the motives of the story's central villain. . All are related. But the way it transitions makes it dull.

Another kind of no-no explanation occurs in the movie Big Hero 6. During an argument between two siblings, one shouted, “What would Mom and Dad say?” Other replies, “I don't know! They died when I was 3 years old, remember? ”

Oof. Is the narrator suggesting that the other character doesn't remember that their parents are gone? It's a poor interpretation because it requires the characters to reveal information that other characters already know, causing the audience to question the story.

Poor presentation makes your audience question your story, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #Telling stories Click to Tweet

What it means to put a pope in the pool

In his book of writing, Save the Cat , Blake Snyder describes the "pope in the pool" technique, taking its name from a scene in the script called The Plot To Kill the Pope. Snyder admires the writer's choice to let papal staff deliver the information to him (and the audience) as he swims in a pool.

(on the balcony in ceremonial attire) and how the film shows the pope (in a bathing suit in the pool). Audiences find it compelling enough to ignore the flow of background facts and information.

Steven Spielberg uses this technique brilliantly in Jurassic Park, a film that asks the audience to understand some of the details of DNA replication. The director might have the characters stare at a dinosaur egg while one of the scientists in the park explains how DNA replication occurs. But some characters are experts who already understand the concepts. So that kind of scene would offend the intelligence of the audience and the characters (and possibly bore them).

He put the expert characters to the test one of the games (built for kids) in which a cartoon creature explains DNA replication. The professionals quarreled and were annoyed with the trip and made fun of the information. This scene turns these characters into true professionals and makes for a fun and informative experience.

Can you include the pope in B2B content?

I use the pope technique in my presentations whenever I need to provide multiple research findings. Incorporate research findings into entertaining anecdotes or side stories that help your audience data absorption while the stories retain their interest (I hope).

Wrapping data into interesting anecdotes helps you capture your audience's attention while they absorb insights, said @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #Telling stories Click to post a Tweet

And I teach my clients to do it too.

My clients at the medical device company had a fascinating story to work with. A military veteran (now CIO) developed the company's mobile refrigeration unit.

But the content team struggled to develop a way to insert technical information without taking the reader out of the story.

The usual approach to customer stories would be weighed down by details in a presentation like this:

While working in his previous role, Sam Smith, CEO of ABC Company, searched for chillers that could withstand harsh environments. The specs he wants are:

Temperature resistant from -4 to 120 Degree F

48 – temperature duration now using only internal battery (no ice needed)

Safety warning to indicate temperature deviation

Our brand has finally provided Sam with a chiller he can trust.

Instead of using bullet points and a list of specifications, the content team could reveal the presentation like this:

During 11 months as an active health worker in California, Sam Smith has heard residents of the state brag about being able to ski at breakfast and surf at lunchtime. He never believed it – until the day he was asked to transport vital organs from a snowy mountaintop to the middle of the Mojave Desert. The outside temperature fluctuated near zero as he loaded the precious goods into the chiller. When he reached his destination just hours later, the temperature outside had hit 118 degrees. Despite the lack of skateboards or surfboards, Sam finally understood the demands of the Californians. But even more impressive than the state's diverse climate? None of the safety alarms on the refrigerator sounded during the trip. Although the outdoor temperature fluctuates greatly, the internal temperature does not change more than 2.5 degrees.

Make this technique work in your content

The details of the stories you tell will vary. But you can steal the idea of wrapping information in a compelling, contextual element of the story.

Admittedly, it's easier to throw your pope in the pool when you have a story to ignite from the start. The Medical Devices team features the CIO's anecdote about his time in California. But what if they don't?

That's where imagination comes in. Next time you need to convey information about a brand or product, imagine adding something unique. Drawn from a character's history. Create an interesting distraction for the characters in the story (think Selena Gomez explains mortgage-liability synthesis using the game of Blackjack as a metaphor in the movie The Big Short).

You may have no control over what information has to go into a particular story you're telling. But you can control how it goes in. Just remember, information doesn't make a story memorable. The feeling that the story evokes makes the information memorable.

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