4 Brilliant Storytelling Tips to Captivate Your Customers

At its core, a story is simply a narrative about transformation, and every transformation tale has specific elements. If your marketing story lacks these elements, it won’t have the depth or appeal needed to attract and retain new customers. Customers may overlook you.

Overwhelming evidence shows that effective storytelling inspires action, fosters connection, and changes reluctant hearts and minds. However, few entrepreneurs can concretely define what makes a good story.

I’ve spent dozens of hours discussing the art and science of storytelling with advertising executives, marketers, film directors, brand strategists, and authors, and I’ve read countless books on the subject, including Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen (HarperCollins, 2017).

Every good story has the four C’s: character, conflict, cure, and consequences.

These fundamental elements are to a story what salt, fat, acid, and heat are to cooking–the essential elements that create depth and balance in a dish. Let’s unpack each component.

But my storytelling inspiration comes from a much more fantastic place. Few tales in the world of storytelling are as iconic and timeless as The Lord of the Rings. Here are four elements I spotted in LOTR that can help you craft a marketing narrative that captivates customers.

1. Character

Every story begins with a protagonist the audience can root for and relate to. Every good story must answer two questions: Who is the character, and what does the character want?

For example, in LOTR, Frodo, a humble hobbit from the Shire, is our hero who wants to protect his home by destroying the One Ring.

In business, the protagonist in your marketing story is your customer. Like the main character in a novel, your customers have distinct desires, whether it’s to lose weight, earn more money, or get their kids into an affordable college.

Therefore, communicate to customers that your story is about them–not you. For example, instead of using generic photos on your website, feature pictures and testimonials of people who look like your target audience. This tweak signals to customers they’re in the right place when they visit your website or walk through your doors.

2. Conflict

Every character grapples with conflict, the obstacles that stand between the character and their goal. In the above, Building a StoryBrand, Miller notes that every compelling story has two kinds of conflict: external and internal.

An external conflict might be an antagonist, like an enemy or rival, a force from the outside world, while an internal conflict is a private struggle, like fear, self-doubt, or insecurity.

The most compelling stories have both kinds of conflict, but internal conflict is especially important to a story because it adds depth and complexity to the character, making the narrative more gripping and relatable.

In LOTR, Frodo’s conflict is twofold: his external conflict is with Sauron, the creator of One Ring, who desires dominion over Middle-earth. But Frodo’s internal conflict is against the corrupting whispers of the Ring, which tempts him with greed and power.

Similarly, your customers face conflict in their personal and professional lives. They might face external conflicts like parenting hardships, health issues, or stressful jobs. Their internal conflicts might include guilt, shame, or imposter syndrome.

So acknowledge your customer’s conflict in your marketing message. Talk less about how fantastic your product or service is and more about your customer’s pain and struggles, especially the internal ones. Buyers are more likely to buy your product or service if they feel confident you understand how they think and feel.

3. Cure

In stories, the protagonist meets a guide who helps them get what they need or want to overcome their conflict. This person points the character to a solution, the cure. It might involve learning a new skill, decoding a message, or finding a secret weapon.

In LOTR, the solution involves the Fellowship of the Ring, friends who support Frodo in destroying the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

In the context of your marketing story, articulate the problem your product or service solves and how resolving this conflict will help your customers accomplish their goals. In other words, position your product or service as the cure that will help your customers overcome their external and internal conflicts.

4. Consequences

Every story must answer these two questions: What consequences may arise if the character doesn’t take action? Conversely, what happens if they do act to resolve their conflict?

In LOTR, what’s at stake by Frodo’s action or inaction is the fate of Middle-earth.

In your marketing story, highlight what’s at stake if your customers don’t take action to resolve their conflict. If they waffle or procrastinate, what do they put at risk? Is it their mental health? Their reputation? Their financial well-being?

According to prospect theory, a decision-making principle from behavioural economics, people are more motivated to avoid losses than to achieve gains of equal value. This means highlighting the negative consequences of inaction can be a powerful motivator.

Your goal, though, shouldn’t be to manipulate people with fearmongering. Rather, it’s to give customers context so they can be alert and sober-minded as they make a decision.

This perspective also requires highlighting what your customers gain and get from resolving their conflict, ideally with your product or service as the cure.

Presenting both the positive and negative consequences creates the urgency and clarity customers need to act.

A transformation tale

At the end of LOTR, Frodo destroys the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

He’s transformed by his tasking trek across Middle-earth. Frodo becomes more merciful and empathic, understanding even the hardships of his enemy, Gollum. His meekness is matched by quiet courage.