Writing Stories
Most people enjoy a good story featuring well written fictional characters and an engaging narrative. Stories can influence the way we perceive ourselves, each other and the world around us. Within them people can describe and attempt to understand the past or present and express their hopes and fears for the future. Through stories we can explore imagined worlds, such as those found within books and movies, which technology might soon make into reality. When ideas found in stories resonate with us, we are more likely to remember and share them with other people.
Each of us has the thread of a story running though our life, which reflects our past, present and potential future. That story is shaped by how our personality traits cause us to perceive ourselves, relate to other people and behave. For an author, one of the greatest challenges when writing a story is to create fictional characters, who through their words and actions demonstrate qualities readers will find both realistic and relatable. Characters, whether based upon real people or pure fiction, can attract or repel an audience and human beings can respond in a similar manner to an organisation, business, product or service.
The stories people tell each other about an individual or business can shape how they are perceived. A business selling a product or service could create better stories by learning more about their customers wants and needs and developing more realistic marketing personas. This could help a business to communicate with them more effectively. Marketing strategies could involve using surveys in order to gather audience data that informs sales and marketing strategies and development of mission and vision statements. Storytelling techniques could be employed within strategies involving AIDA, an acronym used in marketing to refer to attention, interest, desire and action.
Creating Fictional Characters
Well written characters will exhibit qualities that cause an audience to relate to them and care about what happens to them. For an author they form the centre around which their story will be built. For a business relatable characters can humanise what would otherwise be a uninspiring business brand. Through what they say and do, characters can appeal to a particular target audience and reflect themes, values and ideas that a business wants to associate with itself and the products or services that it sells. An organisation can similarly tell stories featuring characters that embody the message they are attempting to promote.
Creating fictional characters, with strengths and weaknesses, that will appear on the page fully formed and with depth is a challenge for authors when writing a story. The term show, don’t tell, is frequently used, but it is not easy to develop characters that will reflect often hidden traits indirectly through what they say and do. However, the Five-Factor Model can be used to establish dominant traits for each of the characters in a story, shaping their behaviour, according to how they think and feel about themselves, other people and the world in which they exist.
When combined with other elements, such as demographic factors, the Five-Factor Model can help a writer create characters with depth, who will be as recognisable as people in the real world. This could help them to maintain consistent patterns of behaviour when telling stories in novels, movies or plays, making the characters more believable and relatable to an audience. If you choose some famous characters from novels, movies or television shows, you could take the test for each of them, by selecting the answers you think they would give and then reflect upon the results.
The Big Five Personality Traits Test might help you to create realistic and relatable characters to use in fiction writing.
Creating Marketing Personas
Rather than simplistic stereotypes, marketing professionals could have more success by developing realistic personas with back stories, representing the people they are trying to reach. For example, they could complete the test by answering questions as they think famous contemporary or historic figures who share similarities with the target audience might answer them. This might help them to develop stories about a product or service that will resonate with audiences and increase sales. The personality test could be used by someone looking for insight into personality types, so as to improve the performance of marketing campaigns, by delivering messages that are more personalised. The test could also be used to assist in website design, content marketing and user journey strategies, by developing personas for user profiles that better reflect the target audience, increasing engagement and conversion.
When creating characters and narratives it can be tempting to get carried away, but this risks losing the focus needed to clearly communicate a message. Using overly complex characters, convoluted narratives and saying too much, risks leaving an audience confused. For example, an engineer might appreciate the technical details of a piece of technology intended, but many people will be put off. They are likely to be more engaged and responsive if a story highlights the benefits of using a piece of technology and conveys confidence it will solve a particular problem. When technical features are described, the language used should reflect an understanding of the target audience and their priorities.
The Big Five Personality Traits Test might help you to develop realistic customer personas for marketing campaigns.
Writing Engaging Narratives
The narrative of a story should take the audience on a journey, from which they will emerge entertained, informed and possibly even transformed. An author achieving this might attract a loyal readership, while a business could increase sales of its products or services and strengthen brand loyalty. A central character in a narrative is often portrayed as undergoing a heroes journey, in which they will overcome challenges and win some prize of great value. For example, a business could identify a problem and offer a solution that a potential customer will value. They could tell a story with relatable characters and an entertaining narrative, in which the customer imagines themselves achieving their goal using a product or service the business sells. Potential customers might feel motivated to make a purchase.
When looking for real world examples in which characters and narratives have been used to sell products or services, try to recall some memorable advertising campaigns. For example, a company selling business software might show a business owner struggling to cope with a heavy workload, which they are able to manage easily using a new piece of software. A travel agency could feature people escaping the stress of work and enjoying a holiday. Car companies could highlight comfort, reliability or affordability. A business selling leisure products might show people gathered together and enjoying the company of family and friends, while a business selling food could highlight taste and nutritional value, along with the social benefits of sharing a meal.
Audience Engagement
Every day billions of people across the world are exposed to information that is intended to cause them to think and act in a particular way. Whether designed to educate, inform or persuade, information must be noticed and engaged with if it is to achieve a desired goal. However, most people are overwhelmed by the sea of data they live within and they will ignore anything that fails to engage their active interest. Individuals, organisations and businesses that want to reach an audience must think carefully about how they are going to share the information that they want to communicate, particularly if it is abstract, novel or complex.
Around the world and across generations the most effective medium through which ideas can be shared has proven to be stories. They establish an emotional connection with their audience by using relatable characters and an engaging narrative. People are more likely to remember information woven into stories that establishes an emotional connection with them, rather than data delivered in the form of dry facts and figures. Using storytelling techniques, creative artists are able to attract an audience that will appreciate their work. A business that is marketing a product or service is also more likely to reach its target audience if it develops stories that appeal to them.
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Content Marketing
Although they might use real world promotional activities, such as events, most marketing strategies will also include content marketing, to raise awareness of a product or service online. Story telling techniques that are intended to appeal to the target audience are frequently employed. The content could be delivered in many forms, including articles, blog posts, eBooks, newsletters, infographics, information on websites and social media posts or podcasts. In addition to text and graphics, audio and video are often used. User generated content, such as people sharing their experiences of using a product or service, can encourage conversations between customers, increase engagement between a business and its customers and provide valuable customer testimonials.
Copywriting
The writing of copy for use within content intended to advertise, market and sell products and services is termed copywriting. Whether used in print, digital or in broadcast media, the work of copywriters is intended to communicate a message effectively to an audience. Copywriters might be employed within a marketing, advertising or public relations department of a company, by an agency, or they might write copy for different clients on a freelance basis. The work of content and copywriters can overlap and could include articles and advertising copy for magazines, newspapers, websites, social media, video and audio. They might also specialise in a niche, where they have relevant knowledge and experience.
Technical writers typically focus upon the effective communication of complex information in an easy to understand form, rather than the writing of marketing and advertising copy. They could be required to write user instructions included with a piece of equipment, or release notes provided with software or hardware. Text, along with diagrams and charts, for use within instructions and guides will be presented within a suitable document format. A technical writer could use their specialist knowledge to translate complex scientific or technological language into copy that is understood by and engages with a wider audience.