Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business

The Ten-Second Story
The ten-second story for Unbounce, for example, might be:
A marketing manager struggled to do his job with little budget, technical
savvy, and control. He was frustrated, felt undervalued, and if he was
totally honest, he was a little pissed. Then he started using Unbounce
Convertables. Now he can do everything he wanted to, with the skills he
has, well within budget, and he doesn’t hate his job anymore. If he’s
totally honest, he loves it again.

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Let’s take inventory on that one:
•
Normal:
Struggling to do his job.
•
Explosion:
Using Unbounce Convertables.
•
New Normal:
Can do his job and enjoy it. Also note the tie-in with the
normal by replicating the phrase “If he’s totally honest,” but with the
opposite result.
•
Identifiable Character:
A specific marketing manager.
•
Emotion:
Frustration, feeling undervalued, pissed.
•
Moment:
Started using Convertables.
•
Specific Details:
It doesn’t use a specific physical detail to drive the sense
of familiarity, but by including the word 
pissed
, it taps into the vernacular
of that persona, likely a millennial who would express their feelings that
way.
The ten-second story for VetBilling might be:
Lisa dreamed of being a veterinarian her whole life. She had no idea how
heartbreaking it would be to not be able to help financially strapped
owners whose beloved pets desperately needed services they couldn’t
afford. Then Lisa found VetBilling. Now she doesn’t have to worry
about saying no to pets in need and is free to do the work she was born to
do.
Here’s another inventory check:
•
Normal:
Dreams of being a vet. Not being able to help pets whose owners
couldn’t pay.
•