Today, we’re diving into the heart of marketing—creating emotion. We’ll explore the transformative power of storytelling and how it can captivate your audience’s attention and, more importantly, their hearts.

To create emotion and forge lasting connections, we need to understand the science of storytelling. Our brains are hardwired to respond to stories. Communities and cultures have been using stories to pass down information for thousands of years. Stories trigger empathy, engagement, and memory, unlike facts and data, which are important, but don’t connect with people in the same way. When we share a story, our audience doesn’t just listen; they feel it. And most importantly, when done right, it makes them want to respond. That’s the magic of storytelling!

A classic storytelling structure is the “Hero’s Journey.” It’s a template used in countless tales, from Star Wars to The Hunger Games. Harry Potter to Mary Poppins. Now, a lot of brands play the hero—they tell a story in their marketing all about how awesome they are. They play the hero. Your customers face challenges—like the hero in stories. They seek solutions, and you’re the guide who helps them overcome obstacles. This framework creates an emotional connection as your audience sees themselves in their story…and want to invite you into it.

Every brand has a unique story waiting to be told. But there’s a twist—your story isn’t really about you. Your brand story is really about your customers, the problems they are facing, and how those problems make them feel. For example, New Empire Design Center framed their brand story around how people feel in their home after it’s been remodeled. Rather than talk about the founder’s journey, New Empire Design Center talked about their customers’ success and tapped into emotion.

To tell your story effectively, start with a compelling hook—something that grabs your audience’s attention from the get-go. Use descriptive language to paint vivid mental images. You can do this in everything from written copy on your website to voice-overs in your videos, printed brochures to social media posts. Engage the senses, make your audience feel, smell, taste, and experience the story.

To create emotion, we have to look at storytelling from all angles. Use relatable themes, relatable characters, and relatable challenges. Movies like “UP” and “Inside Out” make you feel something because the stories are anchored in universal themes. Make your audience feel joy, sadness, excitement, or inspiration by framing your story with universal themes. The organization Outside the Bowl tapped into the emotions of compassion and hope by highlighting how basic needs going unmet affect people in countries like South Africa.

Ultimately, your brand story is not about your product or services. It’s about the customers your business serves, the clients your organization helps. And it’s about the feeling your brand creates for them.

In our next video, we’ll explore how to create spark by recording authentic voices.