“Shane Snow and Joe Lazauskas spend the overwhelming majority of their time thinking, writing, and theorizing about brand storytelling - so you don't have to. They're smart and they know this topic inside out (and sideways). Read their book. While I can't guarantee you'll rise to Shane and Joe's ridiculously obsessive level, you will be infinitely better prepared to tell your own brand's story. Promise!”
—Rebecca Lieb, analyst, author, advisor
“The Contently team understands the power of story, and how to craft and spread a great narrative, like no other. In an era where brand, design, and mission are a competitive advantage for every business, Contently underscores the importance of stories and how they transform companies and industries.”
—Scott Belsky, entrepreneur, investor, founder of Behance, and bestselling author of Making Ideas Happen
“I can't think of a better way to illustrate the power of storytelling than by telling great stories. This book should be required reading not just by those with content in their titles, but by anyone in Marketing AND Sales. Then, when you're done, give it to your CEO to read…but make sure you get it back, because I guarantee you'll refer to it more than once.”
—Shawna Dennis, senior marketing leader
“When it comes to storytelling edge, Joe and Shane have it—they're among the best minds in the business on the subject of content-centric marketing. Their book is a must-read for anyone looking to create profitable and sustainable relationships with customers. Basically, everyone.”
—Margaret Magnarelli, senior director of marketing and managing editor of content, Monster
Cover design: Paul McCarthy
Copyright © 2018 by Contently, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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ISBN 978-1-119-48335-9 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-119-48340-3 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-119-48347-2 (ePub)
To Charlie and Lighthouse and all the other Contently OGs.
This book is a product of years of work by all the good, brilliant, and delightful people of Contently. There are too many people to thank by name. Shout-out to Daniel Broderick and Ryan Galloway for edits and fact-checking. Shout-out to Kristen, Dillon, Erin, Kieran, Eunmo, Judy, Cynthia, Elisa, Ari, KP, Rebecca Lieb, and the rest of the TCS/Quarterly/Strategy gang whose work has been the backbone of all of this. Special thanks to Sam for taking all the bullets for us, Kelly for mentorship and air cover, and, of course, to Joe and Dave for making it all possible. Thanks for Jim and Jeanenne for believing in this project. Super, extra big shout-out to Contently's unsung hero, Jordan Teicher, and our girl Jess @ Contently, who helped us shape the speeches and stories that make up so much of this book.
As a good Jewish boy, Joe thanks his mom, dad, and nana for all the support, and never trying too hard to talk him out of this “writer phase.” Props to Mr. V for the tough love, Sam Apple for getting him into the game, and the group chat for listening to us talk about content strategy so much and still being our friends.
Joe Lazauskas is a New Jersey native. Shane Snow is an Idahoan. Both are New Yorkers now. Joe has written for Fast Company, Forbes, Mashable, and many more. Shane has written for GQ, Wired, The New Yorker, and others. Shane cofounded Contently in late 2010, and Joe joined soon after as editor in chief.
Learn more about Contently, Inc. at:
WWW.CONTENTLY.COM
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WWW.CONTENTLY.COM/SUBSCRIBE
A few years ago, a pale woman with crazy eyebrows and a keytar strapped to her back shot a home video. Standing on a street corner in Melbourne, Australia, at dusk, she wore a kimono and held up Sharpied signs. One by one, the signs flipped. They explained that the woman had spent the past four years writing songs. She was a musician. She had parted ways with her record label, which wanted to charge an outrageous amount to produce her next album. She and her bandmates were happy to no longer be with the label, and they had worked hard to create some great new music and art. But they couldn't finish producing the record on their own. If their new business—independent music—was going to get off the ground, they needed people's help.
“This is the future of music,” one of her signs read. Another: “I love you.”
Then she posted the video on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
In 30 days, the video raised $1.2 million—more than 10 times her goal. Nearly 25,000 people preordered the album, bought artwork, or simply donated money. The album and tour became a huge success, and the artist turned her music into a profitable business.
The woman in the kimono was named Amanda Palmer. She changed the game for independent musicians with that campaign. And she didn't do it by asking for money.
She did it by telling her story.
Every few minutes, a new buzzword rips through the business world, gets a bunch of blog posts written about it, and ends up in a pile of tired terms next to “synergy.” Today, one of the biggest corporate buzzwords is “storytelling.” Marketers are obsessed with storytelling. Conference panels on the subject have fewer empty seats than Hamilton on Broadway.
Funny thing is, storytelling has been the buzzword off and on since the advent of advertising. It keeps rising to the top of the pile because it's timeless. Stories have driven human behavior throughout history—for good and for ill.
And in the digital age, businesses, workers, and leaders have more opportunities than ever to stand out, spread their message, and spark change through stories.
Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.
Stories are the reason thousands of creators like Amanda Palmer have rallied the support of millions on Kickstarter, and Kickstarter knows this. It doesn't just allow creators to tell their story; it requires it. Every project must have a video in which the creators explain what they're doing and why they need help.
As Internet, mobile messaging, and sharing tools transform our lives, storytelling is becoming an essential skill in any job. As we spend more and more time-consuming information by the streamful, storytelling is a core skill that every business—and individual—will need to master.
Unfortunately, in the era of PowerPoints and status updates, many of us have forgotten how to tell a good story.
Recent research indicates that 78 percent of chief marketing officers at big companies think that content—which is to say information, entertainment, education, and in an ideal world comes in the form of or is a piece of a story—is the future of their job. Two-thirds of brand marketers think that content is better than most types of advertising. That's huge.
This is largely because social media has gotten us comfortable conversing with anyone and any company. It's now commonplace to find “brand content” in our Facebook streams next to pictures of our loved ones and stories from the New York Times. As the majority of corporations present themselves as publishers, the defining characteristic of success will be the ability to not only put things on the Internet, but also craft compelling stories.
The fact is no one really loves being interrupted with a sales pitch. But everyone likes a good story. The businesses that can tell a good story today (and there are some really good ones right now) will have an advantage tomorrow.
All things being equal, people with powerful “personal brands”—that is, great reputations—have a leg up on getting jobs and being promoted to leadership roles. And personal brands are built on the stories we tell and the stories that are told about us.
Stories make presentations better. Stories make ideas stick. Stories help us persuade people. Savvy leaders tell stories to inspire and motivate us. (That's why so many politicians tell stories in their speeches, and many have backgrounds as authors and entertainers.)
And like Amanda Palmer's story endeared her to tens of thousands of strangers, our own stories can help us build our businesses and careers, too. Sure, we need science and data to make the right decisions in life and work, but the best business books and keynote speakers use stories to help us remember their ideas even when their stat slides fade from our memory.
We're two journalists who care a lot about storytelling and what it means for the future of business.
Shane graduated from Columbia Journalism School when the media world was in crisis. Thanks to the fast-changing economics of media and the greatest recession in a century, newspapers and magazines were hemorrhaging jobs at a historic rate. Shane saw his talented classmates face dwindling full-time job prospects and struggle to even find decent freelance work.
At the same time, after years of hustling as a freelance journalist himself, Joe was trying to keep his digital news startup, The Faster Times, afloat despite fast-falling advertising rates.
Both of us saw the same opportunity: Social media was completely changing the dynamics of marketing and advertising for businesses. It allowed brands to reach people directly, like never before. To capitalize on that opportunity, brands would need something that they didn't have: great storytellers.
So, in 2010, Shane teamed up with his childhood friend from Idaho, an Internet entrepreneur named Joe Coleman, and an engineer buddy named Dave Goldberg to create Contently, which helped broker gigs for freelance journalists to write blogs and social media content for brands. Simultaneously, Joe was building his own network of writers and helping brands get content programs off the ground.
A little over a year later, we joined forces, and Joe became Contently's editor in chief. Contently grew into a thriving technology company with a suite of software that helps Fortune 500 companies (and others) to create, manage, and optimize content to build relationships with employees and customers. We wanted to give brands the tools to tell stories that people love, and measure the impact those stories had on their bottom line—what we call “engaging and accountable content.”
Contently became the preeminent technology company in the emerging field of content marketing. And our blog, The Content Strategist, became the daily news of the content industry, with millions of readers. As Shane likes to say, we were in the water when a huge wave came, and we surfed it.
We are fundamentally nerds. In our years together at Contently, we've become obsessed with not only the art of storytelling for business but also the psychology and neuroscience of how stories actually transform human relationships. That obsession produced this book.
Throughout the book, we're going to speak in the first person a lot. Some of the stories we share happened to one of us or the other. Most of the time, though, we're just going to use the royal “we” for simplicity. If it helps, you can imagine that we're wearing a gigantic shirt with two heads coming out of it. (This is actually what we are doing right now. It's part of our creative process. Don't judge.)
If you're reading this book, you've probably heard of content marketing, brand publishing, brand storytelling, or one of its many euphemisms.
The Internet has a glut of content about content. There's plenty of people preaching that we should do storytelling for marketing. The thing we found, though, is that there's a distinct lack of material on what we think is the most important part:
At Contently, we preach that content is more than a marketing tactic. We believe that great stories are the secret weapon that can make every part of a business better.
Storytelling helps people remember you. It gives businesses an edge when it comes to hiring. It helps salespeople get in doors, bolsters a company's reputation, and can help everyone within an organization be more connected and informed. We believe that weaving stories into our products, services, presentations, and habits can change everything about how we work, live, and do business.
In this book, we'll show how to make all that happen.
There's a Native American proverb on our office wall that says, “Those who tell the stories rule the world.” As technology increasingly intertwines us, we believe that's increasingly true. It's our job as businesses, workers, and leaders to make sure the good guys are the ones telling the best stories.
As Amanda Palmer might write with her Sharpie: This is the future of business. We love you. And we want to give you an edge.
Pretend that the world decided to elect a queen. The candidates have been whittled down to two well-known British women: Queen Elizabeth and J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.
You have been asked to vote in this election based on who you trust more. Who would you vote for, and why?
A couple of years ago we were curious about this, so we took the geeky route and asked 3,000 Americans this question.
The results of our election might surprise you.
Rowling, the children's book author, beat Elizabeth, the monarch, by what pollsters call a landslide.
But why?
Why would we be more likely to trust the author over the queen? Why would we choose the storyteller over the woman with a lifetime of leadership experience? And what does this have to do with the business world?
In this book, we're going to answer those questions. First, we'll dig into the science of story and what stories do to our brains. Then we'll get into how we can become powerful storytellers ourselves and how to use storytelling as a strategy to persuade and present more effectively at work, grow our businesses, and make a difference in the world.
And, as you might have guessed, we're going to start with a couple of stories.
Many years ago, a French poet named Jacques Prévert was walking down the street. He passed a beggar asking for money. For whatever reason, Jacques decided to stop and talk to the man.
“How's it going?” Jacques asked.
As the beggar turned, Jacques noticed that he was blind. In fact, he had a sign that said so.
The beggar replied, “It's not going very well. People walk by and they don't leave any money in my hat. Would you give me some money?”
“I'm a poor writer,” Jacques said. “I have no money. But perhaps I could rewrite your sign for you?”
“By all means,” said the beggar. He had nothing to lose.
So Jacques took the sign, flipped it over, and wrote a new message. And then he went about his day.
A few days later, Jacques was walking along the same path, came across the same beggar, and decided to ask the same question.
“How's it going?”
This time the beggar's tune had changed.
“People have been so generous lately,” he said. “My hat fills up three times a day. Thank you, thank you for what you wrote on my sign.”
Here's what Jacques had written:
“Spring is coming, but I won't see it.”
With one sentence, Jacques transformed a statement into a story. In a single line, he changed a man's life.
Now—keep that story in the back of your mind while we tell you one of Shane's favorite stories in the world: