Do you want to learn how to tell your business story in a way that engages and inspires your audience? This blog post will teach you the seven types of storytelling. Every kind of story has its unique characteristics, and it is essential to understand which one best suits your business message. We will also show you the effects a well-told story can have on your marketing and business leads. So please sit back, relax, and let us teach you how to break down the storytelling process!
Like most things in life, storytelling telling needs structure; it requires a sound framework to build on. This is why we have the seven types of stories, so you can understand which one best fits your business message. The seven types of stories are:
7 Types of Story
– The Why Story
– The Teaching Story
– The Values Story
– The Impact Story
– The Vison Story
– The Origin Story
– The Objections story
Each type of story has unique characteristics, and it is crucial to understand which one best suits your business message. For example, the Impact story is all about the journey and the challenges faced along the way. It is perfect for businesses looking to inspire their audience with a feel-good story. We’ll go into each story type below.
The Why Story – A story of why a brand or person does what they do.
BASED ON AN ORIGIN STORY
A Why story uses an Origin Story, Impact Story, or Values Story to explain why they do what they do:
Start with the origin story of how the brand or idea got started. Through this experience, have your character share what motivates or drives them to continue to grow or do this work.
BASED ON AN IMPACT STORY
Have your character share the most personally memorable, specific story of how their work has impacted others. Then have them reflect on how their impact made them feel and how their impact drives their work.
BASED ON A VALUES STORY
Build your story around a specific experience of your character that expresses why they do what they do. Refer back to the Values Story structure for insight on building it into a clear beginning, middle, and ending.
A Teaching Story – A story that helps teach a key concept or idea.
1. IDENTIFY THE CONCEPT
Start by defining the idea you’d like to teach with this story.
2. FIND THE STORY
Find a character who has a moment in time where they or somebody they know learned this concept.
3. DEFINE THE CONFLICT
The goal of the conflict in a Teaching Story is to set up what’s at stake and why this information is essential.
4. DEVELOP THE JOURNEY
The journey is your opportunity to bring in the skills or education
you wish to impart.
5. THE RESOLUTION
The ending of your story should focus on the more significant result of learning the craft.
A Values Story – The Story of why a brand embraces a specific value.
1. DEFINE THE VALUE
Find a person who has experienced this value in action. Help them hone in on one specific experience by asking questions:
2. FIND THE CHARACTER WITH A SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE
Break down the experience into a clear beginning, middle, and ending. The opening is the setup, the centre is the journey, and the ending is where you express the value of the story.
3. BUILD THE STRUCTURE
Look to add details to as many moments in the story as possible. The humanity of the story lies in its specificity. Try to take us into the moments where things happened.
4. MAKE IT SPECIFIC
What’s the first time you encountered this value or realised its significance in your work/life? What time did you receive the best results by practising that value? What’s a time in which the absence of this value contributed to a negative outcome?
An Impact Story – A story of how a company or nonprofit has made an impact.
Base the story on one customer who has experienced exceptional results. Share their greater desire that’s relevant to the company or nonprofit.
1. START WITH THE CUSTOMER’S DESIRE
Present the problem preventing the customer from achieving their desire before the company/nonprofit.
2. PRESENT THEIR PROBLEM
Highlight 2-3 more minor ways the customer experienced change or growth due to the product or services.
3. YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE
Share the customer’s first experience discovering the product or service and why they decided to try it.
4. DEVELOP THEIR JOURNEY WITH YOU
Share the most significant way the product or service allowed the customer to achieve their desire.
5. THE BIGGER IMPACT
Share the customer’s first experience discovering the product or service and why they decided to try it.
6. CALL TO ACTION
Ask the audience to take one action (ex: donate, buy), or share one, big takeaway.
A Vision Story – A story that shares the more excellent vision for a business, nonprofit, or idea.
1. LEAD WITH DESIRE
Personify the brand, or choose a character who is helping to lead the charge in the business. Highlight the more important goal or desired impact of their work.
2. DEVELOP THE CONFLICT
Describe the most prominent conflict that the business now serves to solve. The vision or change should be in line with solving this problem.
3. WHERE YOU’RE HEADED
Introduce the vision or idea from a high level before getting into the details in the next step.
4. WHAT THE VISION LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
Walk through the different changes that are envisioned, as well as how each change relates to the brand’s more significant goals.
5. A RECAP & THE BIG PICTURE
Recap the vision and connect it to the brand’s why and your shared conflict from steps 1 & 2.
An Origin Story – A story of how a brand, business, or idea came to life.
1. CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER
Your character should be somebody involved in building the business from the beginning. Ex: The Founder.
2. START WITH THE CONFLICT
Find the early conflict, the problem that this person ran into, and then overcome it. It should be the problem that the product/brand/idea exists to solve.
3. MAKE IT SPECIFIC
Take a moment to think about the specific moment where the conflict happened. Add specifics to humanise the story.
4. THE FIRST BIG STEP
After the conflict, look for the first big step that the person took towards overcoming the conflict. This is known as the initiation.
5. DEVELOP THE JOURNEY
Try to find at least two significant events or milestones that happened while bringing this to life. Setbacks or hurdles are very effective as journey points.
6. THE RESOLUTION
The story’s ending should focus on the thing that was given life and how it felt to get there finally.
An Objections Story – A story that overcomes objections to ideas.
1. CLARIFY THE OBJECTION & CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER
Identify the most common objection received from clients, customers, etc. Then find somebody who once had the same objection but then went on a journey and achieved different results.
2. THE OBJECTION ITSELF
Your story begins with the character’s real experience having that same objection.
3. TRYING IT ANYWAY
Share why the character decides to try it anyway, despite their concerns.
4. DEVELOP THE JOURNEY
Find 2-3 moments that happened along the way. What smaller steps or victories led to proving their initial objection wrong.
5. A DIFFERENT RESULT
Share the surprising and powerful results the character experienced despite their initial trepidation. What new way of thinking did they arrive at?
6. A CALL TO ACTION
Ask for whatever objection you are trying to overcome (ex: larger budget, etc.)
7 Types of Story – Helping Businesses Define Who They Are
You can see that compelling storytelling can come in many different shapes and sizes. The key is to focus on finding the right story for your business message and then developing it to resonate with your audience. By following these tips, you’ll be well on crafting a compelling story that will help you achieve your marketing goals. Thanks for reading!
If you’re interested in learning more about video production, check out our page on our video marketing services. We cover everything from pre-production to post-production and give you lots of helpful tips. Thanks for reading! Until next time!
*Thank you to our friends at Muse Storytelling for part content
