5 keywords to help you write a copy with a sense of story

“If you want to build a ship, don’t hire people to gather wood. Instead, inspire people’s desire for the sea.” If you want to inspire people’s desire for the sea, the smartest way is to tell them a story about the sea.

Stories are a brilliant communication strategy

The essence of copywriting is communication, and stories are a brilliant communication strategy. From the cave walls of ten thousand years ago to the IMAX movie screens of today, thousands of stories are circulating and spreading, stirring up resonance in people's emotions.

In the new media environment of information overload, "storytelling" copywriting has a stronger communication power than ordinary copywriting. They take advantage of people's natural love of stories, eliminate users' aversion to advertising, attract users' attention and enter users' minds in a more clever way, and have a greater chance of remaining in users' memories and not being diluted by the rolling torrent of information.

How to write copy that tells a story?

The importance of story is self-evident, and there are also a large number of books that will teach you how to tell a story, such as constructing "background, trigger, exploration, surprise, choice, climax, reversal, and resolution", but these standards are more like requirements for novelists and are beyond the scope of commercial copywriters.

If you want to write copy that has a "sense of story", you often need to "abandon its bones and skin but keep its soul". Commercial copywriting does not have the length of a novel for you to write, so you can only retain the most attractive part of the story.

1. Insight: Good stories have thorns

Things that are neither painful nor itchy are called facts, things that are sharp and heartbreaking are called stories. A sharp story can give the copywriting penetration, piercing into the user's mind like a needle, and sharpness comes from precise insight.

Most copywriters understand stories as characters, plots, and settings. However, even with these elements, in most cases you can only write a complete but mediocre story. For example, if you were to write promotional copy for a gym to arouse users’ desire to manage their body shape, how would you write it?

A copywriter:

Lily, 25 years old, worked out for 365 days and lost 20 kilograms.

B copy:

Lily, 25

In 2016, she weighed 70 kg and was nicknamed "Fat Girl";

In 2017, she weighed 50 kg and was known as the "Goddess".

Comparing the two copies, although copy A also has the elements of a story, it lacks the sharpness compared to copy B - a "thorn" that can hit the user's pain point - the interpersonal pain caused by obesity.

Master copywriter William Bernbach wrote in a copy for the Beetle :

I, Maxwell Sneffel, hereby declare the following will while I am still lucid:

Left $100 and a calendar to my money-grubbing wife, Rose;

My sons Rodney and Victor spent every nickel I had on fancy cars and wanton women.

I left them a nickel for $50;

My business partner Doles' motto is "Spend, spend, spend".

I “give nothing, give nothing, give nothing”;

My other friends and relatives never understood the value of a dollar, and I left them a dollar;

Finally, my nephew Harold always said, "A penny saved is a penny earned."

He also said, "Wow, Uncle Maxwell, it must be a good deal to buy a Beetle."

I decided to leave all my 100 billion US dollars of property to him!

Through a humorous story, the author not only conveys the quality and low price of the Beetle car, but also portrays the image of a frugal and wise car owner. Even today, this advertising copy still seems a bit unconventional, but it is precisely this kind of sharp copy that can penetrate into the hearts of the target group and establish a differentiated image of the "Beetle" car that is cute, playful, practical and reliable.

2. Contrast setting: removing the shackles of mediocrity

Which one is more likely to attract people's attention: a serious middle-aged man who works hard, or a serious middle-aged man with stubble who wears a pink cartoon T-shirt and works hard? Obviously, the latter is more likely to become the social topic of the day among colleagues.

The surprise, cuteness, tear-jerking moments and freshness brought by the contrast can make the story copy interesting and witty. In today's world of marketing information overload, mediocre information is destined to be filtered out by consumers' brains, while stories with contrasting settings can touch them.

If you were to write copy for a villa project located on the Hainan coast, how would you write it? This is how Range Rover does it:

Director Zhang is big and strong, with a voice like a bell. People say he looks like an iron tower, but he is too white.

Ms. Xu is petite but she is decisive and resolute. Maybe because she is too white, she is nicknamed the Iron Lady.

Manager Ruan often slams his head on the conference table, glaring with anger and looking very imposing, but...tsk tsk, it's just too white

The copywriter uses a few words to create a vivid character image, and there is a great contrast in the image. The masculinity of successful men in the workplace is contrasted with the femininity brought by their fair skin, thereby leading to the changes that the seaside villa can bring to them, that is, the core message is "help you become darker", and "dark" also implies "thick black", which is worth pondering.

Similarly, a set of texts introducing the candidates for parliament from Tokyo TV recently became popular. Why do these texts make people feel so interesting? A little analysis will reveal that the technique of "contrasting personality" is used in the copywriting:

A man of integrity but suffering from osteoporosis, he founded a travel magazine but lost his travel passport, he advocated the abolition of pet euthanasia but his own pet almost ran away from home... These copywritings are based on a serious and grand setting, contrasting with a funny and lifelike setting, forming a strong contrast, making the characters in the story more three-dimensional, full of loopholes, and more easily triggering public discussion and dissemination. Everyone is already accustomed to flat and stereotyped images, but the sense of contrast will give people a surprise.

3. Make good use of "prototype": stimulate user psychological resonance

There are countless stories in this world, but almost all of them are derived from a small number of "prototypes". Understanding this is very important for writing story copy that can resonate with users.

The theory of "archetypes" was proposed by Swedish psychologist Carl Gustav Jung:

It is a kind of memory, an imprint or memory trace, and a sedimentation of certain ongoing psychological experiences. In each of these primitive intentions there is a fragment of the human spirit and human destiny, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in the history of our ancestors.

The "archetype" theory is reflected in the story writing level. To give the simplest example, the "archetype" of almost all Korean dramas is the story of Cinderella. The same routine repeatedly impresses the audience and can easily resonate with female audiences aged 13 to 73.

Similarly, the story of "David and Goliath" is the "prototype" of countless stories of underdogs' counterattacks. The shepherd boy David used a slingshot to hit the powerful giant Goliath and cut off his head. This "prototype" story has been repeatedly performed in countless stories of the weak defeating the strong in later generations.

Stories with “prototypes” have a lower threshold for impressing users because they can arouse the emotional experience that already exists in their minds. If the "contrast setting" mentioned above is added to the big framework of "prototype", it will be more popular with young people.

Taiwan's 104 Hope Fund shot a creative short film "Everyone has had a not-so-good 25", which tells the story of famous director Ang Lee's resume at the age of 25 being criticized by corporate executives. Lee's resume was evaluated as "HR would not approve it" and "it was rejected the first time", but he won two Academy Awards many years later.

This short film has sparked widespread social discussion. Its "prototype" is a counterattack story, which can easily resonate with users.

4. Emotional bait: Triggering users’ emotions

Bad copywriting tells stories, good copywriting tells stories. The reason why stories are good is that they can more easily infect users' emotions, allowing users to project their emotions and create a sense of immersion.

If products and brands decide to convince users through emotional appeal, stories are a good choice. What kind of stories resonate most with users? From a marketing perspective, a story that can impress users does not need a dramatic plot, but requires emotional bait, and truth is the most effective bait.

In the article "45 Stories about Love and Money", Xin Shi Xiang shared a series of fan stories:

When I was four years old, my father gave me five yuan and asked me to go to the store to buy a bag of Ashima for four and a half yuan. The remaining fifty cents allowed me to buy a bag of spicy beef jerky. I got a scolding when I got home, and I wasn’t even allowed to eat the bag of beef jerky until it deflated. Fifty cents made me remember what the spirit of contract is.

When I was a migrant worker in Beijing, I rented a house in Changping. When I moved out, the sub-landlord withheld my deposit for various reasons. My boyfriend and I really needed those few hundred dollars. I leaned against the door and refused to let the landlord leave unless he returned my deposit. I made a scene and acted like a spoiled child. In the end, my boyfriend held me in his arms and let the landlord leave. After we came out, he and I hugged each other and cried on the street. He feels sorry for me, and I feel sorry for the money.

Such short stories are not known for their plots, and some even have no plot at all, but they are real and close to ordinary users. Therefore, they are full of emotional bait, allowing everyone to see their own shadow in them, making it easier to arouse emotional fluctuations. This is also the reason why UGC stories are becoming more and more popular. Xin Shixiang has created dozens of articles with more than 100,000 views through collecting fan stories.

5. Sensory details: Give the story a sense of camera

"Don't just describe the old woman screaming, but bring the woman to the scene and let the audience actually hear her scream." This was the writing principle of writer Mark Twain. Details are an important indicator of the quality of a story, and they also test the copywriter's skills.

Story copy full of details has a "sense of camera", which is easier to be accepted by the user's brain and is more contagious. How can you write copy that has a “sense of camera”? One trick is that details that easily arouse users' sensory feedback can make the story more vivid.

For example, "Someone woke up in a bathtub filled with ice in Las Vegas and found that his kidneys had been removed." Such a detailed story makes people seem to hear the crackling sound of the ice in the bathtub and feel the tingling chill on their skin. This type of copywriting full of "camera sense" fully mobilizes people's vision, touch, hearing and other senses, making it unforgettable.

In a set of brand posters, Ant Financial used storytelling to outline a group of users with different images, including a 45-year-old beekeeper and a 33-year-old noodle shop owner. The copywriter used detailed copy such as "sweeter locust flowers" and "authentic Chongqing chili" to make the characters and stories real.

Conclusion

Those who can tell stories control the world. The story is a clever packaging, a sincere fabrication. When marketing information is dressed up as a story, it gains the key to enter the user's mind. The proper use of these five key words , sharp insight, contrasting settings, conscious use of "prototypes", real emotional bait, and concrete sensory details, can also make the story go from dry to full, making it easier to win the user's attention and memory.

The author of this article @乌玛小曼 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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