Supercharge your copy with these storytelling formulas

Raise your hand if you like a good story. 

Who doesn't, right?

Storytelling has been a fundamental part of our collective human experience since we were prehistoric cave dwellers. It's how our ancestors passed on their knowledge, traditions, and history. And how we've entertained ourselves and each other for millennia. 

So, it's no surprise that it would be used in marketing, to resounding success, well before it became the 2010s buzzword everyone loved to hate. For instance, John Caples' iconic 1927 ad "They laughed when I sat at the piano" is classic storytelling. 

As it happens, most stories — from ancient fables to modern day blockbusters — follow one of several formulas. And you can apply these to web pages, blog posts, social media, and other marketing literature too. 

Here's a look at five tried and tested storytelling formulas you can use to engage, persuade, and delight your customers. 

Problem-Agitate-Solve

Problem-agitate-solve is the classic copywriting formula. As the name suggests, it's made up of three parts:

• Problem 

This is where you identify what your audience has been struggling with, typically by asking a question they're sure to answer "Yes" to or making a sympathetic statement 

• Agitate

Amplify the problem. You could do this by explaining why the problem is serious and laying out the consequences if your audience ignores it. Or you could tell a personal anecdote that illustrates the point

• Solve

Offer up an easy, straightforward solution. Of course, the solution will usually be your product or service

Some of the most successful ad campaigns of all time were built around the problem-agitate-solve formula. Why? Because it's simple, versatile, and proven to work. 

In this ad for Pepsodent, for instance, legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins starts by stoking the audience's jealousy towards people who have beautiful teeth: "You see the results on every hand — perhaps in teeth you envy." 

He then ups the ante by explaining how tartar leads to tooth decay, and why traditional toothpaste is ineffective. 

By the time he's telling you how tartar formation helps "millions of germs" breed in your mouth, you're probably running your tongue over your teeth and grimacing in disgust. So when he presents Pepsodent as the solution, you can't help but feel relief. 

This product, the ad continues, is scientifically proven to fight tooth decay and give you a better smile. How could you possibly not want to give it a try after what you've just read?

Before-after-bridge

This is a variation on problem-agitate-solve. 

As with problem-agitate-solve, you start by presenting the problem. But instead of agitating it, you go on to show your audience what life would be like if the problem were solved. Then, you explain how you got from before to after. 

The before-after-bridge structure works especially well for case studies:

• Introduce the subject of the case study, describe how they were struggling, and why

• Describe how things changed after they started using your product or service, ideally with measurable results (for example: 'by using our software, Outstanding Prints Ltd cut manual admin by 30%')

• Explain how the subject of the case study got from before to after: why they chose your product or service, and how it helped them achieve the results you've just talked about

That said, before-after-bridge also works well in shorter formats. 

For example, in this tweet by Canva, the first sentence paints a picture of after — effortless creation of curved text — with the before implied. The second sentence then presents the bridge: a video guide that walks you through the process of creating curved text. 

The three-act structure 

If you've ever watched a play, movie, or TV show or read fiction, you've seen the three-act structure in action:

• You introduce the cast of characters

• A problem rears its head

• There's a confrontation and everything is resolved

Blog posts naturally lend themselves to this: you can set things up in the introduction and work through the problem in the body of the post, leading to a resolution in the conclusion.

But it can also work well for case studies and social media posts, especially if you do video content. 

Freytag's Pyramid

If you're feeling a bit more adventurous — or your message is more complex — you could try Freytag's Pyramid, a more elaborate version of the three-act structure. 

Freytag's Pyramid was created by Gustav Freytag, an 18th century German novelist and playwright. Freytag studied Shakespeare and ancient Greek tragedies, and realised they tended to unfold in five stages:

• The audience is given the background and context

• The characters face a series of unfortunate events

• Things come to a head

• The characters deal with the fallout from the climax

• The story reaches its resolution

The hero's journey

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series... 

Some of the biggest epic franchises of our time follow the hero's journey, and there's no reason why it couldn't work for your brand too. 

The hero's journey goes like so:

• The hero is called to adventure

• They face a series of tough challenges which they have to overcome, or tasks they need to complete

• Eventually, they come out victorious and return home in triumph 

Done well, the hero's journey can be very powerful. 

AirBnB's Belong Anywhere campaign, for instance, put hosts front and centre and made them the heroes of the brand. 

This worked on two levels. It showcased the unique benefit of renting an AirBnB, that is getting to experience your destination like a local. At the same time, it tackled a major objection head on: the anxiety of staying at a stranger's house in a place you're unfamiliar with. 

Nike took a similar approach in 1999. Except this time, the hero wasn't the brand, but one of its most iconic endorsers: basketball legend Michael Jordan. The ad is a reel of career highlights, with Nike's logo and the "Just Do It" slogan only appearing at the very end. 

And we all lived happily ever after...

Stories activate the same areas of our brain that would be activated if we were one of the characters. They can make us feel happiness, sadness, love, pain, fear, anger, or even hunger. So it's not hard to see what powerful tools good stories can be when it comes to persuading customers to take action. 

Next time you refresh your website copy, write a blog post, or craft a series of social media posts or videos, try one of these formulas on for size. You'll be amazed at how much a good story can resonate with your customers and make them feel connected to your brand. 

Need help crafting compelling brand stories?

Talk to us. 

Amazon: Delivering a consistent voice at scale

How do you make sure Amazon always sounds like Amazon, when a project involves hundreds of stakeholders across the globe?

Amazon's extensive catalogue of private label products is crafted by a vast network of manufacturers — many of which are small businesses — located all over the world.

But with dozens of new collections launching every week, and because many of these manufacturers either have limited marketing resources, a language barrier, or both, ensuring every listing is consistent with the Amazon brand is often a challenge. 

For the past four years, Rocksalt's team of creative copywriters has been assisting these manufacturers, ensuring the language on every one of their listings is clear, compelling, and reflects the Amazon brand. 

The brief

Ensure the language on every Amazon private label product listing is consistent and on brand, and make it as easy as possible for Amazon customers to understand whether a product is right for them by clearly explaining what it does, its unique selling points, and key features. 

Our approach

Because this project involves a large volume of listings spanning products from a vast range of industries — from household essentials to lifestyle products, clothing, electronics, and beyond — it's all hands on deck. 

Every member of Rocksalt's copy team works on the project. To ensure continuity, we also have a project lead who acts as the single point of contact for Amazon's private label manufacturers and performs quality control. 

We also have regular catchups to make sure everyone is up to date on the status of the project and aware of any tweaks to Amazon's brand and tone of voice documentation. 

Aside from implementing Amazon's brand guidelines, user intent is fundamental to our approach. 

When a customer runs a search on Amazon, they typically want to find out two things: whether the product meets their requirements and is of good quality. 

We keep these needs front and centre, constantly asking ourselves whether the listing answers these questions in a satisfying way as we write the copy. 

The takeaway

Amazon's mission is to be the most customer-centric company in the world. This means providing superior customer service. But, just as important, it means making it as easy as possible for consumers to find what they're looking for on Amazon and figure out whether it's right for them. 

Needless to say, the way listings are written is key to the overall experience. When a customer can quickly find the information they need and this is written in a way that makes it easy to grasp, it reinforces the relationship of trust that keeps them coming back. 

Amazon's Brand Protection Services: Empowering sellers to reach new heights

How do you present a complex, multi-faceted product in a way that's simple and relatable?

As the world's leading e-commerce platform, Amazon goes to great lengths to equip sellers with the tools they need to grow their reach, build trust, and provide customers with a standout experience. 

Their suite of business services includes the Amazon Brand Protection Programme, a market-leading toolkit designed to help brands create a stronger Amazon presence, connect with more customers, and prevent counterfeiters and other bad actors from abusing the system and profiting off their hard work. 

But because the typical Amazon seller is a small operation where a handful of staff spin countless plates, it can be challenging for them to get to grips with the nuances of these brand-building and brand-protection tools, and understand why they should invest in them. 

Enter Rocksalt's team of creative copywriters, who helped Amazon's sales and marketing teams in the US, Europe, and beyond spell out the benefits of their Brand Protection Programme in a compelling and memorable way. 

The brief

Encourage more sellers to sign up to Amazon's Brand Protection Programme by showcasing how it can help them build stronger brands, deepen customer relationships, and protect against trademark and copyright infringement. 

Deliverables included:

• A brand protection ebook that explains each tool in Amazon's Brand Protection Programme in detail, including eligibility requirements, key benefits, and a rundown of how they work

• A series of case studies that shine a spotlight on businesses that have used Amazon's brand protection tools to grow their Amazon presence and build highly successful brands

How we did it

Any successful piece of copy is grounded in research, and this project was no different. 

Because Amazon are long-standing Rocksalt clients, our copy team was already familiar with Amazon's suite of business-to-business products and services. 

Nonetheless, we made sure we understood Amazon's brand protection tools inside out before we got stuck in. This involved thoroughly reviewing the available brand protection literature and discussing any points we weren't clear about with Amazon's subject-matter experts. 

For the case studies, we worked with Amazon to develop a questionnaire that would put interviewees at ease and bring out the story behind each brand: how the business came to be, why they chose to sell on Amazon, and how Amazon's brand protection tools have helped them overcome challenges and take their brands to the next level. 

As the brands chosen for our case studies were spread across the globe — from Seattle to Tokyo — local Amazon staff conducted the interviews. 

The outcome

While the brand protection ebook and case studies were technically two parts of the same project, we felt they required different approaches. 

Brand protection ebook

The purpose of the brand protection ebook is to help sellers grasp how each tool in Amazon's Brand Protection Programme works and whether it would be right for them and their brand. 

With this in mind, we put clarity and simplicity front and centre, leading with the benefits, breaking up the copy with lots of lists, and using similar subheadings for each section of the ebook. This approach makes it as easy as possible for readers to scan the information and home in on what they need to know. 

We also created a general overview of the Brand Protection Programme and how each tool fits into it. This way, readers can pinpoint the best place to get started on their brand protection journey even if they knew nothing about Amazon's brand protection programme beforehand.  

Brand protection case studies

Where the brand protection ebook was about educating sellers, the aim of the case studies was to showcase the effectiveness of Amazon's brand protection tools in the real world. 

For this reason, we treated each case study as a human-interest story to make it more relatable.

A classic three-act structure painted a compelling picture of how each business built their brand from the ground up. Using the business-owners' points of view and their own words, we then demonstrated, how Amazon's brand protection programmes helped them overcome challenges and get in front of an even bigger audience of loyal customers. 

The takeaway

It doesn't matter how impressive and useful a product or service is. Unless the customer understands exactly what they stand to gain from it, they're unlikely to be interested. 

By making key information easy to access, and showing readers how similar brands have been able to stand out, make more sales, and solve serious issues like intellectual property infringement, we created a persuasive business case for Amazon's Brand Protection Programme.