I recently watched a video where Stefan Sagmeister, a famous graphic designer from Austria, talks about the overused marketing term “storytelling.” He’s very direct and uses strong language (be warned, some of it isn’t safe for work) to criticize people who call themselves storytellers when they really aren’t.

Before we continue, take a look at the video. It’s short, only two minutes. Go on, I can wait. WARNING: Remember, there’s some NSFW language in the video. Use headphones if you’re at work.

Sagmeister is talking about designers who call themselves storytellers, but what he says is relevant to content marketing too. We always hear how important storytelling is in content marketing, how marketers “need” to be storytellers, and how audiences love stories in content marketing. In this post, I’ll explain why this is, as Sagmeister puts it so well, complete nonsense.

Are Content Marketers Really Storytellers?

Many people see themselves as creative. Marketing does require a lot of creativity, not just in creating content. But, even the most skilled bloggers and content marketers aren’t always “storytellers.” When bloggers and content creators with no real storytelling background call themselves storytellers, they’re fooling themselves and their clients or potential employers. Just because I’ve done my taxes doesn’t make me a certified accountant, and being able to drive doesn’t qualify me to be a race car driver.

There’s a big nexus-security logo on the other side, you just can’t see it from this angle. Very few content marketers can actually tell stories with their content, and it’s one of the biggest challenges in the field. It’s not that they can’t learn. Many content marketers are perfect candidates for learning how to tell stories and use that in their work. But not many have experience creating engaging stories, particularly in a business setting. Even so, “storytelling” has become one of those annoying buzzwords in content marketing over the past few years, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.

Long-Form Content and Storytelling Aren’t the Same

A lot of content marketers think long-form content is the same as storytelling, but a story isn’t defined by how many words it has. You could write a 10,000-word blog post about paid search, but if it doesn’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end, interesting characters, and a main theme, it’s just a long blog post - not a story. Real “stories” are usually longer than your average blog post, but they’re definitely not the same thing.

Why Content Teams Should Hire Journalists

It’s interesting that while many content marketing managers want people with professional storytelling experience, not many are trying to hire actual journalists.

Get a journalist and your content can have catchy headlines like this. Along with “storytelling,” the terms “brand journalism” and “embedded journalism” have become trendy in marketing. Big brands like Coca-Cola and Microsoft figured out early on that no matter how good a writer is, without some journalism skills, their work won’t have what it takes to be a real story.

The Advantages of Having Journalists on Your Content Team

If your content team is growing or you’re thinking of starting one, there are good reasons to consider a journalist. First, the decline of traditional newspapers has forced newsrooms to shrink their teams. This means thousands of journalists are looking for writing jobs outside of news, including in marketing. Content marketing jobs often pay better, have better benefits, and are more secure than traditional reporting, making them very appealing to journalists tired of the stressful newsroom or freelance life.

The newsroom of The New York Times, 1942 Another advantage of hiring journalists is their training. Journalists learn to find the “Five Ws” of information gathering, the foundation of any news story:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why You might think most news reports don’t read like stories, and you’d be right. Journalists usually focus on these five elements to take a potentially complicated subject and turn it into a simple news story that fits in a newspaper. But once you know these five elements, you can use them to go beyond a short, impersonal news report and create a captivating story with a beginning, middle, and end – in other words, a real story. Oh, and most journalists are good at meeting deadlines. That makes them quick, efficient, and dependable, all great qualities for a content creator.

Not All Content Needs a Story

Just like not every content marketer is a storyteller, not every piece of content has to tell a story. And that’s okay. Look at the success of clickbait websites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy. Most viral content tends to be shorter, list-based pieces (I apologize, but the word “listicle” still makes me cringe, so I avoid it). They’re not long-form “stories.” Sure, BuzzFeed also has long-form narrative journalism, but it’s a small part of the site that doesn’t get as many views or shares as the lighter stuff. It’s not what the site is known for.

Storytelling skills not required. However, even though most BuzzFeed content is made up of “articles” like the one above, they do employ real investigative journalists. If you look at the job description for this kind of role at BuzzFeed, one requirement is being able to “Think constantly about how to tell the story during the reporting, actively seeking out details about character and narrative.” We’ll look at how to do this soon. Even longer, more detailed blog posts don’t always need a story to be effective. Sometimes a simple, informative post on a topic is enough.

Brands That Really Understand Storytelling

Some brands just don’t get how to tell a story through content. Others, like the ones below, know how to grab their readers’ attention and keep them engaged using traditional storytelling methods.

Microsoft

When you think of brands like Microsoft, compelling, engaging stories probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind. But Microsoft is actually one of the few brands that really understands how to tell stories through content. The work of its Microsoft Stories team proves this.

Jennifer Warnick’s story “The Garage” focuses on the engineers, hobbyists, and tech enthusiasts who use The Garage, Microsoft’s on-campus innovation lab. Although The Garage itself is a character in Warnick’s story, the main themes are about people working together to solve problems, the feeling of community among the inventors who use the space to create new products and services, and the spirit of trying new things that’s more common in startups than established tech giants like Microsoft. The result is an engaging story about a unique place, the people who use it, and how The Garage fits into Microsoft’s goal to stay modern.

Coca-Cola

I hate to use a giant corporation like Coca-Cola as an example of good storytelling in marketing content, but they really know how to use narrative.

Coca-Cola’s online magazine, Journey, has tons of examples of really interesting, story-driven content. One example is “Different Strokes” by Anna Raddatz. The article looks at the stories of several traditional sign artists, who practice what some consider a dying art form. It explores how some artists are using the signs of the past to inspire their modern designs. The article examines the current state of sign artistry, the few remaining masters, how they are teaching their skills to the next generation, and what the future holds for this craft.

How to Incorporate Storytelling into Your Content

We’ve established that not every content marketer is a storyteller, not every piece of content needs a story, and we’ve seen examples of how content can tell a captivating story. Now we just need to discuss how marketers can tell real stories and not get criticized by people like Stefan Sagmeister. Let’s use another one of Jennifer Warnick’s stories for Microsoft, “88 Acres,” as an example. The story is about how Microsoft used its data analytics technology and smart building innovations to make its massive Redmond, Washington campus much more energy efficient.

Stories Have a Protagonist

First, “88 Acres” isn’t really about smart buildings - it’s about Darrell Smith, Microsoft’s director of facilities and energy. This makes Smith the protagonist of Warnick’s story. While Warnick mentions several other people in the story, Smith is the one who moves the story forward. He was the person in charge of Microsoft’s energy efficiency project. Most of the story is from Smith’s perspective and focuses on his work and, importantly, the challenges he faced.

Stories Have Conflict

In fiction and storytelling, conflict is essential to the plot. Without conflict, there’s no story. Imagine Warnick’s story without any conflict:

• Darrell Smith is asked to make Microsoft’s campus more energy-efficient.
• He does it without any problems.
• The end. Not very exciting. In “88 Acres,” the conflict is Smith’s job to create and manage a building management system that will control things like energy consumption, heating, air conditioning, water usage, and many other factors. It seems simple enough, but Smith’s biggest challenge is that most of the five hundred buildings on Microsoft’s campus use different control systems. The main obstacle, or conflict, in the story is whether Smith will be successful in combining all these different systems.

Stories Have Structure

Remember elementary school English class? Your teacher always said stories need a beginning, middle, and end. Well, that still applies to your content if you’re calling yourself a storyteller.

This man has strong opinions about creative freedom. Looking at “88 Acres,” we can see this structure:

• Beginning: We are introduced to Darrell Smith, the main character. Warnick tells us about Smith and his job, using subtle details to show us his personality and attitude. We quickly get a sense of who Smith is and why he was given such a big project.
• Middle: We learn about Smith’s main obstacle - the many different building management control systems he has to figure out, which is a difficult and technically challenging task. We start to understand how hard Smith’s job is, which makes us wonder if he’ll succeed (creating tension and making us want to keep reading). Warnick also introduces the “supporting characters,” Tearle Whitson and Jonathan Grove, two engineers on Smith’s team who help him overcome the obstacles.
• End: Warnick changes things up towards the end. She slowly reveals how Smith and his team, through hard work, determination, and creativity, overcome the technical difficulties. They not only make Microsoft’s campus energy efficient but also create a product they can sell to other businesses.

Stories Have Pacing

It’s not enough to just include those elements in your work and call it a story. The most interesting stories also use pacing to move the action along.

Nice car, dude. “88 Acres” is such a great example of storytelling in content marketing because Warnick provides enough detail but doesn’t overwhelm the reader. Pacing is critical for a story to be successful. Too much suspense or intrigue, and your reader will get bored. Too fast, and you risk losing your audience with too much action. Read “88 Acres” and see how Warnick balances giving background on the characters, setting the scene, and moving the story forward.

You Don’t Need a Campfire to Tell a Good Story

Content marketers who can tell stories are definitely in high demand. But, knowing when - and how - to tell a story is only one part of being a good storyteller.

Like any kind of writing, telling stories through content takes time, practice, and patience. Just know when to use a story in your content, and please, don’t call yourself a storyteller if you’re not one. Not everyone is a storyteller, and that’s perfectly fine.