{"id":18741,"date":"2022-03-04T12:02:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/how-to-create-blockbuster-b2b-stories-that-sell-rose-colored-glasses\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T12:02:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:02:07","slug":"how-to-create-blockbuster-b2b-stories-that-sell-rose-colored-glasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/how-to-create-blockbuster-b2b-stories-that-sell-rose-colored-glasses\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Create Blockbuster B2B Stories That Sell [Rose-Colored Glasses]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"How many times have you heard advice on becoming a great storyteller?<\/p>\n

And how many times have you wished that advice translated more easily to content marketing?<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not alone. I often get questions about how to transform marketing content into great stories.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, I talked with a team of content marketers who feel passionate about creating engaging content marketing for the medical device company where they work.<\/p>\n

But they told me that they struggle to create compelling customer stories that include the details their product marketing colleagues request. The product team routinely sends four-slide decks filled with product features and technical specifications they want to see in the content.<\/span><\/p>\n

The unspoken secondary part of their request: Make it exciting.<\/p>\n

I told the content team they need a \u201cpope in the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read that sentence again to make sure you didn\u2019t misunderstand \u2013 you need a pope<\/em> in the pool.<\/p>\n

Try the pope-in-the-pool #storytelling technique when you need to create #content that includes product features but doesn\u2019t bore your audience, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The content exposition problem<\/h2>\n

Storytellers often need to relay specific details to help people understand what\u2019s going on. This exposition (if handled poorly) risks boring<\/a> the audience and causing them to tune out or skip ahead.<\/p>\n

For example, consider what happens when<\/a> Clark Kent meets his father, Jor-El, in Man of Steel. Jor-El launches into a nearly five-minute speech filled with information Clark doesn\u2019t need at that moment. The writers use the speech to (theoretically) help the audience understand Superman\u2019s background, the history of his home planet, and the motivations of the story\u2019s central villain. It\u2019s all relevant. But the way it\u2019s relayed makes it dull.<\/p>\n

Another kind of exposition no-no happens in the movie Big Hero 6. During an argument between two siblings, one yells, \u201cWhat would mom and dad say?\u201d\u00a0 The other answers, \u201cI don\u2019t know! They died when I was 3, remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

Oof. Is the storyteller suggesting that the other character doesn\u2019t remember that their parents died? That\u2019s poor exposition because it asks characters to spout information that other characters already know, causing the audience to question the story.<\/p>\n

Poor exposition causes audiences to question your story, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #Storytelling <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: B2B Content Isn\u2019t Boring Unless Your Writing Is<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

What it means to put a pope in the pool<\/h2>\n

In his book on writing, Save the Cat<\/a>, Blake Snyder describes the \u201cpope in the pool\u201d technique, which takes its name from a scene in a script called The Plot To Kill the Pope. Snyder admired the writer\u2019s choice to have the pope\u2019s staff convey information to him (and the audience) as he swims laps in a pool.<\/p>\n

The scene exploits the dissonance between how people expect to see a pope (on a balcony in ceremonial garb) and how the movie shows the pope (in a pool wearing a bathing suit). The audience feels intrigued enough not to mind the stream of facts and background information.<\/p>\n

Steven Spielberg uses this technique brilliantly in Jurassic Park, a movie that requires the audience to understand some details of DNA replication. The director could have shown the characters staring at a dinosaur egg while one of the scientists in the park explained how DNA replication occurs. But some of the characters are experts who already understand the concepts. So that kind of scene would have insulted the audience\u2019s and the characters\u2019 intelligence (and probably bored them, too).<\/p>\n

Instead, Spielberg pulls a great storyteller move. He shows the expert characters testing one of the rides (built for kids) in which an animated creature explains DNA replication. The experts bicker and fidget with the ride and make fun of the information. The scene sets these characters up as true experts and creates an entertaining and informative experience.<\/p>\n

Can you put the pope in B2B content?<\/h2>\n

I use the pope-in-the-pool technique in my presentations whenever I need to deliver a litany of research results. Wrapping the research findings into entertaining anecdotes or side stories helps the audience absorb the data<\/a> while the stories keep their interest (I hope).<\/p>\n

Wrapping data into entertaining anecdotes helps you keep audience attention while they absorb the details, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #Storytelling <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And I teach my clients to do it, too.<\/p>\n

My clients at the medical device company had a compelling story to work with. An ex-army veteran (who is now CIO) developed the company\u2019s portable refrigeration unit.<\/p>\n

But the content team struggled to develop a way to insert technical information without taking the reader out of the story.<\/p>\n

The typical approach to a customer story would get weighed down by details in exposition like this:<\/p>\n

While working in a previous role, Sam Smith, CIO for ABC Company, sought refrigeration devices that could withstand extreme environments. The technical specs he wanted were:<\/p>\n