Of course, it’s hugely important that your story – or your company’s story – comes across well to your target audience. But how can you make sure your message gets in? How do you make it clear to your target audience what you want to say? In this blog we describe the four techniques that make sure your message sticks: storytelling, anecdotes, changing an emotion and connecting to something everyday.

Getting the message across through storytelling

Stories are remembered. The first technique to convey a message is through storytelling. In this you take the reader, listener or viewer into a story, explaining your message in visual ways. So you don’t make your point directly, but you tell what you want to convey through an experience or perception.

The biggest advantages of storytelling are that you ensure that you evoke emotion and create a piece of credibility. After all, you share something of yourself and thus show your human side. This can create familiarity or sympathy, but it can also inspire, motivate or alert you to the importance of something(evoking “fear”).

In addition to emotions, stories also cause the “ratio” part of your brain – the part you use to gather useful information – to go to work.

Using an anecdote to make your point

A good anecdote is short enough to hold the tension and makes an impact through a (for example) funny event. When you are on stage, giving a pitch about your company or when you are giving an interview: anecdotes are the ideal way to get your message across. This is because it allows you to make your point through a real experience.

The fact that an anecdote really happened creates a piece of authenticity and perhaps a piece of familiarity in the message. The listener, reader or viewer can more easily link the message to an event, making it more likely to be remembered.

Changing the emotion: a joke after a serious point

If you want a message to stick, it is not recommended to continue in a serious tone after telling it. Are you wondering why? It’s because the ratio part of your brain (as mentioned earlier, the part you use to gather useful information) keeps working and doesn’t have the time to make a decision about the information told before. In fact, your brain at that moment is busy processing the new information coming in at that moment, making it more likely that what was previously mentioned will be forgotten.

So the moment you want to convey a message, it’s a good idea to make sure to switch emotions. For example, make a joke after stating a serious point. This way, the person listening or watching has a chance to absorb and process the message. Make sure, of course, that the joke is appropriate for the situation and target audience.

Connecting the message to something mundane

Do you want something to stick? Then make sure you connect it to something everyday. Connecting the message to something that is used daily is the best way to ensure that the message really sticks. There are, of course, several ways to ensure this.

For example, you can use a pun or a rhyme. This is the way many advertising slogans are constructed. The slogan “I’m not crazy after all” is bound to sound regularly in a living room, with the first association upon hearing this phrase probably being Mediamarkt. If you are eating dinner and say “mmm,” you probably immediately think of Mora.

This is an example of everyday words or phrases, but you might also think about connecting a message to a product. If you use a story or anecdote – as described in the previous points – you might use a product to portray the story. For example, is your message blocking distractions from your environment? And are you aiming this message at entrepreneurial mothers? Then you might even be able to bring literal physical blocks (you know, that game for kids) to link this together through a lame joke. For this target audience, this will be an everyday product, so when they see the blocks with their child, they will think of your point about distraction again.

As you read in all the previous pieces, the techniques generally have in common that they evoke a certain perception. When conveying a message, it is especially important to make the point being made understandable. A tip we would therefore like to pass along is to make the message as simple as possible.

At Content Collectiv, we love testing. To measure is to know. Try to find out in which form your message stands out best. Do not forget the different forms: video, spoken or written.