Last update: 15/6/2023

In a nutshell

The Content & Stories sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas emphasizes the importance of crafting compelling narratives that reflect your organization’s goals, resonate with your audience, and inspire action. Effective content and stories are built on a deep understanding of how users think and speak about a subject, leveraging appropriate mediums to maximize impact. Furthermore, these stories should be truthful, align with sustainability principles, and contribute to building trust with your audience.

For example, Green Clean might tell stories of families creating healthier homes by choosing eco-friendly products, illustrating both the emotional and practical benefits of sustainability.

Introduction

The Content & Stories sub-dimension within the Conversation category focuses on how organizations communicate with their audience. Stories and content are powerful tools for sharing your brand’s purpose, values, and solutions. To be impactful, they must address user needs, convey clear messages, and inspire desired actions while remaining authentic and aligned with sustainability.

Content and storytelling are not just about information—they are about connection, inspiring loyalty, and reinforcing your brand's relevance.

What are Content & Stories?

Content and stories are integral components of a successful marketing strategy. They represent how your brand communicates value, connects with its audience, and inspires action. Content marketing takes a strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience. Its ultimate goal? To drive profitable customer actions.

"Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."

The true power of content and stories lies in their ability to act as catalysts within your Marketing Strategy. Reflecting on the concept of inbound marketing, the idea of engaging with suspects, prospects, or customers through an ongoing, positive dialogue immediately resonated with me. By designing thoughtful inbound funnels, we can craft compelling stories and create meaningful content that adds value and aligns with customer needs.

Creating impactful content requires more than just originality. Beyond producing your own content, alternative approaches include:

Curating: Sharing content from trusted sources that align with your brand values.
Co-creating: Collaborating with others to produce content that reflects your shared vision.

A quote from the CMO of General Electric encapsulates the essence of effective content:

"Content that tries to sell, doesn’t! Content that tries to help, does!"

Your content should resonate with your Purpose, align with your customers' Job-to-Be-Done and Aspirations, and consistently reflect your Value Proposition. Most importantly, it must integrate seamlessly into your funnels and customer Journey.

Marketing Canvas by Laurent Bouty - Stories

The role of storytelling

Storytelling elevates content by weaving narratives that captivate and resonate with your audience. It’s an age-old art that combines facts with engaging delivery to communicate a message effectively. Stories can be grounded in reality or creatively enhanced to emphasize core messages.

What makes a good story? According to HubSpot, great stories share these qualities:

Entertaining: They capture and hold attention.
Educational: They provide value and new insights.
Universal: They appeal to diverse audiences.
Well-Organized: They follow a clear, logical structure.
Memorable: They leave a lasting impression.

A strong story keeps readers engaged, ignites curiosity, and establishes an emotional connection. For example, Green Clean could share a customer’s journey toward sustainable living, highlighting how their products played a transformative role.

Aligning Content and Stories with strategy

For content and storytelling to be effective, they must align with your audience’s needs and aspirations. A fragmented or irrelevant strategy will fail to resonate and drive action. When aligned, content and stories:

Reflect your brand’s Purpose and connect to your audience’s identity.
Address the Journey by mapping to critical moments.
Reinforce your Value Proposition with relevance and authenticity.

The power of stories and content lies in their ability to make your brand unforgettable, fostering loyalty and driving sustainable growth.

Content & Stories: an in-depth perspective

To create effective content and stories, businesses must:

Align goals with needs: Ensure that storytelling serves both organizational objectives and user expectations, striking a balance between informing and inspiring.
Adopt a user-centric approach: Understand how your audience thinks and communicates to ensure your stories resonate authentically.
Include clear CTAs: Guide users toward meaningful actions that align with your goals, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Optimize medium selection: Choose the right channel or format to maximize the story’s impact, considering both the audience and resource constraints.
Communicate sustainability: Use truthful, engaging content to share your sustainability efforts without exaggeration or greenwashing.

For example:

User-centric: Green Clean’s content addresses common questions about eco-friendly cleaning, reflecting customer concerns and language.
Sustainability focus: The brand publishes blog articles about reducing plastic waste through refillable packaging.

Translating Content & Stories into action

Content and stories should seamlessly connect organizational goals with customer expectations. To achieve this:

Plan strategically: Ensure all content aligns with both business objectives and audience aspirations.
Engage authentically: Use user-friendly language and relatable narratives.
Inspire action: Include clear, actionable CTAs to guide customers effectively.
Leverage the right channels: Adapt your content to the medium that maximizes impact.
Maintain transparency: Build trust through truthful storytelling, especially around sustainability.

Questions to consider:

Do your content and stories reflect both your organization’s goals and your users’ needs?
Are your content and stories structured based on how your audience thinks and speaks?
Do your stories include clear and actionable CTAs?
Have you chosen the right medium for your content, balancing impact with resource constraints?
Are your stories truthful and aligned with sustainability principles?

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Content & Stories concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

Your content and stories goals are reflecting your organisation's goals and user's needs.
Your content and stories are created and structured based on your understanding of how users think and speak about a subject.
Your content and stories have clear calls to action. You know exactly what you want your users to do after reading.
You have chosen your content and stories medium adequately in function of your type of story as well as resources, like time and money.
Your content and stories are truthful and communicate about sustainability.

Marketing Canvas Method - Conversation - Content and Stories by Laurent Bouty

Interpretation of the scores

Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate that your content and stories are disconnected from your goals, fail to meet user needs, or lack clarity and credibility. These issues can lead to disengagement, confusion, and mistrust. Immediate action is needed to realign your storytelling with audience expectations and organizational values.
A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial alignment of your content and storytelling efforts with user needs and organizational goals. While some aspects may be effective, gaps remain in structure, messaging, or authenticity. Additional effort is required to refine your approach and ensure consistent impact.
Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that your content and stories are well-aligned with organizational goals, user needs, and sustainability principles. They are structured effectively, include clear CTAs, and leverage the right mediums to maximize engagement and impact.

Case study: Green Clean’s Content & Stories

Misaligned understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean’s content is generic and fails to connect with its audience. The brand uses overly technical language that alienates users and lacks clear CTAs, making it unclear what actions customers should take after engaging with the content.
Surface understanding (0): Green Clean’s content addresses some user needs but lacks consistency and focus. For example, while blog articles discuss sustainability, the storytelling is not user-centric, and calls to action are vague or absent, limiting engagement.
Deep understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean creates compelling content that reflects user concerns about sustainability and provides actionable insights. Stories about families using eco-friendly cleaning solutions are shared through engaging videos on social media, with clear CTAs to subscribe to the brand’s services. The content is authentic, transparent, and highlights the brand’s commitment to sustainability.

Conclusion

The Content & Stories sub-dimension is vital for crafting narratives that connect with your audience, inspire action, and reinforce your brand’s values. By aligning storytelling with organizational goals, user needs, and sustainability principles, businesses can create impactful content that fosters trust, loyalty, and engagement.