Here’s a human-centered storytelling checklist that will help you remember the key points when crafting a compelling brand story:
1. Understand your audience
- Have you identified a primary audience segment?
- Do you know the challenges, motivations, fears, and hopes of your customers?
- Have you validated any assumptions with customer insights or data?
2. Define the problem
- What real human challenge, desire, or tension does the story address?
- Have you framed the problem from the customer’s perspective?
- Is your customer the “hero” of the story?
3. Choose a protagonist
- Are you using a real customer, employee, or community member?
- Is the protagonist someone the audience can relate to?
- Does the protagonist’s background reflect the diversity of your audience?
4. Create an emotional journey
- Does the story make people feel something (joy, relief, hope)?
- Have you captured moments of vulnerability or conflict to create tension?
- Does the story show personal growth, opportunity, or transformation?
5. Use real voices and simple language
- Have you included quotes, dialogue, or real phrases from actual people?
- Is the tone conversational rather than corporate?
- Are you avoiding jargon, buzzwords, or marketing lingo?
6. Make it visual
- Have you included sensory details that help the audience “feel”?
- Are visuals authentic and relatable?
- Do images or videos enhance human emotion in the story?
7. Make it meaningful
- Does the story communicate a larger purpose or value?
- Is the takeaway clear, memorable, and human-centered?
- Have you avoided heavy and salesy CTAs that undermine the emotional impact?
8. Test and refine
- Have you tested the story with a real audience?
- Did you measure emotional resonance, clarity, and engagement?
- Is the story refined based on feedback and performance?