How The 3-Act Story Structure Creates Unforgettable Marketing

It’s a proven fact our minds are geared toward stories. Most people remember a story easier than facts or numbers.

Think about your early teen years. I bet you can tell me a middle school story quicker than you can recall a formula from 7th grade math class.

For generations of human history, the basic storytelling model has consisted of 3 parts:

1) Things as normal (the status-quo world)

2) Things shaken up (a catalyst event)

3) Things have changed (the new world)

Once you realize this basic storytelling model (also called the 3-act structure), you’ll notice it ALL THE TIME in books, movies — and in great marketing.

When you share your company’s message with the world, don’t work against human nature. Work with it by utilizing a proven storytelling grid:

  • Describe your potential customer's life BEFORE your product or service, such as the problems and frustrations they face. Empathize with their status-quo world.

  • Then transition into the SHAKEN UP phase, where you’re showing them a better way, a solution to their problems, a paradigm shift. Wake them up with your catalyst event (your product/service).

  • And then finally comes the AFTER phase, the place of success, testimonials, and changed lives. Invite them into this new and improved world.

If you were marketing a bottled water company, here’s an exaggerated example:

  • STATUS QUO: Do you see the water coming out of your faucet? It’s not as clean as you think. Plus, what about that acidic taste as it travels through those old, moldy pipes below your house? YUCK.

  • CATALYST: Try our new bottled water that comes straight out of the clear springs flowing from the Alps. It’s clean and crisp — and the taste is heavenly. Do you hear the angels singing?

  • NEW WORLD: Protect your family by entrusting their health to the world’s best water. You’ll taste and feel an immediate difference. Once you try it, you’ll never want to drink from that old faucet again.

Stories provide not only a content structure but also a delivery mechanism. They can carry tremendous truths without seeming overbearing.

The pinnacle of marketing is learning how to ENTERTAIN as you EDUCATE. Bored people tune out, but engaged people press in. Stories hold people’s attention and connect on a deeper, emotional level.

Study your marketing. Are you telling a story or merely spouting dry facts?