When you first started creating video content, you probably imagined creating and editing was the “hard” part — only to quickly realize that wasn’t the case.

What’s actually hard is getting people’s attention, and THEN getting them to watch all the way through.

But there’s a relatively easy way to fix that problem: storytelling.

By bringing people into your world, using the right storytelling strategies, and keeping them focused on what’s in it for them, you can dramatically increase the engagement you get on your videos.

To help you get started, we’re going to break down 10 of the best storytelling strategies you can use right now and give you examples of each one so you can start implementing them right away.

Before we dive into them, though…

Telling and listening to stories is ingrained in the human DNA. It’s how we come together, connect, and relate with each other.

Before you start telling stories, though, you want to make sure you understand your goals so you can cater the stories you’re telling to help hit those goals.

Some of the biggest reasons storytelling is so important are:

Based on those 5 benefits alone, it’s worth spending a bit of time developing your storytelling skills.

To get started developing those skills, let’s dive into the strategies you can start using today.

With the strategies you’re about to learn, there’s one thing we want you to keep in mind…

…you DON’T have to master each and every single one of these at the same time.

Instead, what we actually recommend you do is plan out 10 different videos -- 1 video where you get to test and apply each different strategy below.

Then, as you practice more and more, you can begin blending them all together into one powerhouse video that accomplishes each and every one of these.

Because, remember: becoming a great storyteller is a marathon, not a sprint!

Telling is selling -- and people hate being sold.

What they don’t hate, though, is being shown how what you do directly benefits them.

You can use things like case studies in your videos to immerse your audience into your content and make them feel like they’re a part of the journey.

Here’s a great example of showing instead of telling:

Notice how it doesn’t tell the audience what to think. Instead, it shares a story from a customer just like them and what impact working together has had on their life and business.

Interactive storytelling is the art of bringing your audiences directly into the story and helping them play a role in how they perceive it.

Think about those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books you read as a kid.

They let you pick what happened next and then changed up the plotline based on the decision that you made. When it comes to your videos, you can do the same thing.

For instance, you can use a tool like Voomly to alternate who gets to see which video. You can offer them a specific question and then, based on their response, serve them up a completely different part of the video.

To see what we mean, check out the video below. It shows you how the creator of Doodly, Brad Callen, used these features to deliver the most relevant content to each segment of his audience.

And here’s a flowchart from the backend of Voomly to show you how versatile these interactive video experiences can be!

This screenshot is an example of how powerful Voomly is. It’s the backend infrastructure of an interactive video created with Voomly.

With it, you can lay out full sales funnels that are embedded directly into your video.

For example, if they’re halfway through a video when you ask a question, and they respond “yes” or “no”, you can collect more information from them to help segment your list based on the response they gave.

Then, at the end of a video, you can ask another question and they can be taken to the next step in your funnel based on the answer they gave & which video fits their needs the most.

This is HUGE for being able to effectively target your market based on what they’ve said they need from you.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how you can use Voomly to create interactive videos!

Open loops are how you make people curious and drag them into your story -- while they wait for the payoff you’ve promised to deliver.

Chances are, you’ve seen them before.

The headline to this blog post is an open loop -- we promise to show you 10 Storytelling Strategies That Work to get your attention and get you reading.

Now, as you’re reading through the post, we’re breaking each of the strategies down as we start to close the loop we opened with the headline.

Another great example is the TV shows and movies you watch.

When they leave you with a cliffhanger at the end of the show or movie, they open a loop that can only be closed by you watching the next episode or next movie.

To give you another example, check out this video:

Just by reading the title of that video you want to know more, right?

That’s how open loops work. They make promises and deliver on those promises (opening a new loop whenever the last one gets closed).

Building a brand personality or a brand character for your business is a great way to stand out.

It’s also a great way to make sure people remember you and how you can help them.

On top of that, it helps establish an emotional connection with your audience which, ultimately, turns into brand loyalty and returning customers who refer your brand or business to other people.

And there’s a couple different ways you can do this.

The first is mapping out what your brand’s personality actually is -- what do you want to be seen as to your audience? How do you want them to feel when they see your logo or your mascot?

The second is using a tool like Voomly’s People Builder (which is part of the Voomly Cloud!) to create the avatar you’ll use.

Then you can use Doodly (which is part of the Voomly Cloud!) to bring your character to life in engaging videos over and over again so it becomes an icon to your audience -- just like Geico’s Gecko.

And you can even use Talkia (which is ALSO part of the Voomly Cloud!) to create a consistent voice for your videos! Here’s an example of what Talkia can sound like in your videos…

Unfortunately, people aren’t going to just watch your videos out of the goodness of their heart. They’re probably busy doing a million other things.

To get their attention, you’re going to have to create some sort of disruption.

Think of social media and endless scrolling. What types of videos, titles, images, thumbnails, etc., stop you in your tracks and get your attention?

Whatever those are, they disrupted your frame of mind and made you take notice.

For example…

To help your videos stand out when people are in an endless scrolling state of mind, check out the tutorial below to learn how you create custom eye-catching thumbnails with Voomly.

You can also use a strategy like Russell Brunson uses on the DotCom Secrets page, where he explicitly (in bright red print) tells people what to do.

The key is giving them a reason to want to stop scrolling -- and then giving them a reason to take the action you want them to take.

Every good action movie is great at this.

They start off by dropping you right into the middle of the action, leaving you wondering what just happened, what’s going to happen next, and how it all plays into the bigger picture.

To see what I mean, check out how this video from Russell Brunson starts…

To make your videos have the impact you want them to have, drop them into the middle of their story to show them you understand, then let the solution play out in front of them.

One video, alone, isn’t the end of the journey for your audience.

They’re always going to continue evolving, moving forward, and wanting what’s next.

To help give them what’s next, make sure your videos are just one part of the bigger picture in the journey that they’re on right now.

To do that, use your videos to capture their attention -- but make sure the rest of your funnel is set up to continue the story that you’ve introduced to them.

You can use something like Voomly to build specific funnels and “paths” for your audience to take based on their own personal experience, where they’re at on the journey, and what you believe are the next steps they should be taking — or even how they interacted with a previous video!

Here’s a video that shows you how to map out your entire video funnels using Voomly…

You can tell 101 different stories, but if they aren’t relevant to your audience, you could end up spinning your wheels.

That means you want to spend a bit of time outlining exactly who that one perfect customer is BEFORE you start trying to tell them stories.

When you understand who your dream customer is, you can speak to them -- while also touching pain points and frustrations that other people like them have.

By narrowing down to your one perfect customer, you set yourself up to attract MORE of those perfect customers into your audience -- which dramatically increases your conversion rates.

Check out this sleep apnea ad, for instance:

It starts by directly calling out the pain points and frustrations their perfect customers are experiencing… so anyone who watches the video with those pain points can’t stop watching.

Every person watching your videos wants to be the hero in their own story.

So you want to make sure you understand what The Hero’s Journey looks like so you can become their guide as they become that hero.

To help you understand what we mean, check out this video from Russell Brunson that uses a variation of the hero's journey to tell a compelling story.

It gives a behind-the-scenes look at how he started out wanting to get Tony Robbins’ attention and the emotional rollercoaster he went through before he finally cracked the code and worked directly with Tony on a project.

If you’re able to effectively map out The Hero’s Journey for your perfect customers, you can show up as the guide that’s going to take them where they want to go -- using stories to do it.

A big part of taking them on The Hero’s Journey is making sure you leave them wanting more.

Then, you can deliver what they want by collecting their information and staying in touch with them or guiding them deeper into your funnels.

Voomly makes it easy for you to capture their information while they’re engaged with your video so you have a chance to follow up with them and give them more after.

Here’s a quick video that breaks down how it works:

When you do it right, and when you understand your audience at a deep enough level to lay out what their next steps are, these video funnels dramatically increase your engagement and your conversion rates.

If you’re looking to not only GET people’s attention, but also KEEP their attention so you bring them into your world and get the opportunity to convert them into a subscriber or a customer for your business, storytelling is one of the best ways to do it.

By using the strategies we’ve given you in this guide -- and practicing them with each video you create -- you’ll make your videos stand apart from the competition, have more people sharing them, and get to see the payoff from the effort you put into each and every video you create.

With Voomly, a video marketing tool built with storytelling at its core, you can create highly-engaging and interactive videos in a very intentional way. Click here now to start your free trial and experience how easy it is to implement each of the strategies in this guide.