January 2017

Top 10 Visual
Storytelling Tactics
to revamp your 2017

marketing strategy

story > visual > emotion > experience

© 2017 Visual Storytelling Institute LLC. All Rights Reserved


www.visualstorytell.com 

What is visual storytelling?

“Visual Storytelling is a marketing strategy that

communicates powerful ideas through a compelling
story arc, with your customer at the heart of the story,
and delivered through interactive and immersive visual
media – in order to create profitable customer
engagements.”

– Shlomi Ron

www.visualstorytell.com i
Why visual storytelling?

2) Decreased user attention span: a marked and 


well-documented decrease in the ability to focus 

The average human attention span is down to 8 seconds 

-Microsoft

These opposing forces leave businesses of all sizes struggling

to have their voices heard in today’s overcrowded and 

fragmented attention economy.

To address the growing divide between communications and 


attention, we find visual storytelling as an optimal strategy that
The communications landscape today is strongly marked by 
 is anchored on 2 foundations: 1) Visual superiority: the 

2 opposing forces: human brain processes visuals much faster than text

“Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the 

1) Explosion in content production and consumption: 
 human brain and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is 

a dramatic and continual increase in content production,
 visual” 

"4.6 billion pieces of content are produced every day" 
 -3M
– LinkedIn
2) Storytelling superiority: The human brain prefers 

This content overload is fueled by greater broadband and 
 information packaged as stories.

mobile access, which creates greater demand for content 
 "92% of consumers want brands to make their ads feel like 

“70% of the world mobile data traffic will be video by 2020” 
 stories. 

- Cisco -OneSpot

VERSUS With this conflict in mind, the following outlines top 10 visual 

storytelling tactics you can take to revamp your business in
2017.

www.visualstorytell.com 2
Know your
customer

1
Know your customer
Before you unleash the following tactics in this
eBook, ensure you closely know your customer as
if she were your best friend ever. It means knowing
inside out what her goals, dreams, and pain points
- are. Interview your customers, look at their social 

footprint to establish the main character for your
business story.

www.visualstorytell.com 4
Tell a full story

2
Tell a full story
Most businesses in their communications skip right to the 

glorious resolution their product or service provides. Avoid that by 

covering the entire story arc: setup, conflict and resolution. It will
make your story more engaging and believable.

www.visualstorytell.com 6
Your customer is the
hero

3
Your customer is the hero
An effective business story is like constructing an entire world
stitched together with micro-moments - all told through the eyes
of your customer. Avoid tooting your own horn and make your
customer the hero of the story. This way you’re allowing your
audience to experience real stories by real people from their
point of view, not yours (artwork: Julio le Parc).

www.visualstorytell.com 8
Diverse voices

4
Diverse voices
Your business story becomes much more authentic, once it leaves
the c-suite or marketing department. Have your marketing team 

leverage diverse filter narratives from your employees, customers, 

partners, and vendors. It will breath new lives into your core business
story.

www.visualstorytell.com 10
Make it relatable

5
Make it relatable
Share your backstory with all its imperfections. It will amplify your
brand’ humanity, and trigger customer empathy and trust. This will
also allow your audience to mirror themselves in the story, identify
with the customer problem and therefore be more inclined to take 

seriously your call to action.

www.visualstorytell.com 12
Higher purpose

6



Higher purpose
Beyond the professional and personal meanings your 

product or service will provide your customer, identify a 

higher purpose your audience cares about. 2013’s Unilever
viral commercial identified a conceptual gap that is much
larger than singing the attributes of their Dove soap. Their
big WHY?It's really anchored on a simple message of
“You’re more beautiful than you think.

www.visualstorytell.com 14
Sensory currency

7



Sensory currency
With daily lives largely mediated by digital screens, explore ways to 

expand into experiential storytelling that allows your audience to see,
touch and feel your business story. Consider live events, customer 

office visits, award programs, customer advocacy and other 

technology detox experiences. It will help you catch 2 birds in 1 stone:
get to know better your customer, and develop an empowerment 

relationship that will energize your customer to spread the word on
your behalf.

www.visualstorytell.com 16
Backstage

8
Backstage
Ensure your story includes backstage narratives that takes your 

audience behind the scenes to learn how your product or service 

are developed. This documentary/photojournalistic storytelling style
is raw, spontaneous and less polished, to allow a sense of privilege
and authenticity of your brand story to show. Consider brief video 

interviews with your employees describing aspects of their work,
crowdsourced co-creation programs, and customer social media
takeovers.

www.visualstorytell.com 18
Wow effect

9
Wow effect
Narrative wow effect is an audience magic glue to boost viral 

impact of your story, both on and offline. Ensure you include a

primary wow effect in your story. It will trigger a combination of 

positive emotions and surprise. In case you wondered, the wow 

effect in this image is the event of returning a turtle back to the 

water.

www.visualstorytell.com 20
Less is more

10
Less is more
With the exponential growth in communication channels 

available for marketers today, focus on fewer visual platforms
that match your audience favorite hangouts vs. being 

everywhere and no where.

www.visualstorytell.com 22
About the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI)
Most businesses struggle to get their voice heard in today’s crowded and fragmented online media environment. At the Visual 

Storytelling Institute (VSI), we are building a new ecosystem, supported by the first platform designed to help business leaders 

combine the power of storytelling with the effectiveness of visual media – in order to empower customers’ lives. VSI provides visual 

storytelling workshops, one-on-one coaching featuring My Visual Story Framework, conferences and thought leadership to educate
business leaders on how to articulate, visualize and distribute their BIG stories.

www.visualstorytell.com 23
 Ready to jump start your visual storytelling strategy?

Unleash the power of our step-by-step Visual Storytelling Framework 

around your product/service and boost your marketing results


 



 

Our Visual storytelling workshops are suitable for:

Marketers - Entrepreneurs - Business Development Professionals - Advertising 



 www.visualstorytell.com p: 305-985-3450 e: info@visualstorytell.com 24