How can you measure storytelling success?

I like to split story goals into 3 categories: 1) To get eyes 2) To build more trust 3) To get sales From a business perspective, I think every story you tell should do at least 1 of those things!

When I work with Founders and Coaches to tell their stories, I start with 2 questions: 1. What is the ACTION you want someone to take after they consume your story? You are either telling a story to entertain or to drive people to action. All of my stories are action stories, so I need to be explicitly clear on the action I want them to take...buy? sign-up? book a call? change their mind? 2. What is the FEELING I want them to have? This moves me away from conveying a series of facts and starts connecting with the emotion people will use to make decisions.

Storytelling is a great way to convey your message and larger goals to the team. I often use references from Simon Sinek, Prakash Iyer, Gaur Gopal Das etc stories with our team. If the stories are from general life events like Sports, Movies, Mythology, Business leaders life; it stays longer in peoples mind. The Success can be measured of storytelling when People remembered the stories and aligned their present situations and come up a with a right solution along with motivation to achieve that.

Storytelling is a great way to connect and build relationships! Fables, parables, anecdotes, sharing of experience, etc. contributes to relationship building and rapport building! Everyone, from kids to adults, loves stories! Many organizations today are encouraging their Sales teams to share stories with customers!

Begin by clearly defining what you aim to achieve with your storytelling efforts. Your goals could include increasing brand awareness, driving engagement, generating leads, fostering brand loyalty, or conveying a particular message or theme.

Dan, great advice. I ask these same questions and I'll add to your list: What do you want them to think? What do you want them to feel? Followed by yours, what do you want them to do? The one thing my branding background instilled in me - People choose emotionally, justify logically. The goal is to make them feel heard/understood/safe. At the end of the day, I'm looking for a "they get it" reaction which translates to "they get me" which translates to "they make me feel safe"

Depending on the goals, the metrics most relevant to your story will vary. It can be confusing to choose which metrics is most important. A good way to choose can be reflecting on your end goals. If you are still confused, you can do an analysis of past stories and decide which metrics helped you the most in determining the success of your project.

Engagement metrics like shares, comments, and time spent on page are immediate indicators of a story’s resonance. For deeper insights, look at conversion rates—how often does a story inspire action, whether signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product? Also, consider long-term engagement: return visits can indicate the enduring impact of your storytelling. Tailor these metrics to your goals, and remember that qualitative feedback—like personal stories from the audience—can be just as telling as quantitative data.

Storytelling can really be anything and everything - through my perspective it is applicable to every communication moment that you have. Therefore the metrics you choose to measure can be many. My advice here is to select those that align back to the impact you wish to make, and aligned to the channel in which you are using to share your communication.

Select key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals. These metrics could include: Engagement metrics: Such as likes, shares, comments, and retweets. Reach metrics: Number of views, impressions, or unique visitors. Conversion metrics: Click-through rates, sign-ups, purchases, or donations. Brand sentiment: Measure changes in audience perception or sentiment towards your brand. Story completion rate: For serialized or multi-part stories, track how many viewers complete the entire narrative. Audience demographics: Understand who is engaging with your stories to tailor future content effectively.

After collecting data, employ tools such as spreadsheets or dashboards to organize and visualize it, uncovering patterns or trends. Utilize statistical analysis, benchmarks, or best practices for evaluating performance against goals or competitors. Engage storytelling techniques to effectively communicate your data and findings, ensuring a compelling and memorable presentation.

The best part of data analysis is while you look for 'your metrics', you end up (sometimes even accidentally) identifying a pattern you didn't recognise before. What works for me are spreadsheets. While my mind does make me believe it can do all the permutations and combinations up there, there's nothing quite like having it all laid out, in front of you.

You can also self-scrutinise the flow of the final story, analyzing with the simple question - "did this portray a single character that asks a question, that answers it by the end" (basic story definition). This simple question will elevate your storytelling and is oftentimes missed, diluting the story's strength or clarity for your audience. It's easy to plan a story, but harder to get that exact story from your interviewee (video storytelling). It might not hit the mark, and as an example, through analysis you can see how to adjust the interview questions to get more aligned answers. Storytelling is more emotionally-driven than other forms of content. If it doesn't hit the mark, you're provably missing key emotional plot points.

Data analysis for storytelling goes beyond mere numbers; it involves discerning the narratives within the metrics. Use data to understand your audience's journey—what captivates them, where you lose them, and what prompts action. Tools like sentiment analysis can gauge the emotional impact of your stories. Cohort analysis can reveal how different groups interact with your narrative over time. Combine this with A/B testing to refine and perfect your storytelling techniques, ensuring every tale is as engaging as it is effective.

In the labyrinth of storytelling, data is your compass, illuminating the path to greater understanding and impact. Dive deep into the analytics, uncovering insights like hidden treasures waiting to be discovered. What parts of your story resonate most with your audience? Where are the narrative twists that captivate and compel? Through rigorous analysis, you transform raw data into actionable wisdom, refining your storytelling craft with each insight uncovered.

You can also revisit your past stories and analyse the feedback and the data that will guide you how you can improve your stories. Observing which type of stories resonates better with your audience can also help you in drafting future stories.

Cuando iniciamos una línea de contenidos de Storytelling para lograr un objetivo concreto, elegimos la mejor manera de medir su repercusión en un tiempo determinado y las herramientas que usaremos para ello. A la hora de ver el análisis, hay que aprender a escuchar en los datos y qué están reflejando sobre las personas que los han generado. ¿Qué más nos está contando nuestra audiencia? Además de lograr tu objetivo inicial, asegúrate de abrir canales de comunicación para que ese feedback tan valioso para otros objetivos entrelazados te llegue de manera clara y te ayude a mejorar tus historias, evolucionando a la vez que tu audiencia y aprendiendo con ella.

keep practicing your storytelling structure, get familiar with it and apply it to your multiple storytelling / communication scenarios. By doing this you are already perfecting the process, the impact will come, and you will be in a cycle of positive and continual improvement.

Improvement is an ongoing narrative. Use the data and feedback to iterate your storytelling. If engagement dips at certain story points, consider tightening your narrative or enhancing visual elements. If conversion rates are low, examine the call-to-action—is it compelling enough within the story's context? Continuously refine your voice and technique, and don't shy away from innovative formats or platforms. The best storytellers are those who view each story as a draft, not a final copy, always seeking to enhance their craft.

Every masterpiece undergoes refinement, and storytelling is no exception. Embrace the iterative process of improvement, polishing each narrative facet until it gleams with brilliance. Are there pacing issues that need smoothing out? Character arcs longing for depth and development? By continuously honing your craft, you breathe life into your stories, transforming them from mere words on a page into transformative experiences that linger long after the final chapter.

While everyone will tell you to look at the quantitative data, I urge you to look at the qualitative. What do the comments say? Are people talking about your stories? Do people seem to care? That will tell you more than number will

There's one "metric" that I find crucial when it comes to most stories: can people retell them easily? The best stories not only make an impression on the person that hears them, but on the people they tell after. Often, things are not decided on "meeting" when you tell the story, but on the meeting after the meeting. That's why stories in business need to be simple and memorable enough for people to tell others (and themselves) again and again.

Be open to all types of feedback - both qualitative and quantitive. It is all relevant and valuable. Always remember though, people are not the same - all individual - and so you will find hit and miss results every time - that's ok - just learn and repeat!

Action. That's all. If you made your audience take the desired action you intended them to take, your story was a success. Be it, saying yes to buying something from you. Be it, saying yes to your idea and supporting it. Be it, saying yes to concern and help you. If you are not getting a 'YES', you are not telling a great story.

Precisamos ter muito cuidado num momento de avaliar o resultado do uso do storytelling nos negócios. Porque nem sempre o resultado será objetivo, mas, nem por isso, ele será menos valioso do que um resultado subjetivo, como, por exemplo, uma conexão emocional entre a sua marca e o seu público. Sempre devemos ter um objetivo para poder avaliar o resultado, mas nem sempre esse objetivo pode ser expresso por meio de números.