AMP 257: What Content Marketers Can Learn From Journalists With Ben Worthen From Message Lab

Actionable Marketing Podcast

Great content marketing can come from great storytelling. Who better to tell great stories than journalists? Marketers can learn from journalists how to create content that resonates with people through the power of storytelling.

Today’s guest is Ben Worthen, CEO of Message Lab, which combines journalism, data, and design to help organizations create content that resonates with real people. Ben discusses valuable insights for anyone interested in creating content that matters by combining journalistic storytelling techniques with data and design.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Marketers: Be skilled storytellers to reach out to people about what matters most
• Modern Marketing: Takes advantage of times when people don't want to buy
• Storytelling Problems: Why content marketers miss the mark with storytelling
• People’s Patience: Half of them leave content piece before the 15-second mark
• Journalists vs. Marketers: You don't have to be a journalist to tell a great story
• Empathy, Sympathy, and Authenticity: What readers need from marketers
• What’s the problem? People care about the experience, not a company’s product
• Listen and Learn: Take time to talk about ideas with others to get their opinions
• Storytelling Skills: Uplevel by knowing data, information to make better decisions

Links:

• Ben Worthen on LinkedIn
• Message Lab
• The Wall Street Journal
• Ben Sailer on LinkedIn
• CoSchedule

Quotes from Ben Worthen:

“As there's so much choice about what you choose to pay attention to, what you don't want to pay attention to, when you want to pay attention to one thing, and when you get to pay attention to another, it's more important to be able to reach people with things that they care about.”

“People are biologically programmed to want to pay attention to a good story. It's something that goes back to when we all lived in caves and sat around the fire.”

“If you want to broaden your reach, if you want to have more influence, if you want to break out of a sales-only moment in time where you can have a meaningful interaction with someone, stories are the way to do it.”

“When we think about the coolest experiences that we've had, they tend to be experiences that someone has created for us. Those are things that we tend to share with people.”