Visual storytelling telling has been a part of your everyday life since the day you were born. In fact, visual stories have been entertaining us, educating us, and engaging us since the dawn of time.
What is visual storytelling?
Visual storytelling is a visual narrative or story, told through visual media to engage an audience. Visual stories can be enhanced with still objects, illustrations, photography, music, or video for added POW! factor and pizazz.
Think about it: Cavemen had to use visual stories to communicate their needs to each other, and the Mayans, Aztecs, & Egyptians told the stories of their people through cave paintings and hieroglyphics.
Storytelling techniques
Whether through the written word or visual components, great storytelling techniques still hold true:
- Show don’t tell
- Have a beginning, middle, and end
- Remember your audience
- Avoid cliches & the everyday
- Offer incentives or education
The 5 E’s of Visual Storytelling
- Excite: Once you have a handle on your audience, create a sense of mystery and intrigue and snag them in w/ a hook that’s too tempting to pass up.
- Entertain: Keep your story flowing and keep your audience watching by entertaining them w/ content that fits within their personalities and interests.
- Educate: Teach them new things and answer questions they didn’t even know they wanted the answers to.
- Engage: Make your audience feel in control of the story by including directives and allowances i.e. asking them questions, surveys, swipe left, closed captions, etc.
- Encourage: Always include a call-to-action (CTA) and follow-through to a website landing page, downloadable, call now button, etc, and encourage your audience to stay in touch or contact you to continue the conversation.
Have questions about visual storytelling? Reach out to Green Bag Designs for a 2020 Marketing Strategy Session today! We’ve got all your marketing needs IN THE BAG!
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