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Humans love a story. That’s why storytelling should be a critical tool in creating your organization’s content. It draws your readers in, keeps them reading, and helps them remember what you told them. These are the key elements of storytelling that you can and should use.

Open the door just enough that they are intrigued by what they can see and what they have yet to see. These examples from well-known writers should give you some inspiration:

• It is summer, and so, we are repeatedly reminded, it is time for the beach — beach bodies, beach reads, fruity beach drinks in tall glasses festooned with tiny paper umbrellas and fruits skewered on tiny plastic swords. This is an ideal beach of hot sun, warm sand, crystal-clear water that leaves your skin salted. But it is all too often a mirage. Roxane Gay writing in “The New York Times”
• On the isolated shore of the Savage River, in the backcountry of interior Alaska, there’s a small memorial to a deceased woman named Claire Ackermann. A pile of rocks sits on a metal plaque with an inscription that reads, in part: “To stay put is to exist; to travel is to live.” Jon Krakauer writing in “Outside”

Give them a hero. The hero could be a member of your staff; a product or service; a client, patient, or customer; a donor, volunteer, or beneficiary. It could be your organization. (The line between coming to the rescue and bragging is thin indeed. Pay attention to make sure you are doing the former.).

Put your readers in your story. Or give them a way to put themselves in the story. For example:

• You have been in this place. Home on a Friday night, kids in bed, the latest episode of your favorite show ready for your viewing pleasure, when without even a whimper, your DSL ceases to work. Down. Out. Gone. Along with your modest dreams for a relaxing evening. What do you do?
• She isn’t alone. In fact, thousands of teenage girls (and boys) struggle with body image and food. Parents often struggle right along with them, yearning to do the exact right thing to get their child back on a healthy track and cautious about taking the wrong step. Maybe you are that parent. Or maybe you were once that teenager. Perhaps you are both. We can help.

Give your story a narrative arc. ThoughtCo. defines the narrative arc as made up of the following components: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Writer’s Digest describes the narrative sequence as “the structure that: 1) brings readers in and hooks their interest; 2) keeps them reading; and 3) leads them and the story to a fulfilling conclusion. That’s how beginning, middle and end function in a narrative.” Present the problem. Describe the consequences if the problem is not solved. Solve the problem. That is, in fact, what tips columns like this one often do.

Create action. Every good story needs action. In the case of a blog post or website content, the action you should never leave out is a call to action for your readers/customers. Do you want readers to sign up for a savings account? Donate money? Read more?

Be clear, specific, and concise in your call to action. Don’t ask readers to “Read more here.” Better: “Read Emu the whale’s story,” “Sign up for our monthly newsletter,” “Compare savings accounts,” or “Donate now to bring the pups home.”

Give your readers a resolution. That resolution depends a lot on the type of content you are writing. If it’s a tips article, you can summarize the importance of the tips and how using them will make the reader’s work or life better. If it’s a how to, you can wrap up with “If you follow all the steps, you will find you have…” If you are writing a post or article that compares the wrong way to do something to the right way, wrap up with a conclusion that gives them the benefits of the right way or a personal anecdote of what happened to you or your company/organization when you did things the right way.

Finally, the best way to learn the art of storytelling is to read. What you read doesn’t really matter—magazines, newspapers, novels, nonfiction—whatever you enjoy is fine. As you read, pay attention to the ways the writers draw you in, keep your attention, and accomplish their objective to entertain, instruct, inform, or persuade you.

Need help telling your organization’s stories? Sherri Alms has been helping organizations tell their stories for more than 20 years.