How to Use the Hero's Journey

One of the most common marketing recommendations you’ll see is to "use storytelling."

It's solid advice—humans are hardwired to pay attention to stories—yet there's very little out there explaining how to actually do it.

So I'm going to show you a few ways to tell stories that engage and win customers. I'll also show you how to apply them across different content formats and industries, plus some key things to avoid, using one storytelling archetype—the hero's journey.

The Hero's Journey

Whether you've heard of the hero's journey before or not, you've definitely seen it in action. It's a universal story template that can be summarised like this: A person (the hero) goes on an adventure where they face challenges they must overcome. With help from a mentor, they conquer these struggles before returning home leveled up and changed for the better.

Sound familiar? That's because it's the backbone of every Hollywood movie ever. Rocky, Harry Potter, The Matrix—they're all the hero's journey.

Its universal nature means it lends itself well to marketing and brand storytelling. But when brands use it they often make a fundamental error: they position themselves as the hero that saves the day.

This is the wrong way to do it. People want to be the hero of their own story. And if they're looking to buy a product or a service, it's because they have a problem and need a solution.

This creates a tailor-made situation to leverage the hero's journey's power in your marketing. Here's how you do it:

To use the hero's journey effectively, craft scenarios that cast your prospect as the hero and your brand as the mentor that helps them overcome the challenge they're facing.

Read that last sentence again because it's a fundamental principle you must burn into your brain if you want to use storytelling effectively in your marketing.

How to Use the Hero's Journey Across Different Platforms

A common myth is that storytelling requires long-form content. But you can tell a story in a single sentence (Hemingway famously wrote a six-word story –“​​For sale: baby shoes, never worn”).

Let's jump into some examples so you can see how (and how not) to apply it to everything from landing pages to display ads.

Landing Pages

Flawed example

This is the hero of a landing page for a B2B AI tool. The heading focuses on abstract product features without showing an understanding of the customer or making it clear how the product helps them.

The subheading doesn't help, either. The language is vague, full of jargon, and refers to the audience the page is aimed at in the third person—something that won't make them feel anything close to heroic. The generic CTA is weak and uninspiring, and the hero image doesn't reflect the product.

This could easily be improved with a few tweaks. For example, it's possible to craft a better headline option using the same three-punch format and language that's already on the page, such as:

Take control of your cyber tech. Unify your data. Manage your risk.

That would put the reader at the center of the action (a classic storytelling technique) and get them listening. Then, once you've grabbed their attention like this, you can talk about the hundreds of experts, unlimited analytics, and tailored solutions in the sub-heading (or, better yet, below the fold in a product features section).

Good example

The heading and subheading on this marketing tool's landing page are a killer combo that should have anyone in email marketing screaming "Take my money" at their screen.

They tell you precisely what the product does, show the SaaS team understands their customer's needs, and clarify how they can help them overcome a specific obstacle.

The customer-centric copy creates a scene in the reader's mind that makes it easy to see how they can benefit from using the product. And, guess what—not a single sentence about the brand or how great they are. Just a solid understanding of the customer and their problem along with a clear solution.

The CTAs do a great job of taking people down the funnel, and they've used another classic storytelling principle—show, don't tell—by including screenshots to help prospects visualize the product.

Marketing Emails

Flawed example

This insurance company rebrand announcement offers zero value. It feels like a missed opportunity to get customers to (literally) buy into the brand (which is the email's intended purpose).

Wouldn't it be better to launch your new brand by announcing an improved value proposition for your customers, such as a one-time special deal? That would make them feel like the email is about them rather than the brand, which is more likely to win them over.

The closing copy even says that nothing about the service has changed, which begs the question, why rebrand in the first place? There's another storytelling lesson here: unless you have something to offer your customers beyond a new logo, keep quiet.

Good example

This is how you write a customer-focused email. The copy is all about the customer, their challenges, and how the product can help them overcome them.

Almost every sentence contains the word "you" or "your". The copy goes hard on benefits rather than features and helps prospects easily understand how their pain points will be solved.

The message is clear: You're the hero, and Mailchimp is the mentor helping you achieve your goals.

SMS Marketing

SMS is a tricky medium for delivering storytelling. But it's great for creating a dialogue between you and your customers.

Two different approaches here. The personal touch from the co-founder in the left-hand example is good, but the message is all about them and expects the customer to reply with no clear purpose. It's not a strong value proposition.

In contrast, the right-hand example creates a dialogue with the customer that promises to make holiday gifting easier—a clear benefit welcome help for anyone struggling with gift ideas. This positions the customer as the hero and the brand as a helpful guide to solving a problem for them.

Social Ads

Flawed example

This Facebook ad is entirely focused on the brand's beliefs and mission. But that isn't what typically gets people clicking.

Social ads have limited copy space. If you don't use it to talk about the customer and show how you solve a specific pain point for them, you're lighting money on fire.

Save your brand story for below the fold on your landing page, or better yet, on your about page.

Good example

The copy on this ad could do with some refinement, but they've taken the right approach. They've put themselves in the customers' shoes at the moment that matters—prepping for action.

And they've touched on other things their target market do, like stretching and warming up. This builds trust and shows they're not claiming to be the make-or-break solution to lifting performance (i.e., they're not trying to be the hero).

Instead, they say their product can give you an edge, even if you're doing everything else right.

That positions them as the mentor with a supporting role in the prospects' journey and makes the value proposition feel realistic. No company mission statements—just an angle of "we get you, here's how we can help you" that feels authentic.

Display Advertising

Bad example

Trying to be funny, clever, or ironic in your marketing is a risky strategy, as this campaign illustrates.

Nobody is buying your product because you have sales targets. If you're going to be clever, do it in a way that creates compelling value for your prospect. Don't follow the lead of this ad, which has no value proposition and turns the customer into a supporting role to help the hero of the ad—the brand—fulfill their goal.

Good example

In this ad, Nike literally tells you to go on the hero's journey and write your own story. And they do it in a single sentence, which they cleverly link to their "Just do it" tagline.

Beyond their logo, they don't mention themselves at all. Sure, their supreme level of brand recognition gives them an advantage in minimal messaging, but there's a potent lesson about empowering and inspiring your customers to be learned here.

By the way, in case you didn't know, the girl in the photo is a young Serena Williams.

Takeaways

Customer-focused storytelling is a powerful tool that can be applied across different platforms. Here are some key principles to keep in mind when crafting your messaging:

1. To put the customer at the center of the story, use the magic words "You" and "Your". Save the "We" talk for your website's About page.
2. Be specific with your offer. Vague, abstract language, buzzwords, and jargon kill trust and make it harder to win people over.
3. Don't try to be the hero that appeals to everyone. Position your brand as the friend that puts an arm around the prospect's shoulder and helps them individually.
4. Use your copy to create scenarios that show you understand your customer. This will automatically make you relatable and trustworthy without talking about your brand.
5. Lead with value. People need to know what you can do for them before they'll take an interest in your brand.
6. Your value proposition shouldn't be a set of features—it should be a solution to your customer's problem.
7. Think about which part of your funnel each marketing asset or piece of content sits. Top of funnel assets (e.g. advertising) should be about the customer. Focus on specific customer benefits or problems you can help them solve. This will bring them down the funnel.
8. Save listing product features until you've connected with your prospect through storytelling. People buy based on emotion and justify their purchasing decisions with logic. Your messaging should follow the same pattern.