When customers tell a brand's story, prospects tend to lower their guard of skepticism. Why? They're typically more transparent and validate the brand's offering with evidence. And every customer story is different. However, the best ones have the same underlying ”magic.” By balancing your focus and energy on the 10 strategic and functional elements, the stories you tell will truly change the way your prospects respond to the value you offer.

1. 10 Elements of a
Great Customer Story
Every customer story is different, but the best ones have the same underlying ”magic.” By balancing your focus
and energy on the 10 strategic and functional elements, the stories you tell will truly change the way your
prospects respond to the value you offer. They are:
Strategic Functional
1. Interesting story 7. Preproduction
2. Interviewer knowledge 8. Editing
3. Story clarity 9. Supporting footage
4. Quantifiable results customer is 10. Story activation
comfortable talking about
5. Substance vs. Aesthetics
6. Thought-provoking insights
...... The interviewee’s position within their company should relate directly
1 to the primary audience you wish to reach. Interview your client’s CEO
if that is the role you wish to reach next.

2. 1. INTERESTING STORYv
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Your stories need to hold the audience’s interest, but what’s interesting to you may not be for those buying your
solutions. It’s what they see that is important. Depending on the goal of your story, you may need to adjust
accordingly, but for most intents and purposes, you really have to empathize with your audience. Here’s a trick:
look at “interesting” from five different perspectives:
1) What’s interesting to you and your brand?
2) What’s interesting to your prospect?
3) What’s interesting to your prospect’s customers?
4) What’s interesting to independent analysts researching your
offering and that of your nearest direct competitor?
5) What do these perspectives have in common? What are
the most significant findings? Can these perspectives help you
craft an interesting story?
...... In the delivery of the story, passion and personality are
2 just as important as the story itself when the goal is
motivating a potential customer to take action.

3. 2 INTERVIEWER
KNOWLEDGE
The catch has a lot to do with the quality of
the fisherman. By that same token,
interviewers play a critical role in creating
your best stories. They know how to create
the best possible conditions to extract the
optimal narrative. And it’s not just about the
story. It’s just as much about the storyteller.
A great interviewer knows the story intimately
and knows how to bring it to the surface.
He or she knows how to shape the narrative,
how to comfort the storytellers, and how to
listen and bring out the best. A good
interviewer knows how to balance objectivity
with the benefits of your offering in an
environment of authenticity, and does so
with experience. If the story isn’t coming to
the surface, good interviewers know how to
find it through the voice and character of the
storyteller.
......
3 Location-based interviews tend to be more compelling, as
interviewees are typically more relaxed in a familiar environment.

4. 3.
STORY
CLARITY
Clarity is one of the things that makes your story
successful. The hardest thing is to make a unique
insight understandable, relevant and persuasive.
Clarity is what makes your story successful. Here is a
valuable exercise: with existing stories in mind, ask
yourself the following questions about their clarity:
1) Can you distill the story down into 10 words?
2) Can you find the sharable insight?
3) If you swap your name out with a competitor’s, does
the story still make perfect sense? If so, you need to
modify.
4) Does the story compel people to think clearly about
how you solve problems?
5) Are your stories focusing on the customer more than
your offering?
6) Does your story draw a line between what is and
what can be?
7) Does the story build? Does it motivate listeners to
want more?
8) Is there any doubt that your customer benefited
from your involvement?
......
4 At the current rate of growth, video will overtake written content
in terms of use within most buying processes.

5. 4.
QUANTIFIABLE RESULTS
A CUSTOMER IS COMFORTABLE
TALKING ABOUT
Proof. Your customer stories should be centered In order to get your customer to state that,
around evidence and validation. Is there clear, because of your offering, they had a 45% increase
irrefutable evidence that your solution helped in overall revenue over a 12 month period, or
your customer solve a problem worth solving? And something to that effect, you have to make sure
to what degree? Capturing that “essence” they are comfortable saying so. They have to own
authentically is a silver bullet. that statement.
Think about the stories you want to tell and how The key to this is your customer’s ability to own
you want them to be heard. You want the stories their result. Sometimes the outcomes are softer
you tell to tactfully and powerfully compel and less quantifiable. Stating they had a happier
people to take a step closer to considering your company culture as a result is easy to say because
offering. You want your prospects to hear the story it’s not quantifiable. Leaving this up to audience
and feel an increased confidence in your interpretation devalues the story's intent.
solutions. Having one customer share their
experience with your prospects does this.
Sharing concrete results makes that story
stronger.
......
5 In the medium of video, it’s best to draw out the story through its main
points: the inspiring points that viewers can relate to.

6. 5. Substance vs. Aesthetics
There are two sides to quality. We’ve developed this simple
“story algebra” to balance cinematography and shot
composition with story substance and clarity:
People who create customer reference assets (stories)
struggle with this balance everyday. They wonder how
much (very finite) energy they should devote to writing or
shaping a story vs. how much they should spend on the
aesthetics and in post production.
While mileage may vary, there is always a good balance to
be struck between the aesthetic and the story’s substance.
You know you are balancing the equation when your
outcomes are successful and you’re staying on budget.
......
6
You want to get viewers to see themselves in the same situation,
empathize with their hardships, be inspired by their journey and
moved to action.

7. v
6
THOUGHT
PROVOKING
INSIGHT
A thought-provoking and relevant insight is one of
the best ways to validate your offering. Without
insight, your customer’s story is just marketing. Example for Technology X Company:
With insight, you will create meaning. “I knew the only way I was going to be
able to solve the mayor’s problem was to
Think about it this way: Your prospect has seen
your customer reference video on your website. outsmart our city’s crime with newer and
They are interested but not yet ready to buy from more agile views into bigger data.
you. What are the things you want your prospects Technology X Company had the platform
to take away if they aren’t immediately persuaded
to buy your offering? Answer: You want them to
and ideas that could help me reduce
come away from the story with a strong, crime by 20% in 9 months, and they
memorable feeling that your company “gets” worked through my unique situation with
them. You want to diminish doubt and skepticism me.”
that your company understands customers, is
adaptive and competent. And you want all this
essence to come from your customer’s story.
The overall insight above is using bigger
We believe your stories should deliver unique and data as a crime-fighting tool. The subject is
meaningful insight into “why you?” And with that, about fighting the mayor’s crime problem.
the story should heighten the customer’s The object is newer and more agile views into
confidence in your ability to address their unique bigger data. The supporting role was played by
challenge. In the example on the right, we Technology X Company. It’s more about the insight
illustrate a complex story with a hierarchy and less about the company.
of insights.
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8. 7 PREPRODUCTION
Preproduction makes everything
smoother. Done right, it ensures
you're getting the right people,
locations, shots, and ultimately,
story.
Having time to research — to talk
with subject experts, clients, sales
reps, business partners, and the
customer — improves the story's
quality and relevance. Good planning
is never evident in a well-told story;
unfortunately, bad planning is.
Through effective preproduction you
are able to scout and select the best
location, interview and select the most
appropriate contacts, and set up the
right conditions to capture quality
supporting footage (B-roll.) These may
seem like “nice-to-haves” but are
always the difference between a good
story and a successful story.
......
8
Think about where within the buying process your viewers are:
(Influencer early on, purchaser later on?) How does this affect the stories
you want to create?

9. 8.EDITING 8.E
A good story is told three times. Once in the The most common editing mistakes that prohibit the
preparation, once in the shoot and then again in success of good stories are:
the edit suite.
1) Edit is too tightly packed—interviewees
You can interview for hours, find a powerful story
packed full of insights and validation... and have seem like they’re speed-talking.
it fall flat because of a poor edit. Imbalance
between story substance and post-production can
mean the difference between a very successful 2) There are too many details drowning
reference and a waste of time, energy and money. out the insights.
Good editing is about drawing out the personality of
the customer in a way that feels natural, authentic 3) There is no sense of gravity that ties
and integrated. This is a delicate sensibility,
the importance of the story to the
and not a one-size-fits-all. The director needs to
communicate to the editor how to best portray the audience.
client’s brand.
4) The keystone resolution to the problem
isn’t clear.
5) You settle on too much company (you),
and too little customer (them).
The speaker/customer is providing their story as a reference for
...... you, their story contains the benefits provided by your products
or services, so it should be about their story and not the story
(messaging, product name drops) you want them to tell.

10. We call supporting footage “B-roll.” B-roll helps illustrate the
customer’s personality and brand, then ties it to the larger story.
It provides the backdrop, helps carry the weight of context (of the
solution and the speaker), and can help set the tone of your entire
story.
It’s difficult to plan sometimes, but knowing in advance where you
can film good environment, tone and setting shots will pay off in
huge dividends. Your editors will certainly agree.
Directing the photographer/cameraman and associated team to
capture B-roll appropriate to the customer brand leads to a much
more interesting and cohesive story. Always grab as much as you
can.
Many companies have excellent B-roll all ready to go. Don’t forget
to consider the work that those before you may have done.
SUPPORTING
FOOTAGE
Videos are accessed most by INFLUENCERS early in the purchasing
process – and they are most often found off the corporate website.
Videos are accessed more by DECISION-MAKERS later in the process
10 ......
– and they are most often viewed on the corporate website. Take this
into consideration in how you package and proliferate your references.

11. STORY
ACTIVATION
Activation is what happens to the story once it’s Also, when you have a platform view of your story
completed and “out there.” Activation is how you assets, you’ll gain an advantage by seeing the
amp up your assets to work harder for you. additional pieces of your story broken up into
smaller, more digestible parts. This will help you see
While “put it on YouTube” isn’t a strategy or a mea- how great assets can be repurposed or applied to
sure of success, it’s a smart tactic for many reasons. other sales and marketing efforts. (Don’t forget to
One in particular is the Search Engine Optimization look on the cutting room floor.)
(SEO) value you derive. YouTube, Vimeo and other
video posting sites are indexed for search better than Your videos can also have a life beyond the web. Get
the video embedded on your site. Posting your video them on the desktops of your sales team through the
on those sites with strategically chosen tags and use of a desktop widget, mobile application, feature
description, will make your story more “findable”. them in an email campaign and use them at trade
Another activation strategy is to break up the full shows and other events.
customer reference story into smaller or individual
soundbites that can be used in blog posts, banner In all cases, they’re compelling pieces that direct
ads, on video posting sites, and other search-engine people to you.
friendly places around the web. You will be
amplifying the message, pollinating links back to
your website where your customers may spend time.
In addition, your smaller snippets can also be well
leveraged by sales reps in meetings and events, etc.
...... Escaping the noise with your customer references takes both
quality CONTENT and CONTEXT. This will help you create a signal
that your target audience can separate from the noise.

12. CONCLUSION
Every company is different and so is every story. Once you have a system that allows your team to perfect each
element of a great story (plan, shoot, produce, activate and warehouse), the sky is the limit for the types of sales
and outreach your company can perform.
To us, storytelling for sales and marketing and employee engagement is about setting exciting new benchmarks
around quality, creativity, results and access. For 15 years we have been using ideas, technology and hard work to
create a storytelling platform for one of the world’s largest and oldest companies. This has given us the opportunity
to blast through the obstacles and help people use better assets to work smarter with less energy.
Centerline Digital is a group of Raleigh, NC-based producers, writers, web/mobile/social creatives, animators
and editors. The stories we help our clients tell have to yield results, so we call ourselves accountable storytellers.
If you would like to learn more about the subject of this eBook, ask questions or learn more
about our capabilities and experience, please contact us at 919.821.2921 or at the email
addresses below.
John Lane
Vice President of Strategy and Creative
john@centerline.net
twitter: johnvlane
Erin Craft
Account Executive
erin@centerline.net
twitter: erincraft
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