The 5 Principles and 10 Building Blocks of Persuasive Visual Storytelling
- By Cliff Atkinson
- 11/22/2018
- Introducing the BBP Story Template
- The Five Principles of Visual Storytelling
- Principle 1: Nail Down the Story Before the Slides
- Principle 2: Reformat Your Information for a Yes-No Decision
- Principle 3: Start with No to Get to Yes
- Principle 4: Always Keep the End In Mind
- Principle 5: Think Like a Storyboard
- The 10 Building Blocks of a Persuasive Storyboard
- Building Blocks 1-4: The Hook, The Relevance, The Challenge, and The Desire
- Building Blocks 5-7: The Map, The Anchors, and The Explanation
- Building Blocks 8-10: The Headlines, The Visuals, and The Flow
- Sketching the First Five Slides
- Sketching the Remaining Slides
- Applying Custom Layouts
- Adding Graphics to the First Five Slides
- Adding Graphics to the Remaining Slides
- Stepping Into the Screen
- Documenting the Experience
- Getting Started with the BBP Story Template
- Writing Headlines Using Three Ground Rules
Principle 3: Start with No to Get to Yes
Once you’re crafting your message to lead to a yes-no decision, you’ll dramatically increase your persuasiveness by starting your planning process by imagining your audience saying the dreaded word—no—to your request or proposal. When you imagine them saying that, and why they would say it, you truly get into their shoes, and with that perspective, you build your presentation to effectively counter their objections and your clear a persuasive pathway to your audience saying yes.
As you go through this process in the next chapter, you’ll make your presentation very relevant and personal to your audience. You’ll take into account what they already know so you don’t waste their time, and you’ll realistically address where they are in the decision-making process, so you lower the bar to getting to a yes decision.