How to Write an Effective Impact Story

Impact stories connects the readers with the organization and the work they are doing. Their purpose is to inform and get an emotional response from audiences. Non-profit organizations use impact stories to give their target audience a chance to know more about their work and its significance. It is a good way to get people to care about their organization and mandate. It serves as a means of getting potential sponsors to invest in the company. They also show existing stakeholders what is being done with the money and resources they have contributed to the company. Good impact stories educate, inspire, and ultimately elicits a response from its readers. That response could be either emotional, for instance, happiness, admiration, or motivation or physical. That physical response could be a reader deciding to sponsor the organization or someone who opts to utilize the organization’s services. Writing a good impact story can also be very beneficial to a company and is a good way to make money as a freelance writer as well. You can also find other ways to get paid as a freelance writer here.

For every type of story, they are different parts that make up the whole and impact stories are no different. They each have a beginning, middle and an end, with various specifications in between. The following chart from keela shows some of the key stages and nuances that should ideally be included in an impact story. The following are also some tips on writing an effective impact story.

Understand Your Target Audience

Know your audience. Different people respond differently to different things. Consider the demographic of your audience, age, sex, even location can affect the interests of your audience. Once you have accurately pinpointed your audience or at least narrowed it down, then you are able to craft your stories with them in mind. Think of them as what they are, living breathing people with interests and then decide what stories will garner some amount of feelings from them.

Consider the Purpose

Consider the purpose of your story and what need you are trying to fill. Consider the purpose of your organization as well and how this present story helps to highlight that purpose or push it forward. The story will then draw attention to how the organization has contributed to the person’s life or event, depending on the subject of your story. Basically, if you give the audience a chance to understand the need for your organization, they will engage with the story more and root for its success.

Make it Personal

The readers need to connect with your material and your story. The best way to achieve this is to make your story as specific as possible. A general story about a general incident is not likely to draw the emotions that you are aiming for. But a named person from a specific location will feel real to the audience. In this case, doing your research is important. The more information you have to share about your subject will help to humanize them and make the situation feel more authentic. This in turn personalizes your story even more. To help with personalizing the story, you can use quotes from your interview with the person or even add some humor or emotion to the story as well. This can help to make the story more compelling.

Short and Sweet

Make it concise. Stick to the point of the story. While writing impact stories, sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the person’s life story and want to include factors that are not immediately relevant to your article. It is therefore important to self-edit and keep yourself on track. Don’t worry, if the material is very important you might find a place for it in a later article.

Use Different Media

We live in a digital age and we can utilize that in our stories. If you choose, you can be creative with the way the story is told to the world. There are blog articles, photo stories, videos and even podcasts. There are various mediums that can be used to get your impact stories across. You can have your former clients who have been helped by the organization share their stories through videos or podcasts or through photography. You can also utilize different social media platforms to share your stories. You can share snippets from video interviews or quotes from stories on the various social media platforms to bring more attention to your story and your organization.

Do Follow Up Stories

We are all consumers of information and content, and one thing that we love is a good ending or in this case a follow up story. We love to know what happens next. You can play on that need and do follow up stories for some of your most interesting or popular stories. It also serves to keep your audience invested in your company and clients. Get updates on stories, particularly, positive changes that has happened due to contributions and actions by your company. If the audience can see how your company’s contributions to the clients’ lives has helped them to progress and succeed, your relevance also increases in their eyes. This might also boost the amount of sponsorship and donations to your organization.

Conclusion

A good story is dependent on its content. So, choose interesting subjects, events or people to write about that helps to make your company stand out in the eyes of the readers. Bear in mind the above points as well and impact stories should bring attract even more clients. Happy writing!