Content Lessons from Creating Sticky Books
Dan Heath has smart lessons for creators and marketers.
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This is Part Two of my chat with best-selling author, Dan Heath. Part One, about the importance of tying strategy to your tactics is here.
Dan Heath has written several best-selling books, including Made To Stick, and I wanted to know how he applied the principles of making ideas stick to his own ideas. In other words, how do Dan and his brother, Chip, practice what they preach? And how can you apply their best practices to your projects?
This should not be surprising, but Dan utilizes very smart strategies and they are not specific to books. There are lessons here for anyone wanting to Earn Attention, increase the impact of their ideas, and drive engagement with their content and marketing.
The common thread is that you have to start at the start. Being thoughtful and strategic from the beginning of the process is vital for almost every area of content strategy. And as you’ll see, starting at the start applies not just to the creation of the content, but also to the audience's journey. So let’s start where a potential reader starts - with the cover of the book… or the podcast cover artwork, movie poster, or Netflix tile.
Visual Differentiation: Break The Packaging Pattern
When I was at Pacific Content, we spent a lot of time with clients talking about “Product Packaging” for podcasts, which includes podcast cover artwork, episodic artwork, websites, and other visual elements. The brilliant Dan Misener regularly reminds new podcasters that audiences will see your podcast before they listen to it, so the packaging has to earn their attention and instantly convey what the show is about.
The same is true with books and book covers. Dan told me a fantastic story about designing the cover of Made To Stick.
“Chip and I were first-time authors. We didn't know what we were doing. We had absolutely no clout with the publishers. They didn't know whether this thing was gonna sell 12 copies.
When it comes to the packaging of the book, as a first-time author, you have no authority over the cover. They don’t need your permission to use a certain cover.
But we had very strong opinions about the cover because before we have a chance to impress people with the first page, we have to get them to be aware that this book exists. And that's about attention, right? How do you get attention? You break a pattern!
All the covers that they had been producing looked like every other business book. At the time, that meant a white cover with black and red text. The covers featured some kind of office iconography.
I can't tell you how many of the creative options had to do with Post-it notes - I guess that was the first association that came to mind when people thought of something sticky? But there were like a billion Post-it note covers, and Chip and I were just banging our heads against the wall.
(Note: Dan is 100% correct about Post-it note overload on book covers…)
“Not only is a Post-it note a totally uninteresting visual, but if you think about it, the whole point of a Post-it note is that it's NOT that sticky. That's why it's valuable - it's NOT sticky. It’s portable. We don’t need a ‘lightly adhesive’ product as the symbol for our book about making things stick in a lasting way!
So we just kept pestering and pestering. Our thing was duct tape. We really wanted duct tape on the cover. It is the perfect symbol. It's super sticky. It's fun. People are gonna get it right away and it's gonna be distinctive. But we had to prove it to the publisher.
So at one point, my brother doctors up this PowerPoint slide that has nine other covers from bestselling business books. And then the tenth is one of the publisher’s favorite covers. It blends right in. It’s like it’s camouflaged.
Then, on the next slide, he put in our favorite cover with the duct tape in a really bright, obnoxious color.
“And it was just so obvious! You flip to the slide where you’ve got this bright cover with duct tape and your eyes - Boom! - just go there like a laser beam. And that was what sparked buy-in for us. They said ‘OK, OK, we get it. Let's do this, let's break the pattern.’ And I am so grateful they took that chance because I’m not sure the book would have succeeded without that cover.”
And I can personally attest that as soon as Dan started talking about the cover of Made To Stick, I instantly visualized the bright orange and duct tape - I still remember the cover. How many books (or podcasts or movie posters) can you remember with clarity years later?
Start Strong and Sticky
So you’ve got a reader (or listener, or viewer) past the cover. They are interested. Now you’ve got another “starting” problem to solve - how do you hook them right off the top? How do you get a sampler to buy? Or a buyer to actually read the book? Dan and Chip made a very conscious decision about how to start their books.
“We do try to take our own medicine and one way is to obsess about the first story in the book. If you don't grab attention with the first story in your book, shame on you, right? A reader has expressed enough interest to open the book, whether they've bought it or are just browsing it in the store. You’ve got one chance, and you’ve got to throw your best material at them. The stickiest story in your book should be the first thing. So we opened Made to Stick with a lurid, gripping urban legend.”
Again, I still remember the Made to Stick opening story about organ theft! And apparently, so do many others.
“The book came out in 2007. And people will still come up to me and say, “I remember that kidney thieves story!”
Micro-Arcs for Non-Fiction Books
So now we’ve got somebody hooked - they’re actually going to read the book, listen to the podcast, or watch the movie. How do you format the content to maximize engagement?
This is where I learned a big lesson about non-fiction books from Dan. Non-fiction books are not the same as movies, TV shows, or novels. After he told me about the need to have a phenomenal opening story, I shared that an early storytelling mentor of mine taught me that when it comes to television, the two most important elements in a story are the beginning and the ending. The beginning Earns Attention and the ending makes it memorable and shareable.
That, however, is NOT the case with non-fiction books!
“You're clearly right when it comes to classic narrative - the ending has got to land or it won’t be memorable. But it’s different with business books, primarily because not everybody's going to finish your book. So it's not like a movie.
Surely 96% of the people who go to a movie theater are going to get to the end. My guess is with business books, though, it’s only 20%. There are a disturbing number of people who will just buy a business book seemingly for osmosis … like its mere presence in their office will enrich their intelligence.
And then there's another big chunk of people who will read maybe the first chapter. It’s the minority who get all the way to the end. And so in that situation, you can't afford to get too cute. It’s not like a mystery, where you save the whodunit for the last chapter. You have to be strong throughout.
For us, the first chapter is key. It has to stand on its own legs. If people only read one chapter, do they still get the gist of the whole book?
I pushed it even further than that with my last book, Upstream. The first paragraph of the book is a parable that contains what I think is the single most important idea in the whole book. So I made the bet even more extreme: If you're only gonna read one paragraph of my book, I still want you to take away the thesis statement.”
And unlike other media that keep a single narrative arc evolving over time, non-fiction is often a collection of principles, or a framework, built around a single thesis or theme. But these individual principles do not necessarily build on each other towards a climax or crescendo. And so non-fiction books require a very different editorial approach, with each individual chapter requiring its own strategy.
“We want there to be micro arcs as opposed to a book-wide narrative arc. Our books are explaining frameworks, trying to make ideas actionable and useful for our readers. Within that framework, they're full of stories that act almost like a spoonful of sugar. We're trying to teach people about decision-making and behavior change, but people would never in a million years pick up a ‘behavior change textbook.’ If we can get you on the hook with a surprising or relatable story, you'll have a lot more patience for ‘taking the medicine.’
So we're conscious at the level of the page in the chapter, how do we keep your attention? How do we keep you feeling like you're learning something or you're invested in the story of a particular protagonist? How can we surprise you with something you didn't know? Those are the things we're thinking about in every chapter. We don’t always get it right, but that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Power of Story
The one principle in Made To Stick that is utilized throughout to great effect is Story. It is a deliberate choice.
“Made to Stick discusses the six traits of a sticky idea: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story. Of the six, Story is the one that sticks out. It's not an adjective. Five adjectives and then one noun.
The reason Story sticks out is that it bakes in all the other traits naturally. Stories have a natural simplicity. Stories almost always have unexpected elements that get you hooked. Stories are naturally concrete in the sense that we can imagine what’s happening in our minds. Stories are emotional - they involve emotional arcs and conflict. Stories are kind of like a one-stop shop to have a sticky idea. And the case we make in the book is that stories have these amazing twin powers to help people: simulation and inspiration.”
And as you’ll see, both simulation and inspiration motivate change.
Stories as Simulation
“What stories do is allow us to walk in someone else's shoes for a time and to see the world through their eyes, to experience their conflict in a way as though it's our own. I mean, everybody has had that experience.
You go to an action movie and Jason Bourne is trying to make his way through a train station without being shot by a sniper. And your pulse speeds up. Think about how weird that is, right? You're just watching something that has nothing to do with you, and yet your body is experiencing the scene as though you are Jason Bourne.
That's what we mean by simulation.
And in an organizational context, stories can have the same power. It might work in a business where customer service is very important and prized. If you hear the story of some extraordinary thing that one of your colleagues did for a customer, you can imagine yourself doing what they did. It's a way of showing you what's possible. It's a way of stretching your own sense of what you can do.”
Stories as Inspiration
“Stories also tap into our emotions at a really deep level. We want to do things differently after we hear a compelling story. When we hear about our colleague who did an extraordinary thing for a customer, not only can we imagine what it would be like if we did that, but it also gives us a little spritz of motivation to do something cool ourselves. So maybe later that day, we're inclined to do something special for a customer because of the inspirational power of hearing the story about what someone else did.”
Story is a Means to an End
Choosing the right stories to tell matters a lot. I wanted to know what filters to apply to determine which stories will stick, resonate, and create change versus ones that won’t. Yet again, I got a surprising answer from Dan that makes a ton of sense.
“Weirdly, the ‘best story’ – in the sense of the one that’s most emotional or surprising or captivating or whatever – isn't always the one that works best for me as a writer. I am looking for a story that will bring a concept to life – it has to carry some explanatory weight. So that’s different from a novelist or a filmmaker where the story is everything. For me, the story is a means to an end. The end is for my reader to have greater success doing something that's important to them. Stories are a vehicle for that. And so the test of a story to me is this: does it help them simulate and does it inspire?”
Takeaways
What is your equivalent of a book cover and how can you differentiate and make it both memorable and on strategy?
Does your artwork or product packaging convey the essence of your content? Will it hook people enough to earn ongoing time and attention?
Are you starting strong and leading with the best story you’ve got? Are you giving yourself the best possible chance to earn the attention of your audience and get them to commit to the full experience?
How does your audience consume your medium? What are the best practices for Earning Attention in your medium? Is it a single narrative arc like a movie or novel, or are you better suited to micro-arcs like a non-fiction book or most non-fiction podcast series?
On every page, at every minute, at every opportunity, are you thinking about how to keep the attention of your audience?
Are you embracing the power of Story whenever possible, or are you telling your audience information and downloading facts and figures?
Are you selecting stories as a means to end, making sure the stories create simulation and inspiration in service of your desired change?
A huge thank you to Dan, not only for taking the time to talk with me but for so generously sharing these lessons and ideas that are applicable to pretty much any content creator or marketer.
What’s Earned My Attention Recently
Fonts Choices for Succession Characters
These fonts as Succession character embodiments are pretty bang-on and funny.
Don’t Be The Best, Be The Only
Tim Ferriss posted this amazing clip from Kevin Kelly and I just love it:
Autopod Multi-Camera Editor
Autopod’s Premiere plug-in can take multi-camera shoots and automatically edit them. This is a multi-hour time saver and yet another mind-blowing new tech advance for content production.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to know more about Earning Attention with your content strategy and marketing, check out The Creativity Business.