Imagine you had two options to write a story on the dangers of winter driving.
 
You can start off by looking at the stats on the number of people killed on icy roads each winter.
 
Or you can start by looking at a father killed on his way to work after losing control of his vehicle on black ice. A father who leaves behind a daughter starting university in the fall.
 
What grabs your attention?
 
If you think the version with the father is more interesting, you’re not alone.
 
Humanizing storytelling has been around for thousands of years. We relate to the pain and joy of others. It gets us hooked. It gets us reading.
 
Today, however, we have access to ample amounts of data and numbers in the mix. And many content marketers working in the B2B space have to deal with dense, convoluted content that often goes through one ear and out the other.
 
What can content marketers do to humanize businesses through storytelling?
 

Here’s a hint: talk about people!
 
I’m sure your product or service is great and in demand if it continues to sell.
 
But how can you take your inbound marketing strategy to the next level?
 
Do what our cavemen ancestors did when they sat around fires telling each other stories: focus on the human angle.
 
How does your product or service make the lives of your customers better?
 
If you sell electrical safety equipment to electricians, for example, how has your product made your customer feel safer on the job?
 
Showcasing the success of your product by writing about how it has helped a customer is more powerful than just listing product features, which can quickly make readers zone out.

Other times we take ourselves too seriously.
 
“So often, when we get stuck just thinking about the business results, we conflate really boring, dry stuff with the stuff that’ll actually work. This white paper; it has graphs, it uses academic language, we sound super serious, it’s authoritative. No, it’s not. It’s boring. No one’s going to want to read it,” said Joe Lazauskas, co-author of The Storytelling Edge.
 
He's right.

“Stories make us remember and they make us care. The reason content marketing works isn’t artsy-fartsy. It’s because our brains are programmed for stories,” Lazauskas added.
 
Humanizing storytelling in the B2B space has a long way to go.
 
But doing so is a necessity for businesses that want to scale with content marketing.

Writers spend a lot of time on that first sentence in their story.
 
Why?
 
If the first sentence doesn’t entice readers to the next one, all that hard work creating the story goes down the drain.
 
In case you’re stuck, here are seven tips on creating the perfect lede.
 

1. Don’t start off with numbers
 
There’s no easier way to kill a story than by starting off with numbers. Just don’t. If your story is number heavy, keep the figures farther down in the body of the text. And always round them to the nearest whole numbers, unless the exact number is necessary to the story.

2. Read it out loud
 
By doing this, you’ll be able to hear whether you stumble as you read. If you’re stumbling, so will your reader. By reading the lede out loud, you can finesse it prior to publishing.

3. Tell me in one sentence
 
I always jot down in one sentence what a story is about before I begin to write or research my story. You could write this sentence on a sticky-note and post it on the corner of your computer screen, or just write it out on the corner of your notepad. This is a great habit that’ll help you focus on what your story is about. That crisp, clear focus also helps with crafting the perfect lede.

4. What’s the big deal?
 
Tell readers what makes this story different from all the other ones on your blog. I write a lot about SaaS businesses and I’m constantly considering fresh approaches to writing stories on the same subject. What makes this SaaS software’s function different from the last one’s? Your lede should indicate why your story is fresh.

5. Keep it short
 
A short lede that focusses on one key point is better than a long lede stuffed with confusing or conflicting elements (a problem that often comes up in the B2B space). You’re not answering the who, what, where, why, when, and how in your lede. And try to keep your lede to around 25 words. Anything longer and readers will leave the page.

6. Buried gems in your story
 
It’s a good idea to read over your story once it’s complete. You might have a nugget of interesting content in your story that may work better as a lede. If something within the story sounds more interesting than the lede, consider starting off with that point. It’s important to rework your story a few times. Don’t settle for a lede.

7. Got writer’s block? Don’t stare at your screen.
 
It happens to every writer. The worst thing you can do is sit in front your screen. Go out for a coffee. Stretch. Play with Fido. Relax. Do anything but work on your story. When your mind is fresh, come back and start again.