Marketing Is Broken — Here’s Why Story Is the Fix
At 11:47 p.m., a small-business owner opens yet another analytics dashboard. Blue spikes, green arrows. But still, the phone isn’t ringing.
Her team refreshed the website copy, posted five Reels, and launched new ads. Nothing feels connected. She closes the laptop and whispers what most founders won’t: “Is my marketing… broken?”
It’s not just her. We’ve turned marketing into a noisy arms race: more tools, more tactics, more templates. The more we chase hacks, the more we drift from the only thing that’s ever moved people to act: a clear story.
When I was sixteen, clarity wasn’t a marketing concept. It was oxygen.
2:13 a.m., fluorescent-lit hallway. After a private charter from Ankeny, Iowa, to St. Louis, Missouri, I had been transported via ambulance to St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Upon arrival, I was met by my transplant team: the same one that had been monitoring my care until this point. A plastic bracelet was affixed. An IV was started. Then my surgeon walked me and my parents through the plan, the same one we had gone over multiple times in the months leading up to this moment.
The plan was delivered in plain language: the problem, the path, the risks, and what success looks like. No jargon. No fog. In the most high-stakes moment of my life, story — a sequence of “here’s where you are, here’s what’s next” — provided reassurance. It reminded me I was in the right hands.
I’m Noah Swanson, writer, researcher, and founder of Type and Tale. That early morning taught me the lesson I bring to every client: Marketing isn’t broken. Messaging is. If you confuse your customer, you lose them. In fact, even worse: In today’s crowded market place, confusion often means you’ll never have the opportunity to even get the chance to speak with them. The fix is story, strategic story.
The Real Problem (And Why Your Dashboard Can’t Solve It)
Most marketing fails for three simple reasons:
The customer is missing from the center. We talk about our features and awards, then hope customers care, we hope they’ll be impressed. It’s like the guy at the gym strutting by never actually speaking to the girl he’s trying to impress. In his mind, he imagines eventually she’ll take notice and throw herself at him. But she doesn’t care. And neither do your customers. People care about their survival, time, and growth.
There’s no through-line. Ads say one thing, the website says another, sales says a third. If people can’t follow the plot, they bail. Remember, people are busy. And they have a finite amount of energy. They will spend neither time nor energy to dig through your pile of confused messaging.
We optimize the wrong metrics. Clicks are loud and distracting. But they aren’t truth. They’re the business owner’s siren’s song leading them to bankruptcy. If the message isn’t clear, more traffic just means more people getting lost.
The antidote isn’t a bigger budget. It’s a better blueprint.The Effective Story Method™
The Story Advantage Framework™
Bigger is never better if the foundation can’t support it. So, let me introduce you to my simple 3-step method to turn clarity into customers.
1) Clarify the Character
Name one hero (your customer), one costly problem, and one promised outcome. As Donald Miller explains, the true test of clarity is whether it can pass the “grunt test”: in five seconds, a stranger should know what you do, how it helps them, and what to do next in order to get it.
2) Architect the Narrative
Translate that clarity into a repeatable structure for your brand: website, offers, ads, emails, sales scripts, video. Same core story; different scenes. Consistency isn’t boring, it’s compounding.
3) Amplify the Signal
Put your story where your customers already are — paid, partnerships, and content — then measure by behavior (calls, bookings, purchases, replies), not vanity metrics like clicks or impressions. (Side note: How dare I say such a thing, right? But I know what it is to be in the seat of the business owner being wooed with sexy statistics that do nothing for my bottom line. In the matter of one year, I fired three marketing companies who promised results. But all they could show was clicks and impressions — vanity metrics.)
This is the operating system. No mystique, no marketing fog.
“But Does Story Really Move Help?”
A clear story is a decision-making shortcut. When people see themselves in your narrative, they don’t burn calories deciphering your offer. They picture their success and move.
Consider the difference:
Before: “We offer comprehensive, end-to-end solutions for SMBs.”
After: “Get more calls, clicks, and customers with clear messaging and a plan that actually works.”
One sounds good, but it makes you yawn. The other makes you nod. Clarity creates desire; desire creates demand.
Why This Matters Now (In the AI Era)
AI made it cheap to make content. And easy to make noise. Result: commoditized words. If your message is generic, AI can copy it at scale.
Your edge is human: lived moments, hard-won perspective, precise language.
Keep human storytelling at the core and use AI as a force multiplier. Tools can draft; you decide the plot. Your story is the moat.
What “Story-Powered Marketing” Looks Like
Website: Above the fold: the customer’s goal, the problem you solve, and the next step.
Offers: Named and framed as steps in the hero’s journey. Good/Better/Best = stages of progress.
Ads + Social: Lead with a scene, deliver one sharp insight, point to one clear action.
Email: A weekly rhythm: one helpful idea, one customer story, one CTA.
Sales: Stories replace jargon. “Here’s how a local shop like yours grew 32% by tightening the message and focusing the spend.”
This is how you stop shouting and start resonating.
The Stakes (And the Turn)
Back to our founder at 11:47 p.m. She doesn’t need another tool. She needs a turn, the realization that the story is the strategy. When she rewrites her homepage to start with the customer’s goal, renames her offers, and trains her team to tell the same story everywhere, the metrics start to mean something. Calls increase. Sales cycles shorten. The team finally knows what to say.
Her marketing wasn’t broken. The message was out of focus. And story fixed it.
If You Want This, Here’s Your Simple Plan
Step 1 — Clarity Call (20 minutes). Identify your hero, the costly problem, and the promised outcome. Click here to get started.
Step 2 — Story Advantage Sprint (2 weeks). Codify your message, rename/refine offers, and build a story-based homepage + ad/message kit.
Step 3 — Amplify. Paid media, content, and email that keep your signal strong and your pipeline full.
A Personal Note
I’m here because a stranger’s liver and a team’s clear plan gave me a second shot. I won't waste it. I use it to help founders find words that work, so your business can breathe easier, too.
Let’s fix your marketing the right way by fixing the story you tell.
Author: Noah Swanson
Noah Swanson is the founder and Chief Content Officer of Tellwell.