The Power of Storytelling in Life Sciences Content

Like all content, life sciences content is about communicating ideas. And people remember ideas much better in the form of a story.

After all, what’s more memorable? Pages of research data and jargon-filled explanations or a powerful tale about how, for example, your blockbuster new drug will improve actual lives?

The difference between the data and the narrative lies in storytelling's power. But what is that power, and how can you harness it for your life sciences brand?

In this article, we are going to dive deeper into:

why storytelling is so important for the life sciences
different types of storytelling that life science brands can use
key elements of good storytelling that

By the end of this article, you will understand the true power of storytelling and how it can help you create great life sciences content for your brand.

Why Storytelling Is Powerful for Life Sciences Content

Storytelling Humanizes Complex Concepts

Life sciences concepts are inherently complicated. Presenting complex concepts within a narrative structure helps humanize and improve your content's quality. Your content should tug at the emotions and take your audience on a journey instead of reminding them of biology class.

Enhances Memory and Recall

How many of your randomly generated internet passwords have you memorized? Probably not too many. That’s because remembering data strings (or essential passwords) is difficult for the human brain.

It’s a lot easier for us to remember stories imbued with meaning. You may not remember every line from Star Wars or the Indiana Jones films, but you can probably remember the main plot points.

While your life sciences brand may not feature whimsical characters brandishing laser swords or bullwhips, the mere art of forming your information into a cohesive narrative works plenty of magic in helping people remember your message.

Establishes Trust, Authority, and Credibility

Trust, authority, and credibility are the currency of great brands. Great storytelling is one way that life sciences brands can earn trust, establish credibility, and become an authority.

Brands themselves are, after all, stories. Think of the Nike swoosh logo or the Peptobismal’s evocative song and pink coloring. These elements immediately conjure up a story of what those brands are all about.

Your brand should also tell an emotionally resonant story, form human connections with people, and make them say, “Yes, I want to know more about THAT company!”

Drives Engagement

Even when reading something highly technical and scientific, nobody wants to be bored. But the power of storytelling is one way to overcome that boredom.

Even technical content can be written in a way that doesn’t make people want to turn off and tune out. Great storytelling leads to active consumption and the desire to consume more.

Helps Decision Making

Ultimately, you want your audience to take some kind of action. If you are a life sciences company, that can mean many things depending on what stage your company is in.

Whatever action you want your audience to take, your content needs to help convince them to take that action. You can do this more easily through the power of storytelling by making your audience the hero of an adventure in their own story. The culmination of that story, the enticing conclusion, is getting them to take the action you want.

Types of Storytelling in Life Sciences Content

Several different story types can help you connect with your audience. In this section, we will look at some archetypes that work well for life sciences-related content.

Patient Journey Stories

There’s a classic film trailer that starts with the caption, “Every hero has a journey.” In healthcare, every patient also has a journey.

That patient journey often begins with symptoms or a diagnosis and proceeds to various doctor appointments, tests, treatments, and surgeries. Along the way, medicine and advice are dispensed.

Sharing patient journey stories is one of the most powerful ways a life sciences company can communicate effectively with its audience. It demonstrates to patients and their caregivers that you understand what they are going through in their lived experiences.

Research Chronicles

As the name suggests, a research chronicle is a story about doing research. For some, that might not be as exciting as watching an episode of Bridgerton or The Bachelor, but imagine talking about doing research without the power of a story behind it!

A research chronicle documents the research process from start to finish and can include many of the researcher’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions about it. The point is not only to document the research process but to illuminate it and inspire your audience to pursue their research interests and passions themselves.

Innovation Stories

In industries like the life sciences and biotech rife with new technology, the innovation story can be one of the ultimate storytelling forms. The point is to recount the innovation process of how you came up with a new idea, product, medicine, medical service, or any other type of innovation.

By using innovation stories in your life sciences content, you can shed light and explain in detail the excitement, perseverance, milestones, setbacks, challenges, and thrill of success that are all endemic to the innovation process. My heart rate went up just typing that sentence, so imagine what it can do when you use it for your actual innovation story!

If you’re looking for a great example, check out the book The Billion Dollar Molecule (we are not a sponsor; it’s just a great book).

Case Studies and Success Stories

A case study is a form of storytelling that tells the tale of how your business or brand solved a challenge, made a contribution, improved lives, or made a positive difference somewhere in society. Case studies are wonderful storytelling vehicles because they directly show your audience that you have success in your field and that you could have success for them, too.

Success stories like these are a great persuasion tool. While you don’t want to be overly braggadocious in your marketing, case studies are one place where you get to toot that horn and shine a light on your true excellence.

Educational Storytelling

Stories don’t just entertain us–they inform us. Educational stories are a powerful tool for teaching your audience what you want or need them to know so that they can do business with you.

For example, perhaps you are working on a new, experimental drug that might help an underserved patient population, but you need them to participate in clinical trials.

People who may qualify for your study may not know such experimental treatments exist or if they are likely to qualify. You can use your content to help inform them with an educational story so powerful it might save their lives.

Key Elements of Storytelling in Life Sciences Content

Now you know why storytelling is important for life sciences companies and the different kinds of stories you can tell. But how do you do it? What are the elements of great storytelling?

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of those now.

Narrative Structure

All great stories have a narrative structure, which is the backbone that gives the story shape. At the most basic level, great stories generally have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The narrative arc of a story can also be broken down into the following sections:

*The narrative arc of a story can also be broken down into six sections.*

Introduction - sets the stage and introduces your key characters
Conflict Establishment - lays out the problem you need to solve and the challenges you will face in solving that problem.
Rising Action - describes the main part of the journey or action once the setting, players, and conflict have been established.
Climax - the breakthrough where everything changes in the story - for example, maybe a new medication is discovered, or an obstacle in the research process is overcome
Falling Action - describes how the breakthrough is applied or implemented and any implementation challenges that must be met.
Resolution - The ultimate outcome or long-term impact of the rest of the story (the happily ever after )

If your context adheres to this general structure, modified where necessary for your specific case, the “plot” of your content will make sense to your audience.

Character Development

As we always say here at LPC, people relate to other people. That’s why, in all storytelling, character development is so important. The more you can connect your audience with your characters, the more your audience will be interested in staying with you on your journey.

This means that it is important to humanize your characters. Provide details and anecdotes about their lives and personalities that add color and fleshes them out. This way, your audience will see them as human beings, not just empty, unrelatable characters.

Real-World Impact

Another way to ensure your audience's investment is to demonstrate the real-world applications of your story. If you are, for example, sharing a research chronicle in a white paper, make sure to tie the importance of the research to the real-world applications it will have.

Say you are chronicling the research history of mRNA vaccines. You can explain how the speed and efficiency of this research increased during the COVID-19 outbreak when the world desperately needed such vaccines.

Emotional Engagement

When it comes to communicating your messages effectively, you have to remember that people don’t just want to think. People want to feel something. That’s why it’s important to form an emotional, and not just intellectual, connection with your audience.

When you bring out the humanity of your characters during their journeys and depict how they respond to challenges and triumphs, you can forge this emotional connection with your audience. Because the life sciences so often deal with the extreme elements of being a human - life, there will be many ways to craft your story to emotionally affect your audience.

Data

While we have focused on the human elements of storytelling, we’re not anti-numbers at all. In fact, data is essential to making your story believable, and establishing the authority and trust that we said is so important to any life sciences business.

Data grounds your story in hard, measurable truth. It anchors your characters and narrative structure to your story's bigger picture and helps people trust you. So data is not gently sprinkled onto your story after it's already been baked but becomes a foundational ingredient of your storytelling before you even start baking.

How to Tell a Powerful Story with Your Content

You now know why storytelling is essential for life sciences brands, the types of stories you can tell with your content, and the elements of great storytelling. But just because you have all the ingredients assembled does not necessarily mean you will immediately be great at baking the storytelling cake.

If you’re interested in learning how Lauren Perna Communications can help your life sciences brand tell powerful stories through your content, we’d love to help. Learn more about how Lauren Perna Communications helps create engaging content for life sciences brands like yours.