15 Inspiring Storytelling Quotes to Help You Move an Audience

There’s an old saying you might have seen floating around the internet that states, “Those who tell the stories rule the world”.

Even without the modern neurological research that proves storytelling is the best way to capture people’s attention, bake information into their memories, and forge close, personal bonds, humanity has always inherently known that people crave and seek out great stories almost as much as food and water. And the people (and brands) who can tell the most compelling stories are able to command the most influence within their community.

In the marketing industry, where 5% of branded content attracts 90% of total engagement, the need for storytelling is more pressing than ever before. Brands are creating content at a record pace and volume, but producing more content doesn’t necessarily mean it’s attracting more attention -- it’s really just making more noise.

If brands actually want to slash through the clutter and engage an audience, solely focusing on listicles and ultimate guides won’t suffice anymore -- they must also tell gripping stories.

To help you channel your inner storyteller, we’ve curated 15 quotes about storytelling from some of the world’s most insightful authors and filmmakers. Read on to get inspired.

Storytelling Quotes

1. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” - J.K. Rowling, author
2. “There is no friend as loyal as a book” - Ernest Hemingway, author
3. “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” - Jordan Peele, writer and director of Get Out
4. "You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.” - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
5. “The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences, but through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.” - Steven Spielberg, filmmaker
6. “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” - Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Bones and Master of None
7. “I'll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.” - Vera Nazarian, author
8. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” - Zadie Smith, author
9. “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author
10. “Think about the word destroy. Do you know what it is? De-story. Destroy. Destory. You see. And restore. That's re-story. Do you know that only two things have been proven to help survivors of the Holocaust? Massage is one. Telling their story is another. Being touched and touching. Telling your story is touching. It sets you free.” - Francesca Lia Block, author
11. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” - Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
12. “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” - Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
13. “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” - Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, The Storytelling Edge
14. “Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others. A well-told Story is a gift to the reader/listener/viewer because it teaches them how to confront their own discomforts.” - Shawn Coyne, The Story Grid
15. “Create those things where human protagonists relate to us, where the stakes and conflict grip us, and where the emotions move us. Craft those simple things, those glorious things, those things so often forgotten but so desperately needed. There’s no hidden or corporate meaning behind the word ‘story.’ We know what they are. And we need to start telling them.” - Jay Acunzo, founder of Unthinkable Media

15 Inspiring Storytelling Quotes to Help You Move an Audience

1. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” - J.K. Rowling, author

2. “There is no friend as loyal as a book” - Ernest Hemingway, author

3. “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” - Jordan Peele, writer and director of Get Out

4. "You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.” - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale

5. “The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences, but through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.” - Steven Spielberg, filmmaker

6. “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” - Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Bones and Master of None

7. “I'll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.” - Vera Nazarian, author

8. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” - Zadie Smith, author

9. “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author

10. “Think about the word destroy. Do you know what it is? De-story. Destroy. Destory. You see. And restore. That's re-story. Do you know that only two things have been proven to help survivors of the Holocaust? Massage is one. Telling their story is another. Being touched and touching. Telling your story is touching. It sets you free.” - Francesca Lia Block, author

11. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” - Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal

12. “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” - Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

13. “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” - Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, The Storytelling Edge

14. “Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others. A well-told Story is a gift to the reader/listener/viewer because it teaches them how to confront their own discomforts.” - Shawn Coyne, The Story Grid

15. “Create those things where human protagonists relate to us, where the stakes and conflict grip us, and where the emotions move us. Craft those simple things, those glorious things, those things so often forgotten but so desperately needed. There’s no hidden or corporate meaning behind the word ‘story.’ We know what they are. And we need to start telling them.” - Jay Acunzo, founder of Unthinkable Media

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/storytelling-quotes

The 33 Best Free Fonts Designers Should Download

Finding stylish fonts for your design projects can be a major time sink -- especially when you have to wade through seemingly endless pages of typefaces that don't suit the vision you have in your head.

Finding a free font can be even more of a hassle.

So what's a budget-strapped designer to do?

We've scoured the depths of the internet so you don't have to, coming up with 33 of the best free fonts you deserve to have on your computer. Here's how we sorted them:

• Free Script Fonts
• Free Serif Fonts
• Free Modern/Sans-Serif Fonts
• Good Fonts for Logos
• Free Retro Fonts

Many of the free fonts featured here were developed by designers, for designers, so they understand the need for versatile, polished, free typefaces firsthand. Check out the fonts below and keep them in mind for your next design project.

Best Free Fonts for Designers

1. Hello Stockholm -- script font
2. Wildera Regular -- script font
3. Mightype -- script font
4. Selima -- script font
5. Oranienbaum Regular -- serif font
6. Butler -- serif font
7. Arctic -- serif font
8. Canvas -- serif font
9. Bitter ht -- serif font
10. Agne Regular -- serif font
11. Yeseva One Regular -- serif font
12. Moon -- modern font
13. Kolikö -- modern font
14. Mohave -- modern font
15. 20 db
16. Alcubierre Regular -- modern font
17. Bourbon Grotesque -- modern font
18. Frontage Outline -- modern font
19. Arciform Sans Regular -- modern font
20. De La Fuente -- modern font
21. Westfalia -- font for logos
22. Atami -- font for logos
23. Anders -- font for logos
24. Westmeath -- font for logos
25. Modeno -- font for logos
26. Rezland -- font for logos
27. Polya -- font for logos
28. Horizon -- retro font
29. Sweet Sensations -- retro font
30. ITC Bauhaus -- retro font
31. Bobbers -- retro font
32. FF Blur -- retro font
33. Canterbury -- retro font

Free Script Fonts

1. Hello Stockholm

What happens when you combine Scandinavian minimalism with classic brushstrokes? You get Hello Stockholm, a casual script that plays well with sans-serif fonts.

2. Wildera Regular

We think this whimsical, light-weight script would look right at home in a fairy tale (or in your next project).

3. Mightype

Subtle hand-drawn details set this script apart from the pack. Mightype is sophisticated without being stuffy.

4. Selima

Selima's breezy brushstrokes are perfect proof that script typefaces don't have to look old-fashioned or uptight -- they can be casual and modern.

Free Serif Fonts

5. Oranienbaum Regular

From small print to bold headlines, multi-tasking Oranienbaum is up to the challenge.

6. Butler

A decidedly modern serif typeface, Butler comes in 14 different weights to suit a wide variety of different uses.

7. Arctic

If you're looking for a slab serif font with a modern edge, give Arctic a try. It's a great way to give your headlines some character.

8. Canvas 

Canvas offers a modest but professional typeface that manipulates the thickness in the details of each letter. If you're looking for formality and creativity in the same font, this one takes the cake.

9. Bitter ht

We love the versatility of Bitter ht, a contemporary serif typeface that looks stylish at any size or weight.

10. Agne Regular

With bold lines and contrasting stems, this elegant font is a fresh take on old-fashioned serif typefaces.

11. Yeseva One Regular

If you're concerned that serif typefaces come across as too uptight or formal, consider Yeseva, a laid-back option for headlines and subtitles.

Free Modern Fonts

12. Moon

Have you exhausted your library of simple and free sans-serif typefaces? Add Moon to the mix. We love this font's clean simplicity and round edges.

13. Kolikö

This bold font evokes a sense of mystery to any creative work. Or, if you just want to geek out about something on your new tech blog, we can totally see this font playing a part.

14. Mohave

This all-caps font was designed with bold headlines and big type settings in mind.

15. 20 db

The font below is simply timeless. Whether you're designing for an event advertisement or the headers of your blog, 20 db is confidence in written form.

16. Alcubierre Regular

Clean, minimal, and geometric, Alcubierre is well-suited to projects that require subtle headlines and a clear focus on the content.

17. Bourbon Grotesque

Inspired by -- you guessed it -- classic bourbon labels, this sans-serif has a big personality that demands attention.

18. Frontage Outline

Frontage Outline is reminiscent of handcrafted facade signs, making it a suitable pick for logotypes.

19. Arciform Sans Regular

Arciform might be simple, but this sleek sans-serif is far from boring. Consider including this easy-to-read typeface in your next web design project.

20. De La Fuente

This cool typeface is decorative without being over-the-top, making it ideal for headlines, logotypes, and other design projects that focus primarily on the text.

Good Fonts for Logos

21. Westfalia

Give your next project an outdoorsy, authentic feel with this hand-painted brush sans, which makes for a playful logo as well.

22. Atami

Atami's numerous weights and display options make it the Swiss Army Knife of modern sans-serifs -- it can really do it all for a rising brand.

23. Anders

Anders just might be the avant-garde font of your dreams. It's unique geometric lines make it an excellent choice for logotypes.

24. Westmeath

Westmeath adds a dose of swagger to an otherwise basic font, making a logo that uses this font both legible and stylish.

25. Modeno

The Modeno font is consistent with the thin designs that many contemporary artists have gravitated to over the last few years. But don't mistake this one for just any new-wave typeface -- its lanky quality is hard to come by in today's sans-serif options.

26. Rezland

Rezland is just plain cool. It almost doesn't have time for you ... that's just how cool this font choice is.

27. Polya

Polya is perhaps the most interesting font we could find. The webbing of each letter makes for a truly mesmerizing logo.

Free Retro Fonts

28. Horizon

Horizon is a simple but retro font that elicits images of an old outer space movie. And yet, it still holds up.

29. Sweet Sensations

 

30. ITC Bauhaus

Similar to Horizon, ITC Bauhaus has a rounded, retro look that comes in numerous thicknesses. Thicker versions look like the header of an old playbill, while thinner styles give off a jazzy vibe.

31. Bobbers

Bobbers is a script font that has the goofy and over-the-top qualities of an old sitcom. Bring it back from the 1970s in your next design project for a truly confident header.

32. FF Blur

The haunting glow of FF Blur reminds us of an old horror movie. But it might be just soft enough to intrigue the audience of your next project.

33. Canterbury

No list of old-fashioned fonts is complete without the old-English stylings of Canterbury. Emulate many of today's most famous newspaper logos with this traditional typeface.

We hope you find these fonts helpful -- but because they are offered by other parties on their sites, we can't make any guarantees or promises about them (like that they will be available or free to use).

Also, we want to mention that the designers who offer these fonts might have rules about how you can or can't use them, so there might be limitations that are applicable to use of the font.

Want more font tips? Check out this tip for identifying the name of a font.

 

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-free-fonts-designers

How AI Will Redefine the Modern Marketing Campaign

Today, the term “marketing” encompasses a slew of interconnected tasks. Instead of simply promoting goods or services, marketers are spending colossal amounts of time researching, creating, managing, analyzing, and reporting on campaigns. Marketers are ever-present through all stages of the sales journey, and their jobs are never done.

It wasn’t always this way. While basic marketing has been around as long as commerce—with ancient traders displaying their wares as attractively as possible—our modern understanding of the field evolved alongside the Industrial Revolution. This era marked the start of mass production and a shift from making products to buying them. The glut of manufactured goods created a new need: courting potential customers and standing out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Thus, modern marketing was born.

We’re experiencing another revolution today. Just as machines redefined marketing in the eighteenth century, today’s technology is advancing the way we exchange goods and services yet again. The biggest evolution will come from artificial intelligence (AI), which uses data and algorithms to model and predict behaviors. AI is already influencing the marketing profession, but this is just the beginning. Marketing campaigns of the future might look wildly different than today’s.

The Changing Face of Marketing

Years from now, we’ll still recognize the core elements of campaigns, even if the way we approach them changes. We’ll continue to consider the who, what, where, when, and how. And we’ll always measure what happened. But there will also be major shifts. AI has the sophistication to test infinite combinations of variables over time to optimize the sales experience for every person. Equipped with this technology, marketers will move from mass campaigns for large groups to hyper-individualized campaigns built from a huge supply of plug-and-play microcontent.

Let’s explore how AI will redefine the elements of marketing, and look at what a campaign of the future may look like.

Audience

In marketing’s humble beginnings, an audience was simply whoever happened to walk by. Tradespeople were limited by location, and sophisticated outreach was simply nonexistent. Today’s marketers have come a long way by using rules-based segmentation and Smart Lists. But with the widespread adoption of AI, these methods will eventually seem as outdated as word of mouth.

As AI helps pinpoint preferences, trends, and past purchasing behavior, the “who” of each campaign will become increasingly important, and marketers will create individualized tracks for every customer. They will also leverage this massive amount of data to do a cluster analysis and identify natural affinities within groups.

But it won’t stop there. AI will also analyze data to continually expand and create lookalike audiences for colossal—yet incredibly targeted—growth. In the future, how marketers select audiences will change. Instead of them telling their CRM and automation software whom to include in campaigns, the technology will tell marketers whom to target.

Content

Everyone knows that one size doesn’t fit all. But most marketers still take a wide-spray approach—like producing content for the entire population of Facebook or Twitter—rather than a precise one. This will change. Soon, marketers will use AI and machine learning to create hyper-personalized messaging. The technology will help companies identify preferences and values so they can create microcontent and assemble it in real time based on an individual’s specific needs and interests.

Instead of a 100-page “definitive guide” to a topic, marketers will produce hundreds of small, varied bits of content. Then, they’ll assemble the pieces like a puzzle. The result? A completely unique picture for each individual that’s driven by data to be as rich and relevant as possible. In the future, marketers will move from distributing messages to the masses to assembling bits of content and creating completely personalized campaigns based on real-time engagement.

Editorial Calendars

The more personalized campaigns become, the less effective a large-scale editorial calendar will be. Most B2B databases house thousands of contacts. If each of them is on a tailored journey within a unique campaign, how could you possibly manage all those calendars?

The answer is, you won’t. Technology will likely evolve to filter contacts into “categories” of journeys or campaigns. AI will organize groups of people into similar categories, and marketers will be able to analyze the different rates of engagement among them. In the future, marketers will move from an editorial strategy and struggling to visualize campaign operations in calendars to a more intelligent strategy where calendars have gone extinct.

Creative

AI already has an impressive creative portfolio. In the last few years, advancements have allowed machines to compose music, paint pictures, play board games, and even generate human-like faces with stunning accuracy. So, where does that leave the actual people?

We often think of creativity as a uniquely human trait. And even with AI continually evolving, it will remain that way. Though AI can innovate, it must first be programmed by humans. Even “creative” AI can only master one skill, while humans can be great at singing and playing chess.

One of AI’s most attractive traits is its ability to can take on mundane campaign tasks, like crunching performance numbers, so humans can focus on more strategic and creative tasks. In the future, human marketers will give up burdensome, time-consuming numerical tasks to AI, freeing up time for people to do what they’re great at: being creative.

Measurement

In addition to transforming marketing journeys themselves, AI will also change the way we analyze our investments. With powerful technology running campaigns, marketers will focus less on engagement metrics because AI will already be optimizing them. Instead, people can take a more holistic approach to the numbers.

Marketers are already becoming comfortable with this concept. Take trade shows, for example. If an organization participates but only closes one deal, the attendance costs may just barely be covered. But the value of participation cannot be measured by only that one sale. ROI also comes from increased awareness and brand affinity. In other words, it’s a longer-term play.

Marketing will always have to prove its worth and show ROI, but marketers might be doing so in ways they can’t presently imagine. In the future, marketers will move from struggling to show true ROI not even trying to show ROI—at least, not in the ways we currently do.

Unlocking the Power of AI

These days, inboxes are flooded with irrelevant marketing emails. Campaigns adopt a mass approach, sending messages to millions of people with the hope that a fraction of 1% open it. This relegates companies to marketing purgatory: the spam folder. But AI, with its tremendous computing power and vast amount of accessible data, can do amazing things—and it will transform marketing forever. As marketers, we are living in an incredible time. Technology is evolving so quickly that we’re witnessing our profession change right before our eyes. The future of marketing is on the horizon. It’s up to us to seize it.

Ready to learn more? Check out our Practical Guide to Artificial Intelligence for Marketers for ideas about how to get started.

The post How AI Will Redefine the Modern Marketing Campaign appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from Marketo Marketing Blog https://blog.marketo.com/2019/02/how-ai-will-redefine-the-modern-marketing-campaign.html

5 Link Shorteners to Try Besides Google URL Shortener

Trying to convince people to click on a long, jumbled link is almost as bad as a door-to-door salesman trying to sell people financial services. Needless to say, if your audience sees a link they perceive to be spammy in one of your social media posts, they’ll do the digital equivalent of slamming the door in your face -- scroll past it

To avoid being perceived as spammy or sloppy when you have a legitimate link to share, check out our list of the five best link shorteners that’ll clip your links into clean, consistent, and clickable URLs.

URL Shortener

URL shorteners not only trim your links into polished URLs, but they also let you track the performance of your individual links. Some URL shorteners even offer branded link options. For example, a branded link for this blog post would look something like “hubs.ly/url-shorterner”.

What are the benefits of using link shorteners?

Using link shorteners can benefit your brand in three main ways:

1. When you post long links on social media, it can look like spam or deter users from clicking on something they don't recognize. In particular, adding tracking parameters to your links can result in URLs that look long and confusing to someone who's unfamiliar with typical link tracking practices. Link shorteners can prune spammy-looking links into clear and concise links.

2. Many link shorteners also let you track each of your link’s performance and analytics, which can help you understand which pieces of content perform best on specific platforms.

3. Every social media network limits the amount of characters you can include in your posts. Twitter and LinkedIn have the shortest character limits at 280 and 600 characters, respectively, so if you need to squeeze a link or an extra hashtag in one of your posts, link shorteners can help you stay within the limit.

5 of the Best Link Shorteners Besides Google URL Shortener

1. Bit.ly

Image Credit: Rewind & Capture

Bit.ly is a link shortener platform that features a comprehensive dashboard that displays your links’ performance metrics, such as click-through rates, channel stats, and geographic information of the people clicking on your links. They also offer branded links and have integrations with social media management software, like Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, and HubSpot to help you seamlessly distribute your shortened links through your social media profiles.

Bit.ly’s free account offers up to 500 branded links, 10,000 unbranded links, and reporting data about your top referrers, which is ideal for small businesses. Their enterprise plan lets you brand as many links as you’d like and provides all the data and metrics mentioned above, which is best for large businesses who want to brand and track every link in their marketing campaigns.

2. Bl.ink

Image Credit: Bl.ink

As one of the more robust link shorteners out there, Bl.ink offers smart branded links that allow you to create custom links that contain relevant words and not just a random string of characters. They also provide analytic reports that can track clicks by date, time, language, referrers, device, and location and integrate with web analytic tools like Google Analytics, Adobe, and others.

Bl.ink offers four subscriptions tiers: a free plan, a plan for individuals and small teams with up to 15 users, a plan for teams and businesses with up to 50 users, and a plan for large organizations with over 50 users. Starting at $12 per month, they price their plans based off the amount of links you’d like create and track. For example, free users can create up to 1,000 links and track up to 1,000 clicks per link. After that, you’ll pay according to how many links you create and track.

3. Rebrand.ly

Image Credit: Rebrand.ly

Trusted by over 250,000 customers, Rebrand.ly is a link shortener platform that can brand your links, track their performance metrics, or integrate with over 50 other platforms to seamlessly distribute your links.

With two plans for individuals and two plans for teams, Rebrand.ly offers link shortening solutions for both small business and enterprise companies. For instance, their starter plan offers 50,000 tracked clicks, 5,000 branded links, and 5 custom domain names for $29 per month, while their premium plan offers 2,000,000 tracked clicks, 200,000 branded links, and 20 custom domain names for $449 per month.

4. Ow.ly

Image Credit: TutorialDeep

Developed by the social media management platform, Hootsuite, Ow.ly is a link shortener that’s included in every free Hootsuite account. With Ow.ly, you can distribute your links and track their performance metrics directly in the Hootsuite platform, which allows you to shorten every single link you post to all your social media profiles. Ow.ly is best for anyone who already uses Hootsuite as their social media management platform.

5. Buff.ly

Image Credit: Buffer

Similar to Hootsuite’s link shortener tool, Buff.ly is integrated in Buffer, another social media management platform. With Buff.ly, you can shorten your links, customize them, distribute them to all your social media profiles, and track their performance metrics right in the Buffer platform. Buff.ly is perfect for anyone who uses Buffer as their social media management platform.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-url-shortener-alternatives