What moves people? How can you craft marketing messages that engage your audience emotionally? There’s a proven way to do it: storytelling with the right hero.

Take two home cleaning businesses as an example.

The first business creates a video featuring upbeat music, a slick voiceover, and footage of professional crews scrubbing surfaces until they gleam. The tagline says something like, “Sweeping? Mopping? Scrubbing? We’re good at this.”

Who’s the hero here?

The second business takes a different approach. Their video shows a happy client—a real one—talking about their experience in their own words. We see the client hosting a dinner party, proud to share their sparkling clean home. The tagline reads, “Spend less time cleaning. More time being.”

Who’s the hero now?

Every Good Story Needs a Hero

The hero is what drives the story. They’re the one we root for, the one we identify with. They’re why we care.

In marketing, the most common mistake brands make is casting themselves as the hero. But here’s the truth: you’re not the hero. Your customer is.

The most effective marketing messages cast the customer as the main character in the story. Your role is to guide them, solving the conflict they face with your product or service. That’s how you move people.