If your message doesn’t resonate with your audience, all the marketing genius (or budget) in the world won’t save your content from certain digital death. There are many simple ways of making sure your current and future customers and supporters relate to your message.

Storytelling is a buzzword today in just about any field that involves communication. It’s an essential tool that, if used well, can make or break a product, a cause, and even an entire business. But what, exactly is a story — and storytelling?

Stories tap into our psyche, tug at our heartstrings. They inspire us to act, encourage us to dream and remind us we’re human — and that the organizations, brands and companies we interact with have humans behind them as well.

Humans are emotional creatures. For professional communicators, stories create opportunities to deliver a message that can accelerate our audience’s understanding, help people relate — and, hopefully, take action as they see fit (though sometimes that action simply entails tuning the message out).