The other night, my wife and I were talking about something that seems to happen on social media almost every day. Someone checks into a hospital and posts, “Need prayers right now.” Then they disappear. No explanation. No context. No indication whether it’s a routine appointment, a family emergency, or something completely unrelated.
What happens next is predictable. Friends and family immediately begin speculating. Some assume the worst. Others try to piece together clues from previous posts. Before long, dozens or even hundreds of people have created their own version of what’s happening.
The reason is simple: people naturally seek complete stories. Our brains are wired to connect dots, identify patterns, and fill in missing information. When we don’t have the full picture, we rarely leave the blanks empty. Instead, we instinctively create a narrative that makes sense of the information we do have.
I’ve started calling this the 30/70 Rule. If you only give people 30% of the story, don’t be surprised when they write the other 70%.
Your Customers Are Doing the Same Thing
The more I thought about it, the more I realized this isn’t just a social media phenomenon. It’s something I see organizations do all the time. Companies launch initiatives without explaining the reasoning behind them. Brands make claims without providing evidence. Marketing teams focus on what they sell but fail to explain why it matters or how it solves a customer’s problem.
The challenge is that customers don’t experience your business the way you do. They don’t sit in strategy meetings. They don’t hear internal discussions. They don’t have access to years of tribal knowledge, customer feedback, and industry expertise. They only know what you’ve chosen to communicate to them.
When marketers leave gaps in that story, customers naturally begin filling them in themselves. Sometimes the assumptions are positive. Often they’re neutral. But occasionally those assumptions become barriers that prevent people from trusting your brand or moving forward in the buying process.
Why Storytelling Matters
This is why storytelling remains one of the most important tools in a marketer’s toolbox. Good storytelling isn’t only about being clever or entertaining. In fact, those are secondary. It’s about providing context. It helps customers understand not only what you do, but why you do it, how you do it, and why they should care.
The brands that earn trust tend to be the brands that tell complete stories. They proactively answer questions. They address concerns before customers voice them. They share their process, explain their decisions, and provide proof to support their claims. In doing so, they reduce uncertainty and make it easier for customers to feel confident in their choices.
Trust is built when customers feel like they understand what’s happening. Every unanswered question creates friction. Every missing piece of context creates an opportunity for someone to draw the wrong conclusion.
The Question Every Marketing Leader Should Ask
As marketing leaders, we should constantly be asking ourselves a simple question: What part of the story are we assuming our customers already know?
More often than not, that’s where the opportunity lies. It might be your company’s origin story. It might be the expertise behind your process. It might be the customer success stories that demonstrate real-world impact. Whatever it is, chances are it’s obvious to your team but invisible to your audience.
One of the most valuable exercises a marketing team can do is identify the assumptions they’re making about customer knowledge. What information do customers need to understand before they can fully appreciate your value? What questions are they asking that you’re not answering? What conclusions might they be drawing because you’ve left part of the story untold?
Tell the Whole Story
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from years of helping companies tell their stories, it’s this: clarity builds trust. The more complete the story you tell, the less room there is for misunderstanding, confusion, and incorrect assumptions.
Because if you’re only telling 30% of the story, your customers are going to write the other 70%. And once they’ve written that version in their minds, changing the narrative becomes much more difficult.
