LinkedIn and Twitter are filled with reading recommendations. Marketers and entrepreneurs, especially, love sharing business books, self-help, best practices guides and other nonfiction, work-centric reading materials. While there are definitely some “must reads” on those threads, and reading (or listening to the audio), in general, is always a good idea, sticking to nonfiction might be limiting your potential, even in the “professional” sense. If growth is what marketers are looking for, the fiction section is calling.

The Skills that Fiction Builds

In her March 2020 article for the Harvard Business Review, ‘The Case For Reading Fiction,’ Christine Seifert cites neuroscience research that suggests “reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, theory of mind, and critical thinking.”

“When we read, we hone and strengthen several different cognitive muscles, so to speak, that are the root of the EQ,” writes Seifert. This makes sense, given that the goal of fiction is to transport the reader into an imagined time or place and introduce them to characters with emotions, motivations, and challenges that may be vastly different from their own. You are invited to suspend reality, expand your mind, and walk in someone else’s (albeit fictional) shoes, while grappling (consciously or not) with potentially complex themes or embedded commentary. 

Experts have also found reading fiction to have a positive impact on creativity and social skills overall. The more you are exposed to different ways of thinking, speaking, interacting — imagined or real – the more your brain can stretch to grasp or create new ideas and navigate new situations.

What Marketers Gain From Fiction

It’s pretty easy to see how these skills relate to the field of marketing, but let’s break it down.

1. Empathy – Understanding people is at the heart of what it takes to be a good marketer. To be able to build messages or campaigns that relate to and connect with your audience, you must be able to exercise empathy. Reading fiction, especially fiction about people, places or conflicts that are different from your own, can help you develop more awareness, cultural competency and ultimately, empathy.
2. Theory of Mind – The ability to think beyond your own mind, and recognize alternative ways of perceiving the world, is also a highly valuable skill in marketing. Fiction lets you enter the minds of others and see how they think, which can help you learn to avoid making presumptions or acting on preconceived notions. When building a marketing strategy, this is very important.
3. Critical Thinking – Critical thinking is a vital skill set for any professional. In marketing, it is an especially powerful tool when you’re building strategy. Fiction engages your brain in critical thinking activity as it forces you to construct and accept the book’s reality as you read. The ability to think through various possibilities, make decisions and evaluate outcomes will make you a better marketer.
4. Creativity – What is marketing without creativity? Marketers are always looking for ways to inspire fresh ideas, introduce new concepts and help their brand(s) stand out. Exposure to creative writing, perhaps even fantasized or outlandish ideas, can push your brain to think in new ways.
5. Social Skills – Like empathy, having social skills in general helps a marketer understand people – their motivations, challenges, body language, etc. Building social skills and learning to interact with people across different groups or backgrounds is essential to executing a strong marketing or branding effort. While fiction can’t replace real-life human interaction, it can be good practice.

Embracing Stories as a Storyteller 

Finally, and maybe one of the strongest reasons why you should head to the library if you’re a marketer, is because you are a storyteller.  

As Andrea Keirn wrote for Forbes in 2018, “The fact of the matter is this, if you read more stories, you will become a better storyteller. As you read you learn ways to engage with your audience and to tell your story in a more compelling way.”

It’s true. You may not be spinning a 300-page novel or collection of essays, but when you build a marketing strategy, launch a campaign and craft an ad or video or social post, you are telling a brand’s story. So go ahead and brush off that library card.