What you are about to read will most likely change the way you view marketing, it is what transforms small business to big business, in fact, it is what your competitors are using to attract more customers to their business.
Plus, it is something you can start using right now in your marketing campaign that will change the way people picture your business.
What Is the beauty of storytelling and why is it important in your marketing? You will discover everything in a few minutes.
But first,
Have you ever wondered why you had an instant connection with someone? Maybe after a few conversations about a failed relationship, their opinions, beliefs about life, even their pet stories, you could feel the connection between you and him/her. The key factor is “connection”. Same goes with your brand and your audience, there is a need to build a connection and the best way to go about this is by telling your brand story.
Brand/business storytelling connects the audience to the brand on a more personal level.
So, you must be wondering what storytelling is. Let me start by quickly giving a brief definition of storytelling.
Simply put, storytelling is the act of using stories to sell your business. Stories are the ideas that spread from people to people.
Stories have a narrative structure that our brain follows very easily. This narrative structure is something that we see every day. Think about how you talk to your colleagues at work, and how your anecdote becomes something that leads them to an ending. Telling a story is powerful because it has excitement and tension built-in (even if you are just talking about last night’s TV). The human brain loves it!
We are often intrigued by oddities and things that get on our emotional side.
Take any powerful brand today that is using storytelling and you will see that the ideas and concepts it conveys in its storytelling marketing make the audience feel something. They feel an emotion, and if you have spent just ten minutes on a course about advertisements you will know that emotions sell. Pure and simple.
The more emotional you feel about a product, the less likely you are going to feel skeptical. And skepticism needs to be stripped away before we are ready to buy.
I’d leave you with this quote to ponder upon “And do you know what is the most-often missing ingredient in a sales message? It’s the sales message that doesn’t tell an interesting story. Storytelling- good storytelling is a vital component of a marketing campaign.” –Gary Halbert, author, marketing practitioner, copy Writer
Why is storytelling important?
I know you are curious to know why storytelling is important. Here’s why.
- To build a connection. Why do movies have main characters? So that there is some sort of connection between two parties. The ultimate goal is to form a valuable, trusting, and effective connection in a sales setting that is also highly personable.
- It helps you build rapport with your audience
- It gets on the emotional side of your users and compels them to take action. Storytelling evokes emotions. People buy into an extension of themselves.
- It solidifies abstract concepts and complex messages; Have you ever been confused while trying to understand an idea or concept? You can agree that a simple explanation gave room for understanding. Think about times when stories have helped you better understand a concept – perhaps a teacher used a real-life example to explain a math problem. Storytelling makes it easier to understand complex messages.
Your competitors are telling their stories, you should too.
It’s a crowded marketplace out there. There are tens of millions of content being created and even more, being shared every day. It’s not enough to have a quality product or service; you need to know how to talk about it in a way that differentiates you from the crowd. That’s why brand storytelling is so important. Also, keep in mind that if you don’t tell your brand story, someone else (perhaps your competitors) will.
Because of its endless potential, storytelling is the perfect marketing tool for any business.
So rather than focusing solely on generating leads and making money, why not focus on creating a relationship with your target audience? Use your story to create a deep emotional connection: start conversations, ask for engagement, and involve your audience in what you do as a business. Turn your brand into an experience they can consume — that’s what will turn customers who pay for your product/services because they need to fix a problem into a fan that will support your success, follow along, be loyal, and come back for more. Once your audience knows, trusts, and likes you, they will more likely buy from you. At the very least, you would have created relationships with people who would become advocates for years to come.
Keep in mind that your story must be consistent and authentic, clear, and concise, with a friendly tone and a clear call to action. There must be a conflict and a resolution in our stories, to build trust amongst our audience.
