Storytelling has been here for ages, it was present right from the start of human civilization. If you look carefully you would find a story in everything. It has lent a voice to many to convey their ideas, opinions, emotions etc. People love hearing to a great story, it has the power to keep them engaged and hooked. What else do you need? If you can keep your audience hooked till the end, you’re already halfway through in getting their attention.
The essence of a story lies in its storyteller. Confused? If a storyteller is great then he would even convert a dull piece of information into an emotional, heart-wrecking or a joy ride. Imagine you have been part of a really funny incident on the weekend and you can’t wait to share it with your friends on Monday. If you communicate that story without any emotions, your friends will not find that piece of information as funny as you. So, now you understand the importance of storyteller in storytelling, right?
Why Brands are interested in Storytelling?
Any brand needs to change according to the trends. If a brand is persistent in keeping its old ways, it would not stand the test of time and will gradually feed away. If you don’t want your brand to fade away with time then you must learn to change with the trends. Over this past decade, the technology has brought many changes to the business and you must gear up and be a part of all this evolution.
With time customers preferences have also taken a shift. So if you’re not only toes your customers can find a lot of options other than you. Not only the quality and quality of your products they’re even looking at how you’re products or services are presented in the market. Gone are the days for traditional marketing, most brands have seen that they are going nowhere with this traditional methods, the problem with these methods is they don’t know how audiences pursue their brand, all this would have worked in the past. But now if you’re not offering what they’re looking for they would get it from other brands. While you don’t want. This is where storytelling comes into the picture. Brands are now keen on telling their stories to the audience and storytelling is making it possible.
How storytelling is changing the business?
Stories evolve emotions in readers and the main objective of them is to persuade the reader. If you think storytelling is the new kid on the block, then you’re wrong. It has been around for a long time ago. Today storytelling has turned the tide for many businesses and help them improve their interaction with their customers. Believe it or not, every successful campaign has a heartwarming, inspiring story that is working to raise awareness around a specific issue or working towards building a better future.
Imagine you have seen two campaigns about the same product, one of them feeds a hungry child when you purchase their products and the other campaign is just selling the same their products, Which brand would choose to buy from? The campaign that feeds a hungry child would surely catch your interest. Brands nowadays are not just trying to sell their products, they’re trying their best to give it back to the society, Including such type of storytelling into your products will make your customers happy as buying your products is allowing them to do something good to the society. Every business will have an origin story, Apple was started by Steve jobs alongside his other partners in a garage. Even your business will have such a story, use it get closer to your audience. Storytelling improves the communication and interaction between the organisation and customers.
Storytelling in marketing
Do you remember any advertisement that stayed in your mind for a long time? Was it because of the tagline or the advertisement jingle? See traditional advertisements were also using storytelling to sell products and the purpose of storytelling for businesses now is to build a connection with their audience and build trust between them and their audience. Marketers are using the power of storytelling to increase brand awareness and build a strong relationship with their customers.
From blogs to social media platforms now you have many platforms to reach your audience, why not use them to tell your story and appeal to them. The digital content has been evolving and every marketer needs to leverage online and come up with the perfect strategy to reach their audience. Products commercials are now not just confined to the products and their features, they are concentrating more on customer experience. Statistics show that more than 90% of customers are inclined towards brands who use storytelling in their ads. Show them instead of telling them, images are processed 60x faster than words, So use images to tell your story. Make sure your narrative is short and clear, with a great title to attract the attention of the readers.
Tips to create an Authentic Story
Brands like Coca Cola have realised the power of storytelling. They’re using storytelling to build a relationship with their customers. If you’re also one such company planning to involve storytelling into your marketing and Wondering
what should and shouldn’t go in a story?
How to improve the bond with your audience?
Then here are a few tips that will sail your boat.
Simplicity
Story stay in people’s head for a long time. They have the power to communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions. So when you’re trying to get your audience to understand a story, see that it is straightforward. What is the point of sending a message that gets lost in transit? Keep your story, simple and clear. There will be some much that you want to convey your audience too, but see that you say clearly. The story has a beginning, middle and end. See that the transition from one part to another is smooth. Simple stories are always better, people prefer stories that are simple but filled with emotions.
Protagonist & Antagonist
Every good story has a hero and an anti-hero. If you want your customers to relate to your story, then you must make them the protagonist. Give the hero all the characters that your customers and potential customers can relate with. And in the story, the hero will have a problem or issue that needs to be addressed. Make that problem as your antagonist and tell them through the story, how your brand can put an end to their problem. The conflict is the problem that needs to be resolved, use the conflict to keep them hooked. The businesses should try to make their stories more comforting to their audience and they must use a tone and concept that sets them apart from their competitors.
Connect with your audience
There is no point in investing time and effort on a story that you’re audience cannot connect with. The main objective of the storytelling is to help your audience understand more about your brand and make it relatable. When your audience connects with the story, it would improve your bond with them and build trust. You customers should buy a part of the story, not just your products. Most brands are concentrating more on customer satisfaction. If a customer is satisfied with what you’re doing then he would become your loyal customer and there are high chances of them bringing customers too.
Universal, organised and memorable
Good stories have no boundaries. They don’t discriminate and when creating a story you must keep it in mind that your story should be communicated to the audience across the world. Globalization has made it easy to sell products across the globe, so you can target the audience from other countries too. See that there is an emotional aspect in your story that could strike a code with your audience and make sure your narrative is organised brings out all the elements of your story well. If the tone is not right then your message will not go across properly, to avoid such situations use the right tone. When stories are weaved with emotions it stays in people’s head for a long time. So use emotions such as fear, anger, victory, happy etc in your story.
Conclusion
Storytelling has taken the business world by storm. It has helped brands deliver their products wrapped in messages. Stories are powerful as they increase the efficiency of a brand and serve a catalyst to customer satisfaction. When you want your audience to understand the vision, mission and heritage of your company, then make sure you use storytelling to effectively convey it to your audience. Stories live on, they keep on connecting people and improve the experience. So make sure that you are sharing an authentic story of your brand with a personal touch to your audience. Storytelling will cement the trust and bring your audience together, improves your brand awareness. Lastly, you talking about your stories will inspire your audience to talk about theirs too. If implemented effectively it can drive your business in a positive direction.
