Telling stories is a fundamental part of being human. And in the marketing and communications world, storytelling is a buzzword that is often thrown around. We all know the important role digital marketing plays in promoting brand authority and awareness online, and stories tie together a business’s message with its digital marketing goals.
Why is Storytelling Important in Business?
Storytelling is important because it establishes the narrative of your business and the message you want your brand to present. In a time when the majority of our lives happen online, consumers, more than ever, want to have a genuine connection with the brands they loyally support. However, consumers can’t be loyal unless they understand a brand’s mission and purpose.
Storytelling bridges that gap.
Storytelling can enhance your brand in different ways, including:
• Increasing profit: This is a result of increased customer loyalty.
• Strengthening your business development: A story will tell your customers who you are, and why they should invest in your product and services. Above anything else, a story connects a brand with its customers.
• Creating a solid content marketing strategy: A comprehensive story propels your strategy forward, no matter your goals.
• Providing a strong competitive advantage: Stories are the first thing to set you apart from others in your industry’s niche.
• Maintaining attention and increasing understanding: Stories are engaging forms of communication that can be used to enhance a customer’s perception of who you are and what your brand represents.
• Improving employee engagement and efficiency: Your employees are at the heart of your business, and they deserve to know why they are working hard for your business. Considering that up to 15% of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged from work, sharing your brand’s story will be the difference between establishing a healthy workforce or one with constant turnover.
How to Use Storytelling in Business
Now that you know why storytelling is vital for your business, here are some tips to help you execute the best business storytelling strategy.
Start With Your Mission
Your prospective customers and returning customers need to understand who you are before they can even begin thinking about making a conversion. So, first use storytelling to share your mission. Consumers don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Ask yourself: Why did your company start, and what is your long-term goal? How can you answer client questions before they can even ask them, and how can you solve their problems?
Highlight a Struggle
The reason people can relate to a hero’s journey is because in most cases, overnight success is rare. You want to humanize your business so that your consumers can envision the real people behind your brand.
Keep this sense of vulnerability in mind for your employees as well. Allow yourself to be as transparent about business struggles as possible. Whether it is through speeches, newsletters or blogs, highlighting a struggle will make your brand memorable.
Use it in Your Marketing and Advertising
When you break it down, advertising and marketing work together to simply tell a story to inspire people to convert. Advertising can evoke emotions with the right ad copy and messaging, but you need to keep this story consistent throughout your marketing efforts. This means your story is the same across all your mediums, from your advertisements and paid media to your marketing copy, social media posts, billboards and blogs. Consistency is key when ensuring your vision is promoted properly.
Utilize Storytelling Triggers in Your Content
Humans are emotional creatures, so when we read stories, we want to feel something. No one wants to read just straight facts, so keep your audience engaged by using storytelling triggers in your content. This means creating ebbs and flows throughout your blog posts that tug at your consumers’ heartstrings and make them feel something. Consumers tend to purchase when they feel passionate about something, so write with your heart. Photography can also add a powerful and engaging element to your brand story. Leverage portrait photography to showcase customers and members of the executive team. Additionally, news photography and graphics can help your team speak to industry trends and insights.
Curate Content
Your team can leverage journalism in your marketing. Curated news showcases work from world-class writers, who are experts at crafting an engaging narrative. Consider using this content in the form of curated newsletters and emails or as part of your blog content strategy.
Practice Makes Perfect
You won’t always get your storytelling completely correct the first time around, and that is OK. Practice makes perfect when it comes to telling a great story, so if you need a couple of tries to get your story right, don’t worry. If you stay consistent in your content production, you’ll be on the right track.
What are the Components of Effective Storytelling in Business?
Not every story is created equally. Remember, developing your business story from scratch goes along with developing your brand, making it essential to take your time. Details mean everything in a story, and when you incorporate the following, you’ll be on the right path.
Communicate With Authenticity
It can be hard for consumers to see what is genuinely “real” when they read something online. We all crave authenticity, and when a brand promotes its most authentic self, customers are sure to convert.
When developing your business storytelling strategy, ask yourself how you will make your brand seem more human. Don’t tell your story like you are telling it to a crowd of smartphones and computer monitors. Instead, craft your story as if you are speaking face to face with your best friend. Focus a bit more on humanizing your brand. Telling your consumers your vision will allow your story to resonate overall, which leads to conversions.
Set Your Parameters
Your story has the potential to change how people think about you, but it needs to be engaging. Consumers have very short attention spans, and if you cannot capture them from the start, you will lose them to your competitors. To engage them right off the bat, make sure to answer these questions:
• Who is telling your story?
• When is the story being told, and where will you tell it? What digital platforms are you going to use?
• Who is your target audience, and who is going to consume your story?
• What challenges are being faced, and how can you fix them?
• Why are you telling the story?
The answers to the above questions will set the parameters, or the rough draft, of your entire story.
Have a Clear Outcome at the End of the Story
After you finish telling your story, you will want to leave your consumers with something valuable. Whether it is a lesson or an answer to a problem, your story needs to have a clear outcome. Without a takeaway, what’s the point of even creating and promoting a story?
Your goal should be to provide a hopeful, thought-provoking message with actionable points. When consumers are done reading your story, they need to be inspired to learn more, which translates to conversions. Think of your story as a full meal and a conversion as a dessert; you want to keep them hungry for more.
Be Consistent in Messaging Across Your Channels
You want your brand’s story to be organized across all of your platforms since you don’t want your consumers to feel confused and disenchanted. This means using the same colors, logos and slogans for all of your print and digital marketing materials. Focusing on the repetition of images and the words used allows for brand awareness and brand recognition.
Build Connections With Your Audiences and Let Them Be a Part of Your Story
A story needs to strike an emotional connection with every single one of your consumers. But to do this properly, you’ll have to get personal. Speak about an event that changed your perspective on life and business and include a story that really helped to shape who you are today and why you do what you do. Brands who want to be successful storytellers will need to also incorporate elements of empathetic marketing into their strategies. Understanding client pain points or how current events affect consumers' perspectives is a vital component to crafting a powerful narrative.
Again, your business changes daily. With all your brand’s growth and changes, it’s important to update your story as you go. You’re constantly adding chapters to your brand’s personal book while working to attain and attract customers.
Final Thoughts
When you are crafting your brand’s story, you don’t have to be alone. Our content licensing solutions can help to bring a clear focus to your storytelling strategy while harnessing the power of world-class journalism. When you work with our team to supplement your business storytelling, we’ll help you attract and retain the customers you need to grow your brand.
