Stories live in our hearts for a lifetime. I still remember the story from my school teachers and use it to prove my point. Stories are emotional and engage with emotional beings, such as humans. With facts and statistics, you can only attract people looking for information, but with stories, you can grab the attention of all, even if they are not your potential customers.
People remember stories 22 times more than facts and statistics (Stanford University). So, one compelling narrative in your marketing can engage a broad audience quickly.
“Every business has a story to tell.”- Jay Baer.
Right, so what story does your business have to tell?
Thoroughly understanding a business model, services, products, and customers’ interests can help you find an idea for a story. But how do you present it to your audience that leads to more conversions? In this blog, you will learn about the power of storytelling in content marketing and ways to weave compelling stories for your target audience.
What Is Story Telling in Marketing?
Storytelling in marketing is communicating your message to target audiences through real experiences and thoughts. What comes to your mind when you hear the name Disney? A world full of magic and creativity. Disney knows how people look at it. So, it connects with people’s feelings through its content and taglines.
“Where magic gets real.” Disney
The time has passed when typical sales pitches were used to attract customers. In storytelling, you don’t pitch; you just educate and connect people. Marketers weave facts and a story together to touch people’s emotions.
Can you tell which brand’s tagline this is?; “Just do it.”
It encourages you to push boundaries, break stereotypes, and succeed. This tagline fulfills one with motivation. In its marketing videos, Nike nailed the storytelling by using emotions like Motivation and overcoming obstacles.
Types of Storytelling in Content Marketing
If you want to use storytelling in content marketing, learning about the type of storytelling will make the journey much easier.
- Visual Storytelling:
Using images, videos, and graphics for content creation is visual storytelling. It makes content more engaging. YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok are the popular platforms to tell your visual storytelling.
Show, don’t tell
- Data-driven Storytelling:
Talk with facts and statistics in your story so people not only engage with it but also trust it. Data makes content more credible and informative. Spotify collects data to suggest music to people.
Show proof to gain trust!
For example, the image shows the most engaging content for social media marketing. After seeing this statistic, most marketers will try making short-form videos for better engagement.
- Customer Stories:
Potential customers consider people’s real-life experiences before making a purchase. Sharing testimonials and case studies highlights real-life experiences. Writing impactful customer stories can boost sales (Gartner).
Example:
Nike Athlete
Marcus Rashford
Meet Nike athlete Marcus Rashford, a football player dedicated to changing the game. Explore his iconic footwear and latest stories.
- Brand Storytelling:
Focus on the company’s mission, vision, history, and values to create brand storytelling. Think of it like one telling you their success story. Every brand has its story to tell. For example, Apple tells stories of innovation and creativity, and Coca-Cola focuses on personal connection with the campaign “Share a Coke.”
- Narrative-driven Content:
Narrative-driven content tells a story to engage an audience. It uses compelling twists and turns that evoke emotions. To create a story, you have to create characters, plots, and a setting. You must have noticed this type of content in social media stories, where they keep viewers engaged, with the end leading to a new twist.
- Social Proof:
User-generated content and community stories help create content with social proof. Social proof is about following the opinions of others. That’s why people consider ratings and reviews of others about a website’s services and products before buying.
Why Is Storytelling Important in Content Marketing?
Storytelling is not a new concept; it is a thousand years old. Our ancestors used to wrap important information into stories to remember it for a long time. Modern-day marketers do the same: they wrap sales pitches into stories to connect with people and earn their trust.
Here are the reasons why storytelling wins in marketing:
- Creates Emotional Connection:
Most brands want their marketers to make ads feel like stories because they create an emotional connection with the target audience. When you craft content of any type, ensure it evokes emotions like empathy, anger, sadness, or joy. However, not all emotions suit all types of storytelling, so you must know your purpose and goal to use the right emotion.
For example, Nike used Marcus Rashford’s customer story to motivate potential customers.
- Helps to Stand Out from Competitors:
You already know the market is full of competitors, so how will you stand out? Storytelling is the best way to stand out your brand in the crowded market. Highlight your mission and values in the story so that people remember your brand forever with a story. It will render your business a unique voice and personality.
For example, Patagonia emphasizes environmental sustainability, which resonates with eco-conscious buyers.
- Creates a Unique Image of a Brand:
More than 60% of B2B marketers believe storytelling helps to create an effective content strategy. People remember uniqueness, and storytelling helps create a unique brand image. When customers find your brand unique, they remember its services and products, which helps in word-of-mouth marketing. Your brand can easily stand out from competitors, even if you offer the same services.
For example, Coca-Cola and Pepsi offer similar products, but people still remember them differently. Coca-Cola has built an image of nostalgia and happiness. On the other hand, Pepsi is for younger and more dynamic consumers.
- Builds Trust and Credibility:
Did you know storytelling can boost your product value by up to 2000%? Yes, it is possible because when people hear a story, they start believing it, generating credibility about the brand. Stories include real-life experiences that affect people’s choices when making a purchase. In today’s world, earning customers’ trust and credibility is everything because potential customers only buy when they trust the brand.
For example, Zappos offers exceptional customer service. It also deeply focuses on suppliers and partners for strong relationships and goes beyond to meet customer’s needs.
- Helps to Drive Sales:
Storytelling can increase conversion rates by 30%. Stories grab attention and drive people to learn more about a brand. The more they know about the brand, the more they trust and connect with it, which leads them to choose it for their next purchase. Stories in content marketing also showcase how the product has affected other people’s lives, and you can be the next to benefit from it.
For example, GoPro is a go-to brand for people who love adventures. It uses storytelling creatively to drive sales.
How to Weave an Engaging Story for Your Brand?
Till now, you have learned about the benefits of storytelling. This section is about how to use storytelling in content marketing for your brand or company. Follow the steps below to weave a successful story for your brand.
- Understand Your Audience:
More than 65% of consumers acknowledge that brand stories affect buying decisions. When you know who your story is for, you create it to resonate with them. Start with research to find your target audiences, their likes and dislikes, buying patterns, interests, and more. Now, create a user persona with demographics. This way, you can create a story that is not only engaging but also relatable.
- Resonate with Your Brand Identity:
What is your brand or company all about? What is your mission, vision, and values? Make sure you incorporate your brand identity when crafting a story. However, everything should be true and meaningful. This way, you can position your brand effectively forever. Changes in the mission and vision can break trust. If changes are necessary, present them to the audience with a reason.
- Cast Your Brand as Hero:
Present your brand as a hero in your story because this concept remains in people’s minds for a long time. They look at the brand as a problem solver like ordinary people. Talk about the real struggles that happened in the past that helped the company to be in its current position.
Steps to follow to present the brand as a hero:
- Talk about the ordinary world, no privileges.
- Explain how one brave step helped to move ahead.
- Highlight real struggles in the journey, like humans
- Test allies, friends, and others
- Finally, after a long struggle, the company became successful
Note: Avoid being overly self-promotional.
- Share the Human Side of Your Brand:
You know people love to connect with people, not faceless entities. Present your brand as an emotional being, someone who understands and feels. Share stories about your team to show the human side of the business. Talk about your company’s journey, values, products, and services with emotional intelligence. So, potential audiences feel like they are interacting with someone like them. It also gives a sense of responsibility because humans can be accountable, not robots or machines. It helps to focus on building deeper connections with potential customers.
- Create Emotional Connection:
Storytelling is all about using emotions at the right time. Without emotions, the brand story will sound lifeless. Use emotions to fill the story with life. But how? Feature real customer stories to showcase genuine, real-life experiences. Talk about how others have faced the same challenges the potential customers face now and how the company resolved their issues. Make your audience feel valued and that the brand genuinely cares about them.
For example, Dove’s real beauty campaign involved real women of different shapes, sizes, and backgrounds instead of models. It showcased the personal stories of ordinary women. It proved an effective campaign because women felt confident about how their natural looks.
- Same Narrative Across Different Channels:
Don’t tell different stories on different platforms; it could hamper people’s trust in your brand. Use the same narrative across different social media platforms and marketing channels. You can do it with small tweaks and improvements according to the platform type, but keep the core story and narrative intact throughout your company’s lifetime. Moreover, be consistent in storytelling by using small parts from the main story of the brand and customer stories. Storytelling is a continuous process in the content marketing industry (Gartner).
- Combine Stories with Facts and Statistics:
Combining stories with facts and statistics can trigger audiences intellectually and emotionally. Think of TED Talks, where speakers often share personal anecdotes and use data to support their messages. You can present complex information effectively by blending facts and statistics with stories. For example, your company believes in sustainability, so you can present facts about rising sea levels and show why your company cares about it. Showcase that your products and services are created in an eco-friendly way to reduce carbon emissions.
Conclusion:
This is all about the power of storytelling in content marketing. You can also leverage this power by considering ways to weave an engaging story for your brand. Storytelling is crucial as it creates an emotional connection with potential buyers. Getting customers on a website can be difficult without a strong connection. Nowadays, people only buy from the sites with whom they feel connected. With storytelling, you can easily stand out from the competition. For this, understand your audience, cast your brand as a hero, create an emotional connection, and more.
And create a storyline that is easy to follow.
