We all love a good story. Whether it is a happy one, a sad one, or one with suspense in it –stories connect with us like nothing else. It is because of this reason storytelling has become a major part of businesses now and has given these brands household names that weren’t the case earlier. Want to know why businesses need storytelling? We also cover how storytelling helps in SEO , Social Media Marketing and google friendly website.
Let’s look at Instagram, for example. When we open the app, the first thing on top we see are stories of friends and brands that we follow. A day in the lives of our family and friends, new updates on what’s happening in the factories of brands selling our favorites, and dishes that we’d love to cook someday in our lives. So, we, as human beings, are hooked to stories and it is what makes us connect with others in a significant way.
Brand storytelling is much like conventional storytelling, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Except, instead of using pen and paper, digital marketers use online tools to create mesmerizing stories for audiences.
Before we dive into the details of what a good storytelling post contains, let’s first understand why it works.
- It helps connect with your target audience. By sharing a day in your life, you’re telling your audience your joys and sorrows, what makes you smile and what makes you cry. Your customers can tap into life moments that matter and feel connected to your brand. It gives you a content which your audience likes to read and watch. A good SEO and any social media strategy or content marketing strategy needs the content.
- An emotional story encourages your audience to remember you. It helps them to notice the brand and feel a connection, which results in purchases and further shares.
- By sharing your company’s values, aspirations, and goals, you’re able to connect with a pool of like-minded people, who’d want to listen to your stories.
- With a creative piece of content, you’re able to produce stories that aren’t boring or sound like sales pitches. Your stories educate your customers and tell them something more about the brand, than just the products and services it sells.
- You need to hear the pains and sorrows of your customers. A brand that can do that and create a marketing storytelling message with appropriate actions on those pain points can develop a lasting relationship with its customers than one, which only produces content that markets its products.
So, how do you build a digital storytelling strategy? Here are a few things to keep in mind while working on it:
- What does your brand say?
Before you navigate the waters of storytelling, you first need to understand your brand truly. What does it mean to you? What are your values and why they’re important to you? Why are you so passionate about what you do? What motivates you? The challenges you’re facing and how you’re trying to overcome them? When you have answers to these questions, you’d be able to create a compelling story that will resonate with your audience and help you strengthen your relationship with them.
- Know your audience
It is imperative to know your buyer persona, without which you’d never be able to create anything that’ll help you sell your product/service. You need to understand their interests, dreams, and values, what makes them anxious or desperate, or what excites them and makes them hopeful. By knowing their pain points, you’ll be able to create compelling videos that’ll resonate with them.
- Be realistic
Great stories have brilliant plots. They’re complicated with onion layers. But yours doesn’t need to be one. In a digital space what works is a simple and short story that’s made with a heart. You need to be present in the story, with the values your brand upholds. Don’t be superficial and create a story that is not related to the brand. And always remember, work on a story that is doable with the budget that you have allocated to it and also the timeframe you have in mind for it.
In an age when people are looking at 15-second TikTok videos for entertainment, the hardcore method of selling products the conventional way is surely out the window. It is more about creating entertaining videos that connect with the customers, than just reels of products that you’re trying to sell. Storytelling is an art that needs to be learned, but it’s something that will make your brand stand out from the crowd.
We at First Choice Media are masters of storytelling and can guide you in the right direction. Contact us now to know more about content, video, and social media marketing.
