How can you use storytelling for your business?

For centuries, stories have been passed down from generation to generation. They bring people closer together, offer an alternative to real life, yet can also provide a sense of stability when reality becomes too complex. We call this storytelling. This marketing strategy has now become an integral part of the industry because it delivers proven results. But what exactly is storytelling? And how can you use it successfully for your business? Find out in this blog!

What is storytelling?

Storytelling is part of the human experience. It is the way in which we have been emotionally connected to one another for thousands of years. It therefore comes as no surprise that brands use storytelling to build customer loyalty. As many as 92 per cent of consumers say they want adverts to feel more like stories.

If you want customers to buy your brand, you need to show them who you are. Through storytelling, you can establish your passion and expertise and demonstrate what sets you apart. This enables you to build an empathetic connection with your customers, which can lead to stronger sales figures.

Storytelling done right

Lights, snow, Father Christmas and the backdrop of pre-Christmas frantic hustle and bustle: these are the key ingredients for a Coca-Cola advert around Christmas time. When this advert is on, everyone stays glued to the screen, whereas with other adverts people often switch channels. How is this possible?

As a marketer, your aim is to attract and retain the attention of your target audience. Storytelling is a way of achieving this goal by telling a story. Coca-Cola has been involved in content and storytelling for years! Everyone is familiar with the brand’s adverts and people even talk about them. This is because the viewer is drawn into a story. With a good story, you can touch people and convey your message even more effectively, so that they are less likely to forget it. What’s more, by using storytelling in the right way, it’s even possible that your target audience will pass the story on.

Getting started with storytelling

‘You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.’ For businesses and organisations, there is no difference between storytelling and writing a book. But what’s the best way to go about this? Make sure you don’t just set to work haphazardly, but that you really think carefully about how best to package your message. In doing so, it’s important to bear the following points in mind:

• Main character: what is the focus of your story? You want to capture your target audience’s attention, so appeal to the customer’s emotions. Put your customer at the centre, or someone with whom they can easily identify.
• Ambition: what does your client want? Whether it’s buying a new car or ordering a pizza: everyone has desires and practical tasks they want to carry out.
• The conflict: read a book or watch a film just once and you’ll see that there’s always a twist in the story – in other words, the conflict. It makes the story exciting. Finding a new car is tricky, as there’s such a wide range on offer. Ordering a pizza from a new place? It’s always a risk, because it might not be as tasty as you expect. Everyone wants to fulfil their ambitions, but there may be factors holding them back. To win the client over, it’s important to show that you understand them.
• Solution: as is the case in most films and books, every conflict is eventually resolved. Understand your client’s problem and offer them exactly what they need at that moment.
• The result: your customers are more likely to buy your product or use your service if they have an emotional connection with it. How you tell the story is often more important than the story itself.

Which channel will you choose?

Even if you’ve come up with a brilliant story, it’s important that you share it on the right channel. Who are the people you want to reach? Know your target audience. Which online media do these people engage with? By answering this question, you’ll reach the right people. A strong article on LinkedIn will reach the business market, whilst you’re more likely to reach young people with a funny video on YouTube or a short clip on Instagram.

Authenticity and emotion

Particularly when salespeople have confidence in their product (and you shouldn’t sell a product you don’t believe in), they tend to quote facts and figures and try to appeal to a client’s rational side. But rather than convincing sceptics, an excess of data usually has an overwhelming effect. Think of the most recent slide presentation you’ve seen and how many specific figures you’ve actually remembered.

Research shows that the subconscious mind is responsible for 90 per cent of the purchases people make. So what you need to do is appeal to a prospect’s intuition and emotions, and the best way to do that is by telling a story. Brand storyteller and Blackbeard Studios founder Erin Berman explains why: “Storytelling appeals to consumers on an emotional level because it puts them at the centre. This is far more powerful than simply appealing to their rational minds. In a brand story, your customer is the hero – not you.”

Telling your target audience a story that is true and with which they can identify is different from simply spinning a nice tale. People crave stories, but nothing beats honesty. It is no coincidence that 91 per cent of consumers value authenticity and take this into account when deciding which brand to choose. If you want to win your clients’ trust, ensure that what you communicate is true and verifiable.

3 tips for successful storytelling

To take your brand and sales to the next level, here are a few more tips on how to craft a compelling story.

1. See your clients as heroes

Put your clients and the problems they want solved at the heart of your story. If you understand your clients better as characters and the world in which they live, you will begin to see their challenges and motivations. These are two key components of storytelling. By identifying the challenges in your characters’ world, you can zoom in on the ‘pain point’ that your product solves, and how they are motivated to overcome it.

A good exercise for cultivating a consumer-focused mindset is to create detailed customer profiles. Don’t just use a whiteboard to jot down ‘customer 1’ and ‘customer 2’. Part of the process involves giving clients names, background information and even photographs, and using your current clients to lay the foundations. What sort of solutions are these people looking for, and how can you provide them?

2. Trust your brand advocates and use their content

Advocacy branding involves a strategy where you engage satisfied customers, employees and partners in your branding efforts. User-generated content is incredibly valuable. Not only is it free and offers the opportunity to reach a wide audience, but it is also authentic because it comes from unpaid individuals. Influencer marketing has established itself as one of the key ways in which brands can reach their customers, and whilst well-known influencers have the advantage of a large following, they can be very expensive.

Instead of fretting over money you might not have, encourage ordinary users to share your content through competitions, hashtags or giveaways. You’ll be amazed at how much other consumers rely on the experiences and opinions of their peers.

3. Share stories via blogs and social social media

Instead of producing vast quantities of generic content, you can focus on tailored content to reach your target audience. More than three-quarters of clients find companies that offer tailored content to be more trustworthy and consumer-focused.

Although it is difficult to connect with consumers, it is not particularly difficult to get started. Today’s marketers are equipped with incredibly precise targeting systems that allow them to locate and reach their audience whenever they wish.

A longer message is one that truly resonates with your potential customers and prompts them to take action. By incorporating elements of storytelling into your branding, you can more effectively appeal to customers’ emotions and optimise your adverts to boost your sales.

Would you like to find out more about storytelling for your business?

In short: by using storytelling effectively, you can build a relationship of trust with your target audience, which will ultimately lead to more customers. Sounds good, doesn’t it?! Would you also like to use storytelling for your business, but could you do with some help with your tone of voice? Feel free to get in touch with our specialists and we’ll be happy to help you reach the right people.