Companies have been using stories to promote their products and services for quite a long time. However, storytelling has only recently become a major trend in digital marketing.
A rising number of brands is recognizing the power of storytelling and using it to captivate their audience’s attention, entice emotions, raise brand awareness and engage with their followers.
Analysts have discovered that prospective customers remember stories better than they can recall simple product data. Moreover, your customers are more likely to pass on a brand story to their friends and associates than to share raw information about products and services.
Social networks are a perfect medium for sharing stories that can help strengthen your brand. But knowing how to create a good story is not enough to stand out from the competition. Here are 5 tips that will help give your brand a boost through storytelling.
Share Your Brand’s Story
Consumers don’t make purchases because of a fancy logo or a clever slogan. They identify with your brand because of the story behind it. Social media should be an opportunity to build brand authority and customer loyalty. It allows you to post content and craft responses to reflect your brand message and the values it promotes.
Therefore, it’s critical that you determine the principles that will characterize your company before you begin telling the brand’s story. Your story needs to reflect your core principles in order for your audience to relate to the people behind it.
A well-constructed brand story is not just a sales pitch. It provokes a positive response from an audience on an intuitive level without overt selling tactics. Instead of hyping products, branded storytelling should focus on communicating values and creating a positive experience.
Know Your Audience
One of the reasons why social media is perfect for storytelling is because your audience can quickly provide feedback and even promote your brand through likes and shares. But even the most compelling story with lovable characters can fall flat if it’s directed at the wrong people.
If you don’t research your audience to understand who they are and define what they want, you’ll be making one of the biggest mistakes in marketing. Make sure you know who you are telling your story to.
Connecting with the right people through social media requires research that will let you know what kind of topic your target audience is interested in and what their desires and needs are. Once you have this information you incorporate it successfully into your brand message and compose and share personalized stories that your target audience can relate to an emotional level.
Make Sure Your Story is Shareable
Take some time to consider your story from the perspective of the ideal customer. Ask yourself some important questions: Can you connect to the story emotionally? Does it provoke curiosity in the company’s product or service? Is the story something your friends would be interested in?
If you can honestly answer these questions with a “yes”, the more likely it is that each prospect will share your story with their contacts. When you hear endorsements from family and friends, it becomes word-of-mouth advertising. This is even more important in a digital environment since it can be shared repeatedly in a widening circle.
Use any element that will get consumers talking about your brand. The more conversation about your brand that you can inspire, the greater your reach and influence across social media. Tell you story in a way that suggests to prospects how your brand makes a positive impact and that buying your product or service can significantly improve their lives.
Stay Ahead of Your Competition
Modern competition in business is tough and every company struggles to improve its digital marketing strategies. As more companies are relying on digital solutions, you need to perfect your own strategies to gain an edge. In order for your brand to stand apart and reach out to more people, your story needs to send a message that’s unique and engaging.
Storytelling is an effective means of conveying this message to consumers. Many companies have looked to storytelling as a tool for branding, but without inspiration, many of these stories are just variations on a familiar theme.
Your story needs to set your brand apart from the competition. Your narrative should be creative and suggest an atmosphere of innovation in your company and its services. It should also entice positive emotions that will make prospects feel more connected with your brand.
Make the effort to present your story in an original way. Mixing and matching different styles and elements could lead to a fresh combination that challenges conventional ideas. Look for ways to step outside the box and gain the attention of a wide audience, yet still provide customer value through a focus on their interests.
Be Consistent
Some brand stories start out in a certain form but over time become something entirely different. In the longer term, people prefer a story that remains original, authentic, and true to its own message. Content that is frequently changed to fit the latest trends or opinions is seen as insincere and is harder to identify with. Frequent or dramatic changes will lose the confidence of consumers.
Being versatile means having the capacity to adapt to industry or marketing changes without breaking from you own message. Departing from or changing your message will only confuse and discourage your followers. Maintaining public interest requires consistent and high-quality storytelling that remains authentic and on-message.
Final Thoughts
A compelling story is the best way to interest your audience and keep them engaged. When creating the story that you want customers to associate with your company, you should first establish the character and values you wish to present. Understanding who your target audience is and what they want is crucial to presenting your message as a valuable, share-worthy story on social media platforms. Authenticity, originality, and consistency are crucial factors in building and sustaining interest in your brand.
