To build your brand, you tell your prospects and customers about a product, service, or all of the reasons you care. But your business can do better than that. You can share something with your audience that captures their attention, creates emotion, and fosters strong loyalty. Have you thought about telling a story? For example, think of all the stories from your childhood that you still remember. Storytelling has the power to grab attention, be unforgettable, add value. So how do you succeed in brand storytelling?
1. Make a Good First Impression Your Audience Won’t Forget
We stress the importance of first impressions. During a job interview or on the first day of class, we may present ourselves in a certain way to express both our identity and our professionalism. How in business, it’s essential that you start off with a great and memorable first impression when you begin storytelling. But before creating an interactive experience, it’s important to know exactly what story you’re creating with your audience and to make sure it matches both the interests and needs of your brand and your customers.
2. Incorporate Elements of the Story
Everyone loves a good story. However, telling a good story is not as easy as it sounds. All good stories have six common elements, regardless of genre or genre. When developing your next narrative work, be sure to pay close attention to all of these elements.
- The setting is the time and place where your story takes place.
- A story usually consists of several characters, each with a different role or purpose. However, no matter how many characters there are in a story, there is almost always a protagonist and an antagonist.
- The plot is the sequence of events that connects the audience to the protagonist and his ultimate goal.
- Conflict is the engine of history. This is what creates tension and creates suspense, elements that make the story interesting. If there’s no conflict, not only won’t the audience care, but there won’t be a compelling story to tell.
- The theme is the actual theme of the story. It is the main idea or underlying meaning. Often the storyteller has a personal opinion on this subject.
- Of course, once you’ve created conflict, you don’t want to leave the audience hanging: You want to make sure that your story has a resolution, sometimes called a rebuttal. A story without resolution is just hopeless and unsatisfactory!
3. Humanizing it
Humanizing your content is a sure way to impress your readers and leave a lasting impression. As humans, we naturally tell stories every day to explain things that happen in our lives. We make up stories to find meaning in the things that happen, or the people that they say.
Even in your content, your audience wants to see something that strikes an emotion in them. This is why we see so many commercials today that feature heartwarming stories about family or romance, although their products have nothing to do with these themes. People want to see a brand that treats them like people: a brand they understand, a brand they can trust. Humanize your brand so that others see it as a friend rather than just a product.
4. Be Authentic
Any successful thinker will tell you that sharing useful and interesting information can be powerful in building a positive reputation and strong credibility. But sometimes simply sharing information isn’t enough and, as the old marketing adage goes, “you must show, not tell”. This is where the art of storytelling comes in. Storytelling allows you to mentally paint a picture of a landscape to help make a point. It’s a more relevant and engaging way to share your expertise.
However, for this to really work, the storytelling has to be done authentically. It may also require you to be vulnerable and share your challenges and failures. This type of storytelling is extremely courageous and powerful. Having the courage to be honest and exposed when telling their stories through media and social media will make them more impactful. They will resonate with people in such a personal way.
5. Make it Visible
While humanists (anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, etc.) have affirmed that stories are how we learn and develop as the human species, scientists and researchers have quantified:
- Our visual sense is our primary means of assimilating new information
- Images are easier and faster for us to process than text, which is especially important as attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
- Visuals help people remember and remember information, and they can improve motivation and influence behavior.
Instead of just text, a story can come to life with thoughtful visuals like an infographic or video. Visual storytelling is powerful, which is why it has become a popular tool for content marketing. This idea is also useful for leadership, learning and development, human resource management, customer and customer education etc.
Storytelling is only one piece of the entire content marketing puzzle. To go ahead and set up an effective webmarketing strategy suited to your goals and your marketing objectives, take a look at this certified training in webmarketing. You will discover how to self-manage the promotion of your products and services through the implementation of an effective digital strategy.