Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to breathe life into your company and often called one of the main components of a content marketing approach. By giving your products and services an identity by capturing and sharing the stories they really are, you can take your target audience on a journey they yearn to experience. Rather than storytelling, I want you to think of it as story-selling #seewhatididthere
In the wedding industry, most often you are your brand or the face of your company. When you take your audience on a journey, this helps them for a personal connection with you.
How a person feels about your brand typically determines whether they buy your product or service. A brand is a matter of perception. When you tell a story that embodies human challenges, you create an experience that resonates with your clients.
Fundamentals of storytelling
Stories are captivating for a reason. From childhood through adulthood, we are drawn to the lessons we learn, the exciting journeys we embark upon, the knowledge we gain and the opportunity to unleash our imaginations.
Stories are a testament to the lives we have led. Stories also make messages pass easier. I had a college professor that used to tell stories about what he was teaching and I remember how those stories made me remember their lesson to much better than if I was just being read to out of a book.
Storytelling is not inventing a story. In fact, the very reason why your business exists, why you have developed products and services and why you do what you do is filled with stories.
You want to fulfill needs, respond to questions, engage on an emotional level, connect, find your voice and listen to voices in the the intersection of brand and audience. And the ways you have developed solutions and a value proposition is all about stories.
Storytelling can be an approach in a specific project but also a way of writing and creating content, by coupling personal and existing stories to the brand narrative. Some people say all good content is storytelling. That’s a myth. Sometimes content just has to be purely informational. Good storytelling isn’t even directly about you, your brands and your solutions/products. It’s about emotions, experiences, needs and the written and unwritten images associated with these emotions and needs, in relationship to what your brand evokes.
Storytelling is not a one-off exercise but a matter of consistency and adapting to evolving human needs, although sometimes specific actions and initiatives can seem to have that one-off dimension.
Just like a fairy tale, a captivating brand story must have three acts that set up the situation, chronicle the conflict and offer a resolution. However, business stories are unique because they require a fourth element – a call to action, which is often indirect.
The ultimate goal of marketing is to inspire, whether it motivates change, encourages the buying of a product or draws people into your store, regardless of the time-frame. Your desired outcome in the end drives the direction of the story.
Identifying stories to tell
Stories must be personal. Think about how your brand was born, what inspired you to create the company and what your personal mission is. But most of all think about what the needs of the ‘audience’ were when doing so.
The story must be compelling and often factual. While it is important to tell your own story, client narratives have the largest long-term impact on brands. The customer should be the main character, with your company serving as the supporting character that offers tools to help them create successful resolutions.
Testimonials can be your most powerful weapon in building customer loyalty if they are told in the right way. A testimonial that is just a few sentences is forgettable, but a story that delves into a customer’s personal life and challenges, chronicles the lengths an employee goes to solve the problem and illustrates the positive outcome achieved will stick with readers long after they move on from your marketing materials.
Tapping the most effective medium
Any medium can be used to tell a story, including blogs, film, print, social channels and multimedia. Each medium elicits a different reaction from your audience, so stories must be tailored to fit. The key to success is knowing which story to tell in which medium. Short, snappy messages work best on television and the Internet, while online conversations, conferences and seminars provide a personal connection.
In order to be a good storyteller, you must listen to your audience so you can genuinely understand their desires and concerns, their beliefs and attitudes. You must continue to listen as your story unfolds so you can gauge the reactions of your audience. Let this help determine how your brand evolves. As your objectives and goals shift, you must plan new initiatives that propel the story forward and inspire renewed calls of action.
Emotion, authenticity, personal connections and driving to action. –
The rules of storytelling haven’t changed that much, the scale and integrated approach have. But it still starts with listening and isn’t just about sharing.
