By Néstor Tejero on Dec 2017, in Marketing

Storytelling is a marketing technique that uses stories to create an emotional connection with the target audience. The aim is to attract new customers, engage with existing ones, and maintain a lasting community of loyal followers. It is the art form that moves and excites your audience and helps you to understand them better. It is a powerful tool of persuasion and is very commonly used in marketing.

Using this technique correctly will help your brand stand out from the crowd, draw in potential new customers and ultimately become more visible in the marketplace. This is because the emotional impact of an advert is far more memorable than the advert itself. If something has made you laugh, feel sad or remind you of an old memory, it is more than likely that the advert will wind up firmly printed in your memory. The bottom line is that we are emotional beings, and so using your marketing campaigns to trigger an emotional response is highly very efficient.

Tips when creating your own bestseller

• Define and understand your audience. Before anything else, you need to create content that matches their interests.
• Determine how you are going to tell your story. What format are you using? Are your using text, images or videos to engage with your customers?
• Follow the basic recipe of every good story. You need to take your audience on a journey that has a beginning, middle and end.

• Characters. Every good story needs them. These are yet another important tool in convincing your audience. Any good read will include some sort of struggle between hero and villain that will escalate as the story progresses. It is a good idea for your hero to demonstrate characteristics that can be easily associated with the product or service that your are trying to promote.
• Who your protagonist is. No one likes sitting in the back seat. Place the user at the centre of your story, and try avoid the overuse of company and brand names when you are trying to engage with your audience. Make your story interactive and get the user involved with the idea that you are trying to communicate – this will make both your brand and message more memorable. The goal is to captivate your user and use emotions to influence their decisions.
• Include your brand, product or service in the story. Don’t let your fable run away with the fairies. Remember, the goal is for your audience to associate the story you are telling with your brand, product or service. While you shouldn’t let your brand hog the limelight, make sure that it forms an important part your plot or the stage on which it is set.
• Be original. Draw in your audience by offering them something unique and memorable. Standing out is the key to success.
• Give it personality. The key to any good story is to tell it in a language of emotions. Make sure the product or service you that you are promoting personifies the feeling that you are trying to convey.
• Keep you eyes on the prize. Regardless of where you decide to take your audience, storytelling is a strategy with objectives that can be measured, quantified and analysed against a base of KPIs (Key performance indicators). You want your story to achieve certain goals, so it should make the user a promise that you can then meet. It goes without saying that if you fail to keep promises that you have made to your customers, you will loose possible future leads and they will loose confidence in you.
• A happy ending. Play on the emotions of your audience by providing the with an uplifting experience that closes with a smile. If there’s a moral to your tale, even better. We all enjoy a happily ever after, and knowing how to win the hearts and minds of your audience will get you far.

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Examples

Steal a little inspiration from these leads…

The narrative journey of the movie ‘Inside Out’

Ang Lee’s 2012 blockbuster ‘Life of Pi’ and the use of storytelling during the film’s marketing campaign

A hero that represents the values of your brand:

Hope for a better tomorrow:

In a nutshell, when it comes to getting closer to your customers and connecting with them on an emotional level, there’s nothing quite like a good story. Storytelling is not only a powerful tool for reaching out to your customers, in the digital age it is one that everyone can have in their arsenal (If they choose). By making use of the pointers we have laid out in this article, you’ll now be able to set out on your own journey towards having that special connection with your customers, and turning your brand into a real bestseller.