People are naturally inclined to engage in narratives, and that is the basis of today’s topic: storytelling.
I want to show you how Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, storytelling and storyselling are present in our strategies and explain how you can achieve the same incredible results that we achieved!
After all, I don’t just want to share how we do what we do, but also show how far your company can go by using all this expertise.
Let’s start?
What is storytelling?
Storytelling is the art of telling stories in an engaging way, awakening emotions and creating connections with the target audience. It is a technique that goes far beyond informing: it inspires, educates and entertains.
The goal is to captivate the audience by conveying thoughts, beliefs and facts through a cohesive, relevant and captivating story. The more people connect with the story, the more impactful the message becomes.
Now you must be wondering: what are the benefits of this practice?
I’ll answer you! Companies that master the art of telling good stories are able to achieve a good brand image and gain the trust of their target audience.
Stories have the power to shape the public’s perception of a company, generating feelings such as love, admiration and security.
They also contribute to building good relationships with customers, suppliers and employees. These factors, together, lead to greater employee engagement and improved sales results!
See, in practice, how storytelling is able to captivate the audience in the opening of Andrew Stanton’s TED Talk:
Storytelling is a form of communication that transcends decades, centuries and even millennia. It is used to teach, share knowledge, convey emotions and create deep relationships between communities.
It is worth noting that people tend to remember stories more easily than isolated data. Therefore, organizations can use it strategically to humanize products and services, bringing the brand closer to the end consumer.
Trust me: telling good stories is a skill that, once acquired, can significantly increase your business results!
The basis for first-class storytelling
What happens when a basic need, such as access to water, threatens the lives and prosperity of families living in the countryside?
The lack of such an important resource puts the health of individuals, traditions and the link between generations at risk.
Given that family farming is the basis for many families, who have learned to deal with knowledge passed down through generations of producers, seeking another source of income does not seem to be the most viable option.
So solving the problem becomes the priority. And from the need to overcome an obstacle to sustainable development, a participatory and united community emerged to bring solutions and prosperity, not only for some families, but for an entire region.
This case of our client is perfect to illustrate the concept. Firstly, because it has a history that involved emotions from the beginning, as the company was created to bring relief, hope and create opportunities.
Understand that, to use storytelling in the Inbound Marketing strategy, it was not necessary to shape, invent or add unnecessary details to the original narrative.
The basis of first-class storytelling is recognizing the emotions involved in each stage of a story and being able to convey them to the reading public.
The feelings that connect people with a brand’s purposes were already present there and need attention to be identified.
That’s why I’m now going to show you methods and recommendations so you can apply storytelling in the context of your brand:
How to tell good stories?
This is a skill that requires understanding and sensitivity. The narrative is directed from person to person, not from company to company.
Almost every story follows a standard structure, which is known as the hero’s journey — and its application requires technical mastery, but can be achieved with practice.
In Marketing, it is necessary to recognize that, behind entertainment and attention retention, there are techniques that must be mastered to obtain good results.
Therefore, stories must have customers — or fictional representations — as the main characters and apply recommendations precisely to engage and impact the audience in a satisfactory way.
Know your audience
It’s no secret that knowing your audience’s characteristics will help your business tell good stories.
Therefore, it is important to consider factors such as:
Psychological issues (beliefs, perceptions, etc.), among other relevant data.
- Gender;
- Age;
- City of origin;
- Consumption habits;
- Everyday problems;
- Social factors;
After collecting and organizing this data, you need to think about how your product or service will help solve people’s desires and needs.
From this, you can create stories that are more aligned with the public’s interests and be more assertive in your offer.
Know how to use “brand truth”
Companies that know how to use this strategy are able to better convey their brand identity. This is because they demonstrate what is unique and special about them, including the values they believe in and defend.
This way, the chances of people identifying with the business and purchasing the products or services it offers increase.
But you need to be careful! For this approach to work, the story has to be aligned with a good marketing strategy, and of course, it has to be true in its essence.
Tell your story in stages
It is also necessary to capture the audience’s attention, and the best way to do this is to create a narrative with a well-defined beginning, middle and end.
Check out the three practical steps:
- Define the main character of the story and the context of the situation: create your own hero’s journey, with villains and challenges, overcoming and the “grand finale”;
- Present information about the company and then the offer: remember to make sure the narrative is really interesting so that the audience gets to this stage of the process;
- Explain to the user what action you want them to take: it could be purchasing a product, subscribing to your channel or signing up for a newsletter, for example. It’s important to show that the story is over and now they need to make a decision. Your pre-narrative should support the relevance of this offer.
Although it can be hard work to come up with stories that will captivate your audience, following these steps will help your company gain ground in the market.
In this way, storytelling reinforces the identity of brands and, as a result, more and more people tend to pay attention, identify with it and, ultimately, make a purchase!
Harness the power of mental triggers
Mental triggers are psychological elements that influence human behavior and can be used strategically to create stories that generate desired actions.
See how to enhance storytelling through triggers:
- Scarcity: can be used to create stories that highlight the exclusivity of a product or service. You can motivate consumers to act quickly, fearing they will miss out on a unique opportunity;
- Urgency: This is a powerful trigger that can be incorporated into stories to encourage immediate action, urging the audience to take quick action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service;
- Social proof: showing how other people have benefited from your product or service is a way to encourage consumers to purchase the service;
- Reciprocity: By telling stories about your brand’s altruistic actions, such as donations or support for social causes, or even offering benefits to your leads for free, you can make consumers feel grateful and more likely to reciprocate with a purchase;
- Authority: Consumers trust brands that are recognized as leaders in their fields;
- Anticipation: Creating stories that generate anticipation, such as the launch of a new product, triggers anticipation. Audiences are eager for new things and are more likely to get involved;
- Personal stories: Sharing personal stories from founders or team members can create emotional connections with audiences, triggering identification and making consumers feel closer to the brand.
How does a lack of storytelling affect your brand?
At this point in the text, you may be asking yourself: after all, what difference does telling stories make?
Well, to illustrate how the lack of storytelling can have a significant impact on a brand, I’ll tell you a story:
Gaurav has always been a passionate entrepreneur, determined to turn his small business into a success. Faced with financial challenges, he took on all responsibilities, cutting costs as much as possible.
He did practically everything himself: he took care of the company’s marketing strategies, served customers and controlled inventory. However, despite his tireless efforts, the company’s sales did not achieve the desired results.
Gaurav’s problem wasn’t a lack of hard work, but rather the absence of a crucial piece of the business puzzle: storytelling. Wrapped up in his operational routine, he neglected to build a compelling narrative for his brand.
The lack of investment in storytelling left Gaurav’s brand without a clear identity, making it difficult to connect emotionally with the public and effectively convey his message.
While Gaurav was struggling behind the scenes, his competitors were investing in telling stories that resonated with customers. The lack of engaging storytelling resulted in a company that, despite all its practical efforts, failed to create a lasting connection with its audience.
The lesson Gaurav learned was that in the business world, telling a powerful story is as vital as any other operational task, and can be the difference that turns challenges into opportunities.
I’m not a Prize winner, but I’m sure that Gaurav’s story, told this way, was much more engaging than it would be if I just listed the reasons why you should consider investing in storytelling!
You might think it’s just a bedtime story, but the truth is that when a brand doesn’t use interesting stories, it risks becoming easily forgettable and impersonal!
But here are some ways in which the absence of storytelling can affect a brand:
Less engagement: This can result in lower engagement rates on your marketing campaigns.
Lack of emotional connection: Without compelling stories, your brand can come across as cold and impersonal, making it difficult to build relationships with consumers;
Lack of identification: customers may have difficulty relating to the company, making it less relevant in their lives;
Tendency to be forgotten: the lack of storytelling can cause your brand to be quickly forgotten, especially due to fierce competition;
Difficulty in differentiating yourself from the competition: without unique stories, your company may be seen as just another option on the market, without a differentiator;
Less engagement: This can result in lower engagement rates on your
marketing campaigns.
Inbound Marketing: storytelling focused on results
While content plays an important role in an Inbound Marketing strategy, creating it without a specific purpose and direction is a waste of time and resources.
Visibility in the digital environment is not the only purpose, it is necessary to focus on well-planned actions to obtain effective results!
Therefore, it is crucial to combine quality content with good strategies, such as storytelling, to truly achieve success with Digital Marketing.
And to understand the importance of storytelling in Inbound Marketing, you need to understand how it fits into all stages of the sales funnel:
- Attraction: At the top of the funnel, engaging stories are used to attract visitors to your website or social media channels. For example, blogs with relevant stories can capture the attention of potential customers;
- Conversion: in the middle of the funnel, they are used to convert visitors into leads. Offers such as e-books, webinars or case studies can be based on compelling stories that use mental triggers to encourage conversion ;
- Loyalty: At the bottom of the funnel, storytelling keeps customers engaged and loyal to the brand. Customer success stories, for example, reinforce trust and drive retention.
Now, to make the most of the power of stories in Inbound Marketing, here are some practical suggestions:
Focus on continuity: tell consistent stories throughout the customer journey to maintain cohesion in your Marketing strategy.
Create captivating characters: Develop detailed personas for your audience and use these personas to create engaging characters in your stories;
Define your core message: identify the core message you want to convey and build your stories around it;
Use multiple formats: storytelling can be incorporated into a variety of formats, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, and social media posts. Explore a variety of channels to reach different audiences;
Monitor and measure performance: Use analytics tools to track story performance and adjust your strategy as needed;
Focus on continuity: tell consistent stories throughout the customer journey to maintain cohesion in your Marketing strategy.
Storyselling: transforming stories into sales
Storyselling is more than just telling stories, it is a strategy that aims to transform them into real sales!
The main advice I can give in relation to this is that you do an in-depth analysis based on the brand, in order to build a narrative that stands alongside it and is true.
It needs to be documented and shared with everyone who will use it across all customer touchpoints, whether online or offline.
But storyselling goes beyond conventional storytelling. It is the strategic and well-planned combination of three elements:
- Developed content: must be carefully planned and stories need to be relevant to the target audience to capture attention and interest;
- Communication tools: stories must be disseminated through different communication channels, to be consistent in all brand interactions with the public;
- Synergy between teams: Marketing and sales must work together to ensure that the narrative is conveyed coherently, whether in Digital Marketing campaigns, customer service or sales.
The biggest difference we deliver to our clients and that leads them to results that few can achieve is the strategic use of Digital Marketing tools with a strong focus on Inbound Marketing. Want to see some results?
By implementing a new Content Marketing strategy for the Cresol cooperative, we increased the brand’s visibility on the Internet.
With blog posts aligned with product cycles, we make information more easily available and interest in offers has increased!
Leave a mark with your story!
Storytelling is extremely useful for building a strong brand and connecting with your audience. Storyselling takes it to the next level by converting stories into real sales.
I would like to emphasize the importance of integrating storytelling and storyselling into your Content Marketing strategy. By doing so, you create an emotional connection with your audience and, at the same time, increase your revenue!
We at Enjoy Minder know that this is a big challenge and that it demands time and expertise.
Therefore, it is important for you to remember that, more than just experts with experience and a unique high-performance methodology, we consider ourselves business partners to all our clients.
In other words: your brand’s results become our internal commitment. This is how I and the entire Enjoy Minder team work to ensure that our clients achieve the success they deserve!
Don’t miss the opportunity to achieve good results in your Marketing strategies. Contact us right now!
