For thousands of years, people have been telling stories in order to pass on their knowledge, to entertain themselves and to better understand the world around them. In this way, over time, stories have evolved into a universal language that everyone can understand, regardless of origin or dialect, even if the means used to tell them are constantly changing.
Stories have an enormous influence on people, immediately creating a sense of ‘communion’ between the listener and the storyteller. And this is something that can also be explained biologically, since most of our brain neurons are activated as soon as we receive some content in story form, automatically investing in it.
Today, in the world of business, content marketing is an integral part of the promotional strategies that businesses implement. The wealth of information circulating digitally, however, can easily affect a brand’s message, plunging it into the vast sea of the Internet.
Storytelling, or storytelling, is therefore one of the most important pillars for the most successful brand promotion campaigns. It is a powerful and useful tool that allows you to create unique content and grab the attention of your audience, cultivating emotional connections with them.
So, whether you’re creating a blog post on your company blog, a video or a social media campaign for your brand, the right story can elevate your content and keep it in the memory of customers.
But how can you achieve this?
As you may have noticed when reading the title of this article, the term storytelling cannot be classified as a process or technique. It is an art form that helps you bring your brand to life and effectively communicate to your customers the “why” to buy your product in a creative and entertaining way.
Therefore, the choice of story is vital to your content, as it should align with your brand message and marketing objectives. In more detail, take into consideration:
- the target audience, i.e. their interests, pain points, preferences and the type of stories they could identify with. You can use customer testimonials and case studies to show real examples of how your product/service has helped people. Furthermore, we suggest encouraging users to express their opinions (either through polls or by asking direct questions), building relationships and interaction with them.
- your brand message: the message you want to convey through your content, the brand values and how these can be incorporated into your story. Use images and videos to bring your stories to life and create a more engaging experience for users.
- your marketing goals: the action you want the audience to take once they come into contact with your content.
We add that storytelling can be in written, audio or visual form, with the latter predominating in the digital world. In any case, precisely because they are stories, you should take care that they have a clear structure with: beginning-middle-end and -prologue-main theme-context. Ideally, at the end of the story, we suggest using the corresponding Call-to-action button, prompting the user to take action -from answering a question to buying a product-.
So, by incorporating storytelling into your content marketing strategy, you’re enabling your brand to be “heard” and stand out from the crowd. We suggest getting to know your audience well and emphasizing emotion to make your content memorable. Thus, with the proper use of storytelling, you will take your content marketing to the next level.