Nowadays competition is quite harsh and it is vital to find a way to really stand out. Then potential customers can find your company. So that customers can find your company, it’s going to need some really effective marketing actions and a unique brand. Storytelling is one tool you can use in company’s branding and marketing. Just as every square is a rectangle but not every rectangle is a square, all brand storytelling is content marketing but not all content marketing is storytelling for marketing. Brand storytelling is a specific type of content marketing that draws us in emotionally.
Storytelling creates a strong memory trace to your customers so they can remember and emotionally relate to your company. Unique story also gives your company a strong competitive edge. You can use storytelling with your existing products or services or to create new ones. Great storytelling is an experience.
Is storytelling something new?
Storytelling isn’t new. But as social media and content marketing platforms continue to grow, there’s never been more opportunity for making storytelling a key part of strategic marketing initiatives. Marketers job is to sell ideas, knowledge and brand. Stories help you move beyond the mindset and mechanics of simply selling a product or service. And when the audience connects with your marketing stories, it leads to a purchase.
Brand development and marketing are connected to each other in many ways. Nowadays marketing is much more than just some actions to make people to buy more. With marketing you ensure that people know your company and its products or services. Marketing also strengthens your company’s brand. And unique stories make stronger brands. Strong brand creates sustainable customs and good interaction with stakeholders. When you see brand development, marketing, and your service quality as an entirety, that is the most significant combination in defining your company’s competitive edge. All these actions aim to creating more value to customers and storytelling confirms it.
Check out our other marketing blogs. And remember to bookmark it and check back often to stay on top.
Why to use storytelling?
In modern society there is information overload and that’s why it’s important in what way you represent that information. Your company’s information will probably interest people if it is represented in very interesting way. In this you can easily use stories. Stories convey information and make people to get new ideas and affect them emotionally.
Storytelling can be exploited many ways in companies for example marketing and advertising. Companies can also use stories in brand development. These stories should be attached in some wider entirety and that entirety can be for example the company’s strategy.
Where can you find good stories?
Good stories are genuine and true. You can use company’s strategy, identity or image to create stories. You can create stories out of the history or present, but they need to be somehow true. Of course, you can add new elements and a little bit embellish them but be sure they suit for your company and aren’t just fictitious. With your company’s unique story, you can make your brand more memorable and relatable. It you can create stories that relates to your company’s values, they are almost impossible to copy by your competitors.
You need also to think of your company’s industry. The most important thing about the stories is that they are not just single stories. You can link all the company’s stories together, and customers should see the stories in all the company’s functions. Especially important role in this has the communications. When you have these stories linked in all the company’s functions, you can create your brand and image with storytelling.
Every company, brand, product, or people has not just one, but multiple stories to tell. Every achievement, from the conception of your brand idea to the direction in which you are headed, contains stories. It is not hard because you already have all the stories, you just must know how to use them.
What is the story:
- of how your company got started?
- of your company’s core values and beliefs?
- behind your product or service?
- behind you?
You can start with these.
Is storytelling in marketing worth it?
The goal for any marketing activity is ultimately to generate results – to get your audience to respond to your message and act on it. But that your audience will even look at your message, it should be relevant to them. You need really to understand your audience to know, what matters to them, what are their problems and how to solve them. In short, you must empathize with them.
But when you empathise with your audience you really can commit them.
This isn’t any easy or quick way of getting more sales. But it surely is worth trying and with time generates more buying customers. Storytelling is a long-term strategy. In other words, returns are not immediate.
Learn more about our services and how we can help your content marketing with storytelling.