In the past, selling a product or service was pretty straightforward: “Here is my product. You need it. Buy it today.”
Today, in an age where buyers have more options, this type of customer engagement strategy is ineffective at best and unacceptable at worst.
In fact, businesses today have to sell more than just their product or service. They can no longer be faceless entities selling an item as their brand; the brand message is now a deciding factor for a significant portion of the market.
This is where brand storytelling comes in. Through the power of storytelling and a compelling storytelling marketing strategy, businesses are able to not only establish themselves apart from their competitors but also sell their products in a way that resonates with their consumers.
In this article, we’ll take a look at:
• What Is Brand Storytelling?
• Benefits of Brand Storytelling
• How To Implement Storytelling Marketing
• The StoryBrand Framework
• Why Is Brand Storytelling “The Future of Marketing”?
What Is Brand Storytelling?
Brand storytelling is the art of establishing your brand through a storyline to which its audience can relate. Through this story, brands can build their customer engagement strategy, connect with their audience, raise brand awareness and engage with users.
To understand storytelling marketing, you first have to understand what is messaging in marketing. Today’s marketing is no longer limited to what your brand says but how you say it. This affects not only the literal language you use in things like website copy, social media posts or email campaigns but also how it affects the subtext in your ads.
But what is messaging in marketing applied? For instance, look at how different clothing brands curate their marketing messages. You can differentiate clothing brands that focus on affordability, comfort, modern style or practicality because of how they present their message. A high-end clothing brand won’t have a marketing messaging framework centered around “buy one, get one” deals, while trendy brands don’t focus on durability. In short, your marketing messaging framework can say plenty about the values you want your brand to carry.
Once you know what is messaging in marketing and have that brand message you want to share, you have to turn your marketing messaging framework into a story your target audience can relate to. Through narrative and emotional marketing strategies, you tell a relatable story that resonates with your audience and then show how your brand, product or service fits that story.
Benefits of Brand Storytelling
Some reasons to implement brand storytelling in your digital marketing strategy include the following:
• Create Memorable Content: Facts are informative, but people are more likely to remember a story than to remember facts. One study found that the details of storytelling are 22x more memorable than facts told without a story. You can do this on your own, but working with a content marketing specialist can help you create a compelling story while optimizing your content for your digital marketing solutions.
• Tap Into Emotions: The University of Southern California found that emotions can impact a consumer’s decision, with 31% of ads that play into emotion doing better than 16% of ads that don’t.
• Create a Community: Through storytelling, you’re attracting an audience that has a shared emotional connection with a product, which can build loyalty. For example, Apple has managed to build a loyal customer base by sharing a value or idea that their fans can support.
• Humanize Your Business: Businesses can feel more relatable when they share stories. As consumers become more conscious about the brands they support, brand storytelling is an excellent way to spread brand messaging without seeming too salesy.
• Compel Consumers To Take Action: Brand storytelling allows you to create brand messaging that resonates with consumers in every stage of the buyer’s journey. Depending on your message, you can make consumers aware of your brand or connect an idea to your products that makes consumers want to buy.
How To Implement Storytelling Marketing
When done right, you can market your brand and products without appearing too strong or salesy. Think of it as taking your potential customers on a trip that sells an emotion you want them to connect with your brand. Here are some practical tips to implement a story into your content marketing strategy:
• Create Quality Content: Your content has to tell a compelling story that your consumers will want to listen to. Content writing services from professional writers with experience writing persuasive content while optimizing for your digital marketing strategy and still getting your brand messaging out there. You can also find content marketing management services to ensure all your content points toward one central idea.
• Use Different Media: Marketing a story isn’t limited to the text you put on your website. Having professional branded videos to back up your storytelling marketing campaign can add more value to your messaging.
• Tell Relatable Stories: The power of storytelling can only take you so far if you’re telling a story or pushing an idea people can’t relate to. Compelling storytelling and emotional marketing is one that users can understand. For example, Nike’s marketing may use professional athletes, but it uses emotions like achievement and pride that consumers can relate to.
• Let Your Customers Share Stories: User-generated content is becoming a growing trend in marketing, especially with platforms like TikTok making it easier to share video content. Customers who share their experiences and reviews with your brand essentially tell stories to potential customers.
• Use the Storybrand Framework: The storybrand framework is essentially the hero’s journey but with a marketing twist to make your story relatable to users in different stages of the buyer’s journey. This framework follows a key pain point and how a brand solves the problem and calls to action from the audience to do the same.
The StoryBrand Framework
The StoryBrand framework is similar to the hero’s journey but instead focuses on how a brand and its products solve the pain points of a consumer. To add effective storytelling to your content marketing, you should take a page of the StoryBrand framework and implement the following:
• The Character: The main character that resonates with your audience
• The Problem: The audience’s pain point or problem
• The Guide: The brand
• The Plan: The brand’s way of addressing the pain poin.
• The Call To Action: The clear message of why the audience should support the brand or buy from the brand
• Success or Failure: The success or failure of the character, which depends on whether or not they followed the brand
Why Is Brand Storytelling “The Future of Marketing”?
In the past, content marketing services were limited to the “what” of a product. With more consumers becoming conscious about the brands they support, it’s not enough to sell a product – you have to create a customer engagement strategy that’s based on a brand message that your target audience can support.
Humans are hardwired to love stories, which is why emotional marketing impacts intended audiences. As more people look for the “why” and “how” of brands, it’s not enough for brands to market their products but also their brands and how they relate to their customers.
However, creating a story or message you want to tell may not be enough. On top of working with a content marketing specialist to build your message and content marketing management services to weave your story, you must execute your digital storytelling strategy through the proper channels. With a full service marketing agency at your side, you can create a meaningful brand message that resonates.
Share Your Brand’s Story Online With Thrive
The power of storytelling allows brands to spread their message, build their brand following and compel consumers to consider their products or services. However, it’s not enough to tell a story – it must be compelling to capture your audience’s attention and carry them toward your main brand message.
If you’re struggling to find the words to write your story, Thrive is here to help. As a full service marketing agency, we offer content marketing services and all the necessary marketing skills to tell your story online.
Get in touch with Thrive today to learn more about storytelling marketing solutions.
