Storytelling is a powerful tool that has been used since the beginning of time to transmit a meaningful message to others.

Through stories, people are able to speak out their minds, share wisdom, and pass information to others. You make use of storytelling to send your brand message to your audience, get their attention, and influence them to change their behaviour and take action.

In this post, I’ll be sharing the importance of storytelling in marketing and tips to get you started on your adventure.

1. Stories Simplify The Complex

Bombarding your customers and prospects with too much information is useless. After some time, they get tired of what you’re saying and choose to ignore your words.

You should understand that prospects likely trust someone or something they can understand.

So instead of giving them all these mere facts, craft a good story about your brand and how your products and services can help them. Not only will a story save you time, but also it leaves a good impression on your potential prospects.

2. Stories Produce Mental Images

Figures and facts would be irrelevant if they cannot make an impact on your prospects. Instead, you can slip in all these facts into a good story and set your prospects’ imagination in motion to create a powerful mental image.

Storytelling in marketing forms visual imagery that actually helps capture your ideas and increase their ability to be understood.

3. Stories Can Help People Cope With Change.

No matter what, change is inevitable. Many people fear change, whether bad or good. But you can change this impression by telling a story that tells that change does not necessarily mean loss and disaster.

You can make storytelling effective in your marketing by addressing your customers’ confusion, anger, fear, and uncertainties through an interesting story they can relate to. This will certainly help them understand your situation better as well as create a positive outlook towards it.

Just recently, I had a meeting with a company that was afraid that the rebranding might cause an upset with their customers and people might not recognize them. With the right story, the audience might be receptive to the change.

Tips to Tell a Good Story

1. Be Honest

While it is essential to be able to craft and tell a story right, you need to be telling an honest one.

Be consistent and persistent in that truth and build narratives that stay close to your brand promise and DNA – you don’t want to confuse your customers by telling a different story each time you communicate with them. Instead, make it as true as you possibly can to a continuing adventure.

2. Be Personal

Storytelling in marketing is very different from conventional advertising. It isn’t a sales pitch. You need first to identify and create the persona your brand stands for and put him or her in the centre of the action or plot.

You can’t tell a boring story, you need to take your consumers on a journey with you and they can only do that if they know who they are following.

3. Be Likeable

If you know your audience, then you ought to know the kind of people they like, and ideally, your brand personality needs to incorporate these characteristics.

If you want them to root for you, you have to make them like you. Maybe even build in your consumer’s personal struggles into the narrative so they can relate to your personality’s journey and want to know the rest of the story.

Just like social media marketing, storytelling can send a powerful message to your customers. When crafting your story, make it clear and simple so that it can create memories of you.

Also, don’t forget to add some humour to your story to make it interesting to read. Don’t rely on the figures and facts too much as you want a story that connects.

The author, Hanafi Mohd Sam, also blogs at https://www.hanafimohdsam.com.
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