Storytelling Marketing

Storytelling marketing can be a powerful component in a marketing strategy.

It can be the driving force behind developing, and more importantly, establishing a brand that connects and resonates with your target audience.

The story you tell, and the method in which you use to weave that story throughout your marketing campaigns will be based on your overall goals but one thing remains the same:

Your story will be designed to introduce your brand to the world in a way that helps you stand out and apart from the competition.

The Art of Storytelling Marketing

Content marketing is when you figure out ways to utilize and repurpose content so that it is seen by a larger audience.

Storytelling marketing and content marketing go hand-in-hand.

With storytelling marketing, you can design a highly-engaged marketing campaign that carries a strong focus.

Thankfully, there’s an easy structure to a creating a compelling storyline for your marketing campaign.

And it begins with utilizing a variety of delivery methods, including:

Visual and Content-Based:

Visual storytelling would include things like videos, presentations, webinars or perhaps a series of episodes that bring your viewers on a journey.

Content based would include everything else, such as articles, blog posts, sales pages and so on.

It’s important to combine both storytelling marketing methods into your marketing campaigns.

Questions from your Audience:

The anatomy of a successful storytelling marketing campaign will also include a specific series of questions and answers.

This isn’t where you poll your market for their most burning questions.

But another way to address questions without surveying your market begins with the questions you had when you first ventured in your niche.

Look at what questions your customers are already asking?

What answers your competitors are providing?

And how best to connect with your audience using language they best understand.

Establishing a Timeline:

Here is where you draft your story arc around a marketing campaign.

This story will tell your audience how you got from point A to B, why you created your brand (services/products), and how it exists to serve them.

It gives your story purpose and helps you stay aligned with your goals while remaining consistent with your campaigns.

Personalization:

Your story needs to connect with your core audience.

You do this by making it all about them.

Rather than creating a generic story line that simply highlights your brand.

You need to embrace your audience by fostering a mindset that you understand what they need, desire and fear.

Adaptation:

One story doesn’t fit all marketing channels, so you need to make sure you create stories that align with the platforms you use.

Facebook marketing is different than Instagram marketing and they cater to very specific audiences so you’ll want to customize your story line to better fit those viewers.

Instead of going straight for the sale, you need to think about how people communicate on those platforms.

How they recommend products and services. And how the market responds to different ad styles.

Then you can create your own storytelling marketing campaign so that it aligns with those networks.

Stories That Sell

Every story has 3 main parts:

The beginning, the middle and of course, the end.

When using storytelling marketing to further your outreach, your story needs to cover all the bases, which means you’ll begin by:

Step 1: Setting the Stage

The first part of your storytelling marketing campaign

you’re essentially laying the foundation for your story arc. You’re setting the scene.

Phase 1, you’re outlining the conflicts that your audience is suffering with. In other words, you’re acknowledging the problems that they need help with.

This is an important step because it will set the tone for your entire campaign and help connect your brand with its audience.

Step 2: Providing a Solution

In the second part of your storytelling marketing campaign, you’re offering your audience with a solution to the problems outlined in step one.

Step 3: Call to Action

At the end of every great romance book, the hero and heroine ride off in the sunset, finally at the point of finding their happily ever after.

In storytelling marketing, you’re prompting your customers to click that buy button, subscribe to your channel, or follow your brand so they can achieve that same happily ever after.

Now is the point where they need to make a decision to move forward. To set themselves on the path towards reaching their goals with your help and guidance.

The anatomy of every successful story always includes these three crucial steps.

How to Inspire & Motivate with Storytelling Marketing

Stories must carry a level of inspiration and motivation and there’s no easier way to do that than by making it personal.

You want to keep your audience in mind when crafting this story so that they feel a part of it and can go on the journey with you.

The more personalized your storytelling marketing campaigns are, the more effective they’ll be.

When you begin by sharing your own personal journey with your audience, you’ll be able to create an unforgettable story.

One that will motivate and inspire your audience.

Effective Storytelling Marketing Hacks

I call these storytelling marketing hacks because they’re fast and easy ways to ensure you are hitting the hot buttons and fulfilling your goals.

Tip 1: Listen to your Audience

Once you’ve kicked off your storytelling marketing campaign, you need to start listening. This is when you gauge responses and can keep a pulse on how your audience feels about your story.

Listening to responses helps you tweak your story line so that it better aligns with what your market is looking for.

Tip 2: Be Memorable

This goes without saying, but there are easy ways to ensure your story is share-worthy.

You want to get as many people talking about your story as possible. Which means you want to research and understand audience triggers and overall motivations.

Knowing your audience will make it easier for your stories to stick.

Tip 3: Be Personal

You want your story to connect with the average consumer in your market. So it needs to be told at a level they best understand.

Getting personal in your storytelling marketing campaigns will make it easier for you to connect with your market. It will also ensure you’re approachable. You come across as genuine and that you are deeply involved.

Tip 4: Be Relatable

I just mentioned the importance of personalizing your storytelling marketing campaigns.

But you want to take things a step further by ensuring you are reliable.

What makes them tick?

What are they most interested in?

What do they fear?

What are their overall goals?

Being relatable shows them that you’ve done the job of researching the market to know what is most important to them.

Conclusion

Storytelling in your marketing is the easiest way to express emotions and illustrate your commitment to providing value.

There’s nothing more powerful than a carefully crafted story that fulfills the needs of your core market.

I wish you the very best with your storytelling marketing campaigns!

To Your Success,

Joshua