The Power of Storytelling in Content Marketing

Are you telling stories in your content? 

As content marketing takes center stage in marketing, brands are exploring the power of storytelling to strike a chord with their audience and target their hearts instead of their mind. Direct content marketing focuses on promotional messages encouraging the target audience to make a purchase. 

On the other hand, in storytelling marketing, brands adopt a narrative-driven approach to connect with the audience through emotional and memorable experiences. Storytelling in marketing is less about the products and more about shared values and experiences. 

Watch this "Moments" ad from Volvo promoting the Volvo XC60. 

The car had the best safety features for its day. Instead of beating the drum about its safety features, the ad featured a nervous young girl's conversation with her mother. She discusses her aspirations in life and dreams of conquering her fears on the way to school. These visuals are juxtaposed against a woman driving her way to work. As the girl crosses the road, the unmindful woman driving the XC60 is about to hit her, but the car comes to a halt thanks to the Auto-braking feature, saving the girl and her dreams. 

The happy ending to the ad immediately struck a chord with the audience and increased the sale of this vehicle. Auto-braking became the byword for safety. That's the impact of storytelling, and brands are increasingly adopting this approach in their content marketing campaign. 

How do you go about brand storytelling? 

How do you implement a storytelling marketing approach in your content? 

Read on as we discuss these and more. 

What Is Storytelling?
Storytelling is an advanced form of content marketing. It is the art of conveying a brand's values, mission, and identity using the power of narrative. It helps brands make it to the hearts of their audience and create an emotional connection to the brand. 

Storytelling in marketing helps brands differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a niche space for themselves. Through storytelling, brands can communicate their story, personality, and vision, making their products or services more relatable.

Why Use Storytelling In Content Marketing

Storytelling is the easiest and most powerful way to captivate and engage your audience. A good story can inspire the audience to take action and make it a memorable experience for them to engage with your brand. Here's why most brands choose storytelling as their preferred content marketing strategy:

• Storytelling evokes emotions and helps brands establish an emotional connection with their audience.  
• Stories are the most memorable form of messaging, and they lead to increased brand recognition.
• Storytelling can simplify complex messages and show the human side of a brand and how it focuses on its customers. 
• Stories help brands differentiate themselves from the competition and build a unique identity in a crowded market.

How Storytelling Captivates and Engages Your Audience

A good story can inspire the audience to take action and make it a memorable experience for them to engage with your brand. 

The Psychology Behind Storytelling
There is a psychological basis for why storytelling is so powerful and effective. Stories are persuasive and can convince the audience to take action more than an advertisement. Stories are attention-grabbing, and compared to other content marketing strategies, they can hold people's attention for a longer time as they create a sense of anticipation. They are more memorable than facts or statistics as the human brain is tuned to remember stories and anecdotes more than facts and figures. 

Stories Evoke Emotions
Stories evoke emotions, and they have the power to create an emotional connection with your audience. A story that resonates with your audience lets you create a deep and lasting connection with them. 

When your stories are relatable to your audience, it helps them see themselves in your brand and feel more connected to your message. It helps you turn a potential customer into a loyal customer faster and with less expenditure on customer acquisition. 

You Empathize with Your Audience

Empathy is one of the most important elements in brand storytelling. People instantly become connected and empathetic toward the story and its characters when they hear stories. This is why brands focus on the human side rather than the product side while sharing stories. 

The story must have vulnerable moments and moments of triumph. The more relatable characters your story has, the more empathy the audience will have for them. 

How to Craft a Compelling Story for Your Content Marketing

There can't be a cookie-cutter approach to brand storytelling. Different brands target different target audiences, so they must tailor to resonate with the audience. Your story must engage your audience, build brand awareness, and drive conversions and do so subtly without appearing to be outrightly promotional. 

3 steps to powerful storytelling marketing: 

Identify Your Brand's Story

Start by looking back at your brand's history and identify key moments and milestones that have shaped your brand. Why was the brand started, and for whom and with what objectives? It can include your brand's founding, significant product launches, or major turning points. For instance, if you sell hand-made soaps by self-help groups, your brand's principles and beliefs are about supporting these communities by offering them employment and improving their lives.   

Understand Your Target Audience

To create a compelling story that resonates with your audience, you must understand their needs, wants, and aspirations. Carry research that helps you understand your audience's demographics, behavior, and preferences. Let's go to the previous example. Your target audience will likely be people who wish to support these self-help groups and try exotic products. They aren't looking at the cheapest or the fastest-selling soaps in the market but exclusive products.   

Create a Narrative That Strikes Chord With Your Audience

The last step to success is creating a narrative that resonates with the audience. A compelling story needs a narrative arc. It should have a beginning to hook your audience, introduce the product, and give its background story. If we stick to our hand-made soap example, share stories of the people who make it and how every purchase contributes to their growth and empowerment. Show how your brand has been helping the community and how you have helped in their economic upliftment. 

So, How Do Brands Tell a Story As Part of Content Marketing

Storytelling is a vital part of building any brand. As someone looking to shape public opening about your brand, you can learn from brands that have nailed it and continue to create some of the most compelling stories to bond with their target audience.  

Airbnb

Airbnb has adopted a unique approach to brand storytelling. People initially perceived them as a brand that was in the business of renting houses. Some even saw it as a poorer cousin of hotels and resorts! Airbnb wanted to change that narrative and be seen as a brand that connects people and helps them find temporary "homes" and not "houses." They created their website's "Stories" section, writing stories about real customers and their experiences at Airbnb properties. These stories have helped the brand, and potential customers are booking Airbnb reading experiences of others.

Coca-Cola

With one-third of the market share in the global beverage market and outright dominance in the Cola segment, you might wonder why the $100-billion giant needs to use storytelling in marketing. However, Coca-Cola wants to reimagine itself with growing awareness about healthy lifestyles and diets. They have come up with several Storytelling campaigns in the last decade, including the Share a Coke,  Journey of a Coke Bottle, and Taste the Feeling. Coca-Cola Stories has been the biggest impact of all and narrates the brand's past, present, and future. It has built a narrative where people don't see it as a cola drink maker but as a part of their life. 

Nike

Nike has been part of some of the best storytelling marketing campaigns. They coined the "Just Do It" slogan almost four decades ago, which still resonates with the audience. The brand started the Nike Training Club as part of its content marketing campaign. App users can read inspiring stories of athletes and find tips to achieve fitness goals and overcome challenges. Nike uses these stories to show how its products can help people achieve fitness goals and remain active and healthy. 

Final Thoughts

To sum up, storytelling in content marketing is a powerful way to engage and connect with your audience on a deeper level. However, your stories must be compelling and resonate with your audience. As JK Rowling said, "No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever." The key to effective storytelling in marketing is to identify your brand's story and the value you wish to share and use empathy to create narratives that resonate with your audience.

Good storytelling in content marketing should be emotional, memorable, attention-grabbing, and inspiring. If you need a partner to help you create a narrative of your brand with storytelling, Growth Natives would be the right choice. We have expert copywriters who can write the most captivating stories for your brand. Write to us at info@growthnatives.com or call us at +1 855-693-4769 to know more. 

Sources: https://www.airbnb.co.in