Can you recall the Google “Adwords Stories” video series?
Google created videos incorporating the tales of small businesses that have benefited greatly from Adwords.
Customer stories of how Adwords changed their lives showed how effective it can be for all kinds of businesses.
And hence, intrigued the potential customers to take action.
That’s the power of storytelling!
Google was promoting its Adwords services with this campaign and they nailed it!
Brand storytelling uses narratives to establish an emotional, value-driven connection between you and your customers. The most effective stories are authentic and relate to the core principles of your brand.
In this blog post, we will discuss storytelling in detail and how using it in business is essential to increase conversions and boost customer satisfaction.
Why Storytelling is Important?
Let’s start with this question: Does the term “story” make you smile?
People are more inclined to relate something emotionally than they are to many other things in life. Perhaps, it reminds them of something from their childhood or maybe a memory they can’t forget. This emotional attachment creates a bond.
People often choose brands they trust and feel a connection with. And storytelling has the ability to do just that!
If you have a solid brand storytelling approach, your audience will eventually start to identify your brand with your content; classic example of strong brand recall.
It also sets your brand apart from your competitors.
Let’s look at some interesting examples of the brands using storytelling.
Illustration 1: As a well-known provider of CRM solutions, Salesforce encourages its users to share their experiences and stories because they understand the value of storytelling. The way Salesforce delivers its brand story to the world is by having their customers share their success stories.
Illustration 2: A company’s culture is best represented by its employees and is humanized via employee-curated stories. By presenting the distinctive and brilliant people that work for the computer behemoth, Microsoft, Story Labs (a platform that features employee stories of Microsoft) gives the brand more humanity and authenticity. Such initiatives strengthen the ties between the brand, its employees, and its customers.
Now let’s discuss the ways storytelling can help you to connect with your audience.
Top 3 Ways Storytelling Can Help You to Connect With Your Audience
Sharing your brand story across touchpoints, whether it is your website, emails, or social media presence, is one of the most efficient methods to draw audience attention, engage them, and inspire people to make a purchase.
However, there are still a lot of brands that are cautious to enter.
Here are three reasons why you should create your brand story if you are one of them.
Strike the Chords
Telling authentic stories evokes emotions and feelings. These emotions draw your target audience towards your brand and build trust. Hence, storytelling is one of the best methods to connect emotionally with your audience.
Make Things Easy
By getting rid of complications and preconceptions, storytelling simplifies a message and makes everything easy to understand. Think of Apple, for instance. Apple seamlessly shows how their products help customers create their own stories. An example of this is the “Start Something New” project, which showcases the art that people create with Apple products.
People-To-People Interaction
Storytelling includes real people and their real-world struggles. This bridges the gap between you and your customers by showing honesty and fostering more sincere interactions. It makes it simpler for customers to identify with and, most importantly, trust you.
Tips to Tell Your Brand Story Effectively
People are naturally enthralled by intriguing brand stories. So, the most important thing is the central narrative, not merely seeing pictures or hearing voices. Also, a captivating narrative-based strategy is more likely to develop and sustain long-term brand loyalty.
Here are some researched-backed tips to tell your brand story effectively.
Listen to Your Customers
Understanding your audience is the first thing that you should focus on – their interests, problems, etc. With this in mind, you can develop brand narratives that connect with your audience.
Humanize Your Brand Story
People connect with one another, not with businesses. Make the individuals who support your company the focal point of your brand narrative. Real-life examples of people who are associated with your brand will help to humanize it and make it more relatable.
Keep it Original and Unique
Your customers can sense when your brand story isn’t authentic. Be truthful about the difficulties you have or may face. Highlighting the challenges of your journey makes your brand more sincere, personable, and reliable. People connect more over the “grass to grace” story.
Keep Your Brand Values in Mind
Build a story that adheres to your brand’s principles and values. Make sure you’re not compromising on them. Tell your audience more about you, use storytelling to highlight the personality of your brand.
Incite Feelings in Your Audience
Try to include emotions and feelings in your stories. Real-life stories will be more effective since they express authentic feelings, which make it simpler for your audience to connect with your business.
Keep Your Story Consistent
You’re developing a relationship with your customers and just like any new relationship, things get tough when the dots aren’t connected. Keep your messaging consistent, and people will understand your brand story and also establish a genuine relationship with your brand.
Wrapping Up
B2B storytelling is more important than ever. Businesses need to start creating stories that make brands more humane, stand out among competitors, and above all, establish a connection with customers. Also, pay more attention to your customers and listen to them carefully to understand their challenges better. In this way you can create more authentic stories that resonate with your audience.
Want to Tell a Brand Story That Strikes the Right Chord With Your Customers? Talk to Us!
Our experts can help you narrate more compelling brand stories that not only draw customers towards your brand but also foster trust. Just drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll take it from there.