Brand Storytelling in Digital Marketing

Stories build memory. They live on forever. They connect to readers or listeners like no other tool. Ideas threaded with good narratives always work magic on people. A good story can keep the audience hooked and ensure the message is delivered. If the narrative is engaging, the story has the power to linger on in the mind forever.

Brands do understand the power of storytelling and in fact, some of them have been leveraging this medium for long to highlight their products, services or any aspect of the business. In recent times, stories have grown more in prevalence due to the emergence of social media platforms.

With platforms for sharing messages and ideas multiplying by the day, storytelling was bound to become a key to marketing initiatives for brands small and big alike. So, we now see more companies using the conventional charms and impact of stories as brand building exercise.

✓ Storytelling goes deeper than just selling a product or idea

✓ It’s about connecting with the audience by bringing them into emotional aspects of the business

✓ Stories humanize us and wrapping them with right narratives can give audience a better understanding of the business

✓ And yes, stories can last forever

Clearly, storytelling has virtues brands just can’t ignore if they look to build trust with their target audience. That’s why this tool should be part of digital marketing strategies to gain the foothold in the market and win the trust of customers.

Here are benefits of using storytelling in digital marketing –

1. Storytelling Builds Memories

Most of us have grown up on a healthy diet of bed-time stories by mom, dad, grandma, grandpa or nannies. We still recall those stories and the context in which they were told to us. Our childhood days were full of nursery rhymes and fables with morals to teach us about life. And they were told in story format which stayed with us even today, did not it?

In fact, we are what the stories we listened to growing up. They are etched into our memories and lying there in the recess of the mind. Brands can thus leverage this same psychology and human’s affinity to stories to gain at marketing initiatives. They can build a strong and emotional narrative to make people hear, see, feel taste and smell what they want to.

2. Stories Motivate People

Stories have the knack of inspiring us. They get us moving in life. We grasp their subtle points and finer aspects easily and implement the best parts into our lives. The information, the words, the slant and the moral strung together in an absorbing narrative can cast a magical spell on us easily. If presented right, stories can get us to act upon a call to action.

Brands do understand this well, so they use storytelling to motivate the readers or listers towards some action. The story can be used to drive sales or bring forth the best points of your products or services of any thing related to the business. And if you ideas are engaging enough, you can then expect the audience to feel motivated to your cause.

3. Storytelling Builds Relationships

Unless a brand connects with the audience, it can never hope to drive sales or achieve growth. Relationships with the target audience are the foundation upon which the success of your business will be built. If people don’t feel about your cause, or if there are no takers for your ideas, how can then your products or services will be sold?

Storytelling can be used to build relationships and set up a strong connect with the audience. It’s however important to select right stories based on the customer profiles, their tastes, preferences and segments. If individuals find some value in the story or if they could connect with the emotional tang of the pitch, it will work wonders for your marketing initiatives.

4. Stories have a universal appeal

Everyone likes a good story. We, the humans, are a born voyeur with a strong tendency to peek into the worlds and lives of others. We want to know everything about any cause that we can relate to. We can easily connect to the pain, joy, pathos and struggle of fellows or anyone per se. We are always in search of good ideas to drive our lives forward.

A lot of brands understand the power of storytelling and they use its essence in enriching audience with product details, prices and other information worth sharing with the world. Stories cut across geographies and demographics as a good story in New York will have equal impact in New Delhi and vice versa. Brands can benefit from this inherent universality of stories to achieve marketing gold.

5. Stories put things in context

Stories almost always engage and inform the audience. And if the narrative is good, it may even entertain and enlighten as well. Storytelling can help shape any idea or vision into a coherent perspective. Stories can provide background, framework and detailing for any product or service easily.

Brands can use the appeal and engage-ability quotient of stories to build a powerful context around their products they want to sell. And when audience finds a context in anything, it then sees merit in connecting to that.

6. Stories can endure for years

Good stories never turn obsolete ever. They just endure on for eternity. Their message, framework, context, background and moral find the mettle to survive the test of the time. People circulate the goodness of stories they connect with. They are like those classic flicks that people love watching on TV again and again to get the kick out of that.

So, brands should not worry about the cost factor as if they could build an engaging narrative around their product or service story, they might never have to invest again in marketing for sure. All top digital marketing experts understand that and you can consult them to gain a better sense of using stories for benefits.