The oldest form of imparting sustainable knowledge is Storytelling. A traditionally verbose medium, storytelling dates back to one's early years of existence, where it came with an underlining of an objective, a message or a general entertainment in your grandma’s stories. While our ways of consuming knowledge have evolved this mode remains to be one of the most powerful sources of information and engagement.
Today, we use the medium power of storytelling in digital to explain a concept or to make things simpler for an individual to understand. Be it entertainment, teaching or sharing complex information, the fluidity of this mode allows the most creative ways to fulfill an objective. Whatever we are led to believe, the power of storytelling is not an innate ability. It is a skill that a few possess, master and evolve. Here are some insights from our experts who have not only mastered but are working round the clock to shift the paradigm of digital design services in India .
Why Storytelling Works Fine For All?
People love to see, read and hear stories because it creates human connection based on empathy. When we hear a story we put ourselves in it and imagine the circumstances, this is achieved only through storytelling.
With the present silos and increased screen dependency, digitalisation is playing an important role for all of us to stay connected with relevant audiences, customers and stakeholders. We have observed a massive shift in the modes of communication leading to newer formats. How one uses it to engage is where the sweet spot for consideration to conversion lies.
The Power Of Storytelling In Marketing
It is believed that the primary goal of marketing is to sell a product, but it is not necessarily true. Marketing allows a product/brand to engage with its audience and allow them to experience the product without necessarily buying it or give a sense of what one would experience if they actually invested. Storytelling is integral in achieving this immersive sentiment to cultivate intrigue and push to consideration and if used strategically, SALE!
Marketing storytelling best practices lets the audience understand a product in a different and intense way. This includes :
Grabbing the attention of customer in shortened attention span
Growing content types for audience’s attention
Giving a soft sell point
Why is storytelling important in marketing?
People remember stories >22x more times than facts and figures
Storytelling boosts engagement by 30%
62% of B2B marketers rated storytelling as an effective content marketing tactic.
It is vital to know the story of the product you buy. Knowing the story of how the product came about, why it was made and what will be the experience if you make the purchase will give a different perspective to the audience while considering the product. In some cases building a strong case to actually consume the end product.
A ready reckoner of following insights on the power of storytelling in business can help you devise a better content strategy
A deeper and stronger connection is built between the brand and customer
Anything with human element attracts everyone
Storytelling in marketing is just not advertising, it goes beyond that
Engagement is achieved
The vision of your brand is communicated in a pleasant way
Telling your story that is unique will take you on top of your competitors list
We here at EvolutionCo have used a Storytelling approach with our clients and one among the top brands we have worked with is HCCB, where the entire content revolves around the storytelling format. Do check out more clients we have worked with where we have used storytelling as a key content style in our works
Digital Storytelling: The Shift of Traditional Paradigm
Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.
The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to exploring life in one's own community to the search for better life, and literally, everything in between. Check out a story we create for empowering the men of Angola, Africa with the beauty brand Rox. One can observe the nuances of the story as the content was especially created to appeal to a niche audience in a way to build camaraderie and fulfill the brand’s business objectives as well.
Digital Storytelling Best Practices
When it comes to marketing answering the question WHY ? is important. Letting your audience know the story of your beginning is one among the best digital storytelling best practices.
How did your brand come into existence?
Foremost, what’s the why behind what you do?
What are the challenges you faced and the problems you looked to solve?
But before answering the above question it is important to define the WHY of your brand or business.
The second approach of your story is to make your customer the hero of your story. The business of the brand should pass on the stories of their customer. This is believed to be one of the classics of storytelling formats. Through this communication you lay a path that the customer should take inorder to succeed.
Why Storytelling Content Formats Should be on top of your 2021 content strategy?
At the very beginning of the year 2020, marketers predicted videos will be the most chosen format of telling a story. Well the prediction came true with the Pandemic. The 2020 trend of communicating short form storytelling with stories across all platforms will be on top in 2021 as well.
Having a content strategy with a digital storytelling process will add brand value. Whether you work for a B2B or B2C you content strategy should be built around creating human centered content. This will help you build trust and gain new customers.
Storytelling Trends for 2021
Here are few storytelling trends in marketing that you should be aware of for this year.
Data Driven Storytelling - It's time to explore some data with storytelling. Data Driven storytelling is prone to give a context to the audience. Brands include data in an anecdote to emphasize a problem and how their product could solve it. Providing data facts would give a sense of trust to customers.
Stories from customers - Authenticity is always craved by customers. Brands can give them through the power of storytelling in marketing and that is to ask actual product users to propel the process.
Visual Storytelling Through Videos - Visual storytelling is majorly communicating a story via videos. You can achieve several goals, including giving a unique and compelling account of events. Putting a face to the brand and letting them tell the story of a brand has always worked pretty well in marketing and it continues in 2021.
These are not the only ways of storytelling marketing that will influence your customer. But these trends would definitely aid them. For making storytelling an integral piece of your GTM Strategy for this year, reach out to our experts.