How to apply storytelling to marketing
What does it mean to tell stories of value for your brand
Marketing and storytelling are two words often used in the same context, but storytelling doesn't simply mean writing suitable copy and having an engaging call to action.
What it means to tell stories
Telling means generating emotions , the most powerful stimulus to which we are subject as human beings. The stories touch areas of our brain capable of activating specific mechanisms which in turn cause certain behaviors and actions.A good story, as well as being structured in the correct way, should always be able to excite the audience to which it is addressed and convey the message you want to convey in a clear, simple and immediate way.
For a company, telling a story can mean making the difference between selling their product, retaining a customer, and failing due to being overtaken by the competition. In fact, it is not uncommon for small companies, with limited means and well-packaged ideas, to overcome giants that have long been established thanks to inventiveness and originality. All these cases, which in turn serve as a case study for telling a story, told theirs first in a way that managed to make them famous.
How agencies use storytelling
The storytelling of traditional communication agencies doesn't work. You cannot entrust an office of people with the task of telling a story that only you know, unless these people know perfectly well what it means to tell, not to do marketing through storytelling.
Storytelling has become a trend, almost an implicit value of any agency and professional in the sector, when instead it is a truly unique specialty and different from other marketing expertise.
It is understandable: communication agencies have adapted to the market and customer needs, trying, at least superficially, to learn the techniques of a discipline that has everything about communication but which is not born as a marketing technique, and therefore it is naturally not possible. that it is used in a really effective way by professionals in different techniques.
To tell a story effectively it is important to rely on experts in the story, rather than in communication. People able to help a company find the story that only it can tell and package it, together with marketers, in the most suitable content possible.
4 techniques to use storytelling effectively:
Listen to your audience, your customers and your employees. No one, better than them, knows their needs and knows how to give you answers on how to satisfy them. How YOU can satisfy them.
Only you know your story, so no one can tell it like you would. Find what makes you unique and ask a professional storyteller for help who can translate your story into a successful marketing product.
The story of others is no better than yours, it has only already been told. Don't be guided by the competition, but focus on the aspects that make you truly unique and don't be afraid to be different.
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Find the most suitable means of communication: often the most effective tool is not typically the most appropriate one, but the most disruptive and alternative one. Homologating has never generated an emotional impact.
If you have a story to tell and you choose to rely on the right people to make it happen in the best way, you will be able to tell something true, authentic and memorable. And for this you will be recognized.
Only then will you sell more.
