Harness the Power of Storytelling to Grow Your Brand
Storytelling is a powerful technique to engage followers and build brands. If your brand can effectively use storytelling, you can transform how people see your business. Customers are no longer customers. They are invested in your story.
“For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.” Leo Widrich – Buffer
Storytelling is hard-wired into our brains. Neuroscience backs this up, with research finding that when we are being told a story, parts of our brain light up as though we were experiencing the story’s events. On the other hand, when we are processing cold, hard facts, only the regular language-processing parts light up.
In short, storytelling is a much more engaging process for our brains.
People don’t become fans of your business; they become followers of a specific culture, ideal, or person because the stories of that brand resonate with them. Much like the fabulous storytelling in our Netstar Case Study, which you can watch here:
But how and where do I get a story to tell my customers:
Show, Don’t Tell
Companies make a lot of statements about how great their products are, but consumers tend to need more time as they are bombarded with messages daily. They’re not going to take your word for it, especially when 50% of South Africans say that they don’t trust what they see, read, or hear in advertising. If your target audience tends to be well-educated, your job is even more challenging, with 65% of post-grads saying they don’t trust advertising.
Earned Media
What else can you do? According to a Nielsen survey, trust is earned through trusted sources through earned media. Those include:
- Recommendations from family and friends.
- Online consumer reviews.
- Mentions, shares, and reposts.
Storytelling plays a massive part in earned media; for example, with the Netstar story, we intentionally decided to show the client’s view. It makes it more relatable for the viewer as it focuses on the emotions behind the story instead of just stating the facts.
Seven out of ten people share things because they help cultivate their image or define their identity; the boring facts don’t do that, but an exciting story does. If you can tap into the uniqueness of your target audience with your accounts, you will resonate with them, transforming people from customers to loyal fans.
“Show, don’t tell” applies to reviews and recommendations too. Which ones do you find the most helpful when looking at consumer reviews? “Product X is great because it has ten widgets”, or “Product X has changed my business. Here’s what happened….”
What If I’m In A “Boring” Industry?
I know what you’re thinking. “But my product is nowhere near as sexy as the latest iPhone or celebrity-endorsed product.” Fair enough, some products may be a bit more of a creative stretch, but there are plenty of examples of businesses in unsexy industries that have nailed it with their storytelling.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Salesforce
A CRM tool only excites some people, but by introducing customer stories rather than focusing on its practical nature, Salesforce manages to go from bland to buzz.
This is a straightforward strategy which most brands could find a way to mimic; what are the true stories behind how your customers use your product? This way, Salesforce has become a driving force in the B2B community.
Ok, some people might get excited by a search engine, but usually, it’s not because of the tool itself. It’s because of the possibilities that the device opens up. Rather than simply saying, “you can search for things”, Google has brought real stories to life, such as this example showing a grandfather being able to meet his childhood friend for the first time since 1947.
Final Thoughts
Storytelling works because it is more engaging than hearing about facts, statistics, or the basic features of your product. A well-told story provokes an emotional connection which can make customers genuinely resonate with your brand.
If you want to build your tribe of loyal followers, find those stories that will impact them and show, don’t tell. Your narrative can be across any platform where your audience is and in any medium. Try blog content, video, visual storytelling, audio, or short clips on social media which pique interest.
Most importantly, be that story which you put out to your clients. Engagement will come when the interaction is genuine.