How Storytelling Can Change Your Content Marketing

Storytelling is an art. It has been an intrinsic part of what makes us human. It helps us understand others and ourselves and to feel empathy with the characters we encounter along the way.

Stories allow brands to communicate information that is memorable, engaging, and touches on the consumers’ emotions. Stories are a great connector and can be used to inspire and move the consumer to action.

A good story can help build an emotional connection to a company’s brand. They can also help build recognition and have the ability to convert consumers to evangelists.

Stories can also be an effective tool in the content marketer’s tool box.

What makes a good story?

Consumers are bombarded with a lot of information every day – from their TVs and radio, from magazines and the internet, from billboards and other advertising, and from their social media. The average American is exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 messages per day. Most consumers prefer to discover content on their own rather than to be strong-armed into consuming it.

Good storytelling is less about telling – and more about giving. Stories help the consumer feel more understood.

A good story……

1. Gets to the point. The human attention span is at an all-time low, and brands now have only 8 seconds to explain who they are and what they have to offer.

2. Is visual. Short bursts of information supplemented by pertinent visuals maximize the chance of a brand message being heard and processed.

3. Doesn’t ask for anything. They provide value to the consumer first. It provides the information they need and how they need to hear it.

4. Makes the complex simple. The simplicity of a story enables it to cut through all the noise and resonate with the consumer. They move forward in a straightforward manner toward a resolution.

5. Engages, educates and entertains. Stories that entertains and engages quickly transform a company into a group of people just like the consumer. It appeals to their rationality and helps them feel understood.

6. Sparks emotion. Stories are about real people and are so engaging that consumers feel like they have a stake in our success.

7. Talks about experiences. These stories build mindshare and helps people connect to your brand message and strategy.

Storytelling enables marketers to develop a deeper connection with the audience and to better crystalize the meaning of the brand and how it fits into consumers’ lives.

Elements of a Good Story

A story these basic, but important elements. These elements keep the story running smoothly and allow the action to develop in a logical way so that they consumer can follow.

These elements include:

• A relatable main character. Every story needs at least one character which provides a focal point for the audience and gives them someone to relate to. This is the character that consumers need to care about, empathize with, and understand.

• A conflict or journey. The core purpose of the story is conflict. It is the obstacle in the way of the main character, the challenge to overcome. It makes the experience relatable and allows you to bring across lessons you want to convey. This is the story in which sets the character in motion. It grabs the consumer’s attention from the beginning and gives them a reason to care about the character and the story going forward.

• Ending/resolution. Every story needs an end. This is the pivotal point in the narrative that tells the audience who wins the conflict. It doesn’t need to be a happy ending, but it does need to wrap up the storyline, make your point, and move the reader to a call to action.

In the digital age, we are more connected than ever before, and yet we often feel even more disconnected than before. In today’s noisy, automated world, storytelling is not only more relevant, it is important.

We forget names and faces. We forget experiences from our past lives. But a good story? We don’t forget.