As a business you want to be catching the attention of potential customers, storytelling has always been part of human culture so why not use storytelling in your marketing campaigns to engage a wider audience. Storytelling isn't just used for an entertainment purpose, it can be a powerful and persuasive marketing tool that can help turn the potential customers into buying customers. 

55% of consumers who really like a brand's narrative are more likely to buy their products (source). Therefore, showing that by having a good storyline to your video content will help you sell your product or service better than not having one would. 

Here are a few more reason why storytelling is important to your brand; 

Builds a personal connection 

Stories are usually real experiences, you are able to use your business experiences that customers are able to relate to show off the benefits of what you are selling. This will help show how your product or service can fix a problem and make the customers lives easier, this can encourage more sales if they are able to relate to the story being told. This will build a personal relationship as you are using experiences that will seem personal to them and will be helping them fix the problems they are facing. 

Storytelling will give customers the chance to understand what your brand is about, they will be able to relate to the characters or the narrative and build a deeper level of trust with the brand. By breaking the image of just selling and setting yourself apart from the competition will help give you the competitive edge your brand will need to close more sales. Building that personal connection will be a key reason as to why your product or service will be picked over other companies similar to you.

Customers usually understand better if your product or service is explained through storytelling, they will be able to gain the knowledge of what you are selling to them which will help create an understanding if they really need what you are selling. They will be able to put themselves into the stories and if they understand the scenario you have created it will help persuade them into buying your product. As stories are flexible you can take a single object and personalise the content around it, this will help every audience member and it will make them feel more a part of the brand. If the audience feels comfortable with the brand and believes in what you are selling they will more likely continue working with you.

Selling without the selling

Customers don't want aggressive marketing, hard selling isn't effective. It doesn't hold the attention of customers, whereas creating engaging stories will keep the attention of customers for longer as they will be interested in knowing where the story goes. By making your marketing campaigns tell a story will show that you are more focused on keeping your content engaging than you are selling the product. This will make audiences not feel forced into buying what you are trying to sell to them as you aren't telling them to buy you are just taking them on a journey. 

When promoting your brand through storytelling you are still selling but you are only lightly trying to convince them into buying your product or service. Sharing an experience and leaving the decision to the customer is the most important part, they will still feel as though they have the power to make the decision however if the story is good enough it would have sold the product or service to them already. Customers are always much happier to make a purchasing decision when they feel like they are the one making it, they don't want to be forced into their decision.

Humanises your brand

Deep personal stories inspire customers, stories give businesses more meaning and a sense of purpose. Showing a customer the face behind the brand will help them picture the business as more humanlike,  they are able to see the team behind the brand. This helps highlight that you're not just a name, you have people working to help the customers and people who have helped build the brand up. An authentic narrative will help give more transparency to the business, telling more meaningful stories about the company can help show who the brand really is and why customers should work with you. 

Using stories in your marketing is important, they will be able to provide trust to more customers as they will be able to see the brand as a person. Personality will help drive the story, customers trust customers, 92% of people trust their peers more than they do the traditional ads (source). You want to be giving your customers a chance to tell their stories with your brand as well as just telling the brand stories. By explaining to other customers what working with you as a brand was like will help audiences understand who they will be working with and build a stronger level of trust.

Builds emotion

Stories help trigger emotion better, if you are able to trigger emotion it will help your brand connect with your audience as it helps them feel more of a connection to the brand. Neuro associations are what links our thoughts with our feelings inside our brains, these shape what way you think, how you react emotionally and how you behave. If you are able to trigger these emotions it will help you connect with your customers on a deeper level as you are able to connect with their deeper emotions making them relate to the brand more. 

Using relatable situations and characters in your stories is the best choice. People will feel more emotion to stories if they are able to understand how the people in the video are feeling and can relate to them on a personal level. Evoking more emotion from your customer will build a better bond between your brand and your customer. Emotions your audience have with your brand will help prompt them to act or behave in a certain way, this will hopefully encourage more sales. These connections will elevate information retention as customers will remember the emotions they felt when watching your content. 

Storytelling will be used a lot more in marketing campaigns in the future as it is a powerful selling tool that doesn't make customers feel as if they are being sold to. Finding a way to make your businesses content more creative is extremely important, you want to be making sure you are keeping audiences engaged as long as possible and not losing their focus. It is able to help build a better personality around the brand as well as build a stronger emotional connection with your customer. The stronger your connection with your customer the more likely they will continue working with you as they will have a level of loyalty toward your business. 

Storytelling can move your audience to take action and create a purpose for your brand, and find out how we can help create a story for your brand by getting in touch with one of our team. 

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