Captivating your audience - storytelling in marketing
~A phrase that gets thrown around the digital marketing space like a hot potato, Storytelling Marketing actually has a place and serves a purpose.
Even the most boring of industries can hook their potential customers/clients in by telling their brand story, and using stories in marketing.
Confused? Dw, I got you.
IT’S NOT AS HARD AS IT SEEMS, I PROMISE.
I’m not here to tell you to get on the internet and start waffling on about how as a child you had a dream of being an entrepreneur and now you’re living that amazing dream and you’d like to thank your family for standing by your side and helping you achieve your goals….
Bored yet? Yeah. So the basics of using storytelling in marketing are simple:
1. Hook them in.
2. Share some relateable insight in the body.
3. Have a conclusion (and ALWAYS a CTA.)
Let’s dive deeper!
IDENTIFY THE PURPOSE OF THE STORY
You’ll need to know what you’re trying to achieve with any marketing content - whether you’re using storytelling or not.
Are you trying to build trust? Offering value? Or trying to sell?
Once you’ve established that, you need to consider one of the most important things (in business in general, not just marketing) - who are you talking to? Knowing your audience is imperative.
Remember, if you don’t know who you’re talking to, you’re talking to nobody.
Now: Identify the problem your audience has, and how you can offer a solution. My clients regularly struggle with not knowing what to say when creating content - I’m offering a solution to that, by breaking down a writing formula for you guys here. See. Like that.
BREAK IT DOWN
It’s kind of like in school essay writing, where you’re expected to have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
Only we’re massively condensing that when it comes to socials, or ad copy. A blog should be around 800 words.
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You need a scroll-stopping headline/title - or hook.
Take your 50-word introduction and throw it in the rubbish bin. Okay maybe not that extreme, but try and compress your heading into a few words that will pique your readers interest and make them want to keep reading.
Epic copywriter Katie Pannell uses a quirky and creative method for this called Chile Lime.
In short, she suggests throwing a totally random heading at the start of a post, or in your bio. Random, yes - pointless, not in the slightest. What you’re doing here is creating a talking point and grabbing attention - a great hook, when used carefully!
Conclude strong - don’t forget the CTA.
Reaffirm your expertise by summarising the outcome of your story.
Then, add your call to action - is it sign up, buy now, leave a comment or review, or share your own story?
CTAs don’t need the fluffy language - they should be clear and directive. Tell those customers what to do. Be a bit bossy. It’s okay!
Here’s an epic example of a great story, with a clear call to action, from Jasmine Williams Media.
And here’s one of mine - the purpose of this post was to build trust and engagement, by showing a little vulnerability. Feel free to jump into the comments and tell me your story!
Identify that problem, and offer that solution.
The body of your message/caption/story. The bulky bit. Wordy.
Using emotive and relatable language, you want to weave your solution into this section.
This is where it comes back to knowing your audience - because ‘relateable’ is relative. If your audience is 18-25 yr olds who love TikTok, you’ll use different language to someone targeting 50+ homeowners looking to spruce up their interior decor.
The key here is to write how you speak.
Break the stale, sterile grammar rules just a little (hello, oxford commas!) so that when your content is read, it feels real.
Read it out loud a couple of times to check the flow.
By now, your readers should be starting to realise that they need your product in their lives - yesterday.
YOU ARE THE EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD
Don’t be shy about that.
Give the storytelling method a go next time you’re writing some content - be sure to tag me so I can cheer you on!
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