Content Marketing Through Storytelling
Content Creation: Let Me Tell You a Story
If you were lucky enough, like me, to have parents and grandparents who actively participated in and relished their roles in your childhood, then, you may have been thrilled by hearing a great bedtime story or two. Consider these experiences your first exposure to what we consider a powerful contemporary marketing tool – content creation.
Your tiny body tucked under the sheets. Your untamed imagination left open to explore endless possibilities. Yes, story time could make bedtime less a disliked routine and more a time to cherish.
You see, storytelling, or more accurately – great storytelling – can be a magical way to make an emotional connection. And, that is true whether you are a six year-old full of wonder, a six-figure-salaried CEO full of worry about profitability, or a simple consumer wondering which products, services or businesses are the best to pursue.
In today’s modern marketing world, storytelling, more than ever, is an invaluable tool. Storytelling is an essential content marketing strategy that powers the connection between brand and consumer and, when told effectively, a good story leaves a lasting impression and creates a memory unique to your brand.
Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization describes the formula for a good story as:
- A story is a fact
- Wrapped in emotion
- That compels us to take action
- That transforms us in some way
Remember, the facts tell, but a story sells. And, in order to compel people to take action, a story needs to focus on what people want to hear. Above all, people don’t know what they like; they like what they know. With any business you need to figure out a way to meet the needs and wants of your customers and to do so in such a compelling way that you impart both value and urgency to your customer leading to immediate action.
Rather than explaining what services you provide talk about the ways your services will make things better for your customer. Instead of listing the features of your product, explain how a customer might use that product to solve a problem or find a solution. Find the story your customer wants to hear, make it unique and tell it in a way that is memorable.
The Infographic below is a top to bottom expression of how the creation of a good story actively fuels the process of aligning your brand message to the desires of your target audience.
There are many more “stories” to tell about storytelling and how it can and should be used in your content marketing strategy. Remember this – If you can master the art of storytelling, your chances of executing an effective content marketing strategy should comes as easily as a six year-old falling asleep at the end of their favorite bedtime tale.
