How To Integrate Storytelling Into Your Marketing Strategy
Storytelling as a means of building brand is a recent trend that’s becoming increasingly popular as competitors in a crowded marketplace try to gain an extra edge. Storytelling is also fun. It resonates with the audience and connects with them in a way that bombarding them with the usual marketing messages never could.
Storytelling can become an integral part of your marketing strategy, because stories are all around us and everyone loves a good story, especially one with tension, suspense, and a happy ending or resolution to the problem.
Website
Your website should tell your story. Why are you in business? What is your mission? And how do your products and services make the world a better place?
Blog
A blog can be your entire website, or a section of it in which you tell stories about your products, services and successes. You can talk about what’s new in your company, or tie in what you do to important current events. A blog is like the friendly face of a business, or a corporate website. Get your staff to contribute as well, sharing their stories as to why they are passionate about what they do.
Testimonials
Testimonials are customer stories. They are part review and part transformational feel good story. Their life was like X until they started using Y and now it is like Z. Post your most glowing testimonials on your site or blog and encourage customers to share them on social media. Be sure to share them as well on your networks.
Social Media
In addition to sharing testimonials on social media, create your own stories. Divide up the story into parts as well, to keep people reading. Ads on Facebook can also allow your story to unfold in an interesting way online.
All supporting media
With so much content online these days, the content that is of most interest to readers is often the content that has media with it, such as a good image, video, infographic, and so on. Use these tools to support your story. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an infographic or video can be worth tens of thousands and support your story in a vivid way that no mere words ever could. Images of the product, and happy people using it, for example, will be far more effective than even the best sales letter or press release. In fact, studies have shown that a press release with images is far more likely to get picked up than one that doesn’t have them.
Press Releases
Press releases enable you to tell your story exactly on your own terms. It should be newsworthy, interesting, command attention, and give some background on who you are as a business or brand, and what your mission is.
Offline marketing
Offline marketing might include postcard marketing, QR codes to lead to an online page, flyers, classified ads and more. Think of a ‘hook’ or shorthand for your business that gives your target audience a good idea of the story behind your brand. Companies that are passionate, helpful and motivated by more than money will always come out the winner.
Standardize your stories and use them as part of an integrated marketing plan and see what a difference it can make to your brand reach and sales.
Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278
