Digital marketers and copywriters are employing storytelling in their marketing campaigns as an integral part of their strategy. But can it communicate ideas and vision of a business or a brand?
Recently, storytelling has become increasingly popular to communicate important ideas. A story that consists of information, data, and logical arguments can change people’s ideology and thought process.
Storytelling has been a part of human life since ancient ages — It’s not new for human beings and has always fascinated all age groups.
If we ignore the importance of storytelling for communicating ideas, it will be a wrong move for the business.
In this article, I will talk about why storytelling is important for a business and how it can support your arguments. Stay tuned!
Why is Storytelling Important for Business Communication?
Fact-based storytelling helps businesses communicate their message to audiences and employees.
Let’s say you align all the facts in the form of a story with a little touch of emotions and psychological essence. The reader is more likely to believe these facts presented in orientation rather than in the raw form.
There are many types of storytelling; the main type used for business communication is personal storytelling. In this type, a storyteller writes a story from a single person’s perspective; he or she details all the experiences he faces through the journey and goods and bads that affected the process.
We have been listening stories since our childhood. Our ancestors did the same too. We can’t deny the fact that it’s also important for businesses. Using storytelling methods strategically in marketing campaigns will significantly boost their effectiveness.
Storytelling is effective because we build a connection with people through words. The emotional feelings and attachments work well professionally too. If the reader connects with the text, it increases the chances of the text’s success rate.
Whether you’re about to launch an email marketing campaign, social media ad, or a website copy, every move will rely on how good you connect with people. If the writing’s medium is storytelling, you’ll surely hit the mark.
Touching someone’s brain on an emotional and psychological level creates more impact, eventually getting you better results. The transformation happens, and the story starts generating impact through the deeply-rooted receptivity.
How Storytelling Affects the Listener’s Brain?
As a listener, you would want to hear something that makes sense. Stories are the most effective type of creative writing that makes the most sense to us as human beings.
Stories inspire — Stories motivate listeners to take action. It compels to think ‘If someone can do it, why can’t I?’
By listening to stories, our brains start to think unique questions, and subconsciously tries to find the answers.
How Can Storytelling Grab a Listener’s Attention?
The job of a storyteller is to overcome common blocks of listening by grabbing the attention immediately. Is it possible, though? Yes, it is.
By specifying interesting details, using proper dialogues, and creating inspiring characters, a storyteller can bring life to a story. Consider watching a movie or reading a novel; do we get inspired by the characters and storyline? The same is the case with storytelling in business communication.
Vague stories fade away too soon, but stories having immense details tend to be long lasting. We might forget the story’s small details, but we remember the overall lesson learnt from the storyline forever.
Stating relevant facts through stories is an excellent idea of grabbing someone’s attention. The facts are more likely to be believed even if they aren’t backed up with correct data. It’s just how the human brain works.
This is how you can break the listening blocks of people through storytelling.
How Can You Communicate Ideas With Storytelling?
Let’s talk about some unique storytelling tips that will help you communicate ideas better.
1. Back-Up Your Story With a Character
Even if your facts and information are correct, the audience needs a reliable source to believe in. They might believe your message, but it will not be effective enough for them to take action.
The only way for that is by introducing a story character at the very beginning of your script. The character should have the same traits and problems to the reader for connecting better. Your audience will sympathize with the character or will relate to him or her — It’s a win-win situation in both conditions for you.
2. Solve a Problem
Now that you have a selected a character give him a problem and let him kneel because of the burden. This will make the audience more likely to watch your ad or read your text to the end.
Create a certain amount of suspense (to make the audience think about how the character will solve the problem.)
3. Introduce the Solution
Don’t stretch the problem too much throughout the story. The central theme of your storytelling should remain focused on the actual solution of the problem.
After getting the audience’s trust by introducing a character and getting attention by showing a problem, it’s time to solve it when the audience is eager to know whether the problem will be fixed.
This doesn’t mean that the story must always end on a happy note — Sometimes, you will have to show the consequences of not taking action for a particular problem by displaying a character’s bad state.
4. Focus Small Elements of the Stories
Your stories may be small, but they should complete a bigger picture. Finishing it by offering the solution is not enough. The story has to impact the brains of listeners. As a storyteller, your main task is to connect with people through words.
Neither it’s necessary to match every detail of the character to the listener’s, nor it’s possible. But the audience should connect with the overall story’s message.
Conclusion
People have just started adopting storytelling for their marketing strategies. Stories worth more than children’s narrations and the world is realizing it.
What storytelling techniques do you use in your writing?
