Storytelling as a Marketing Strategy for Your Business
Since the beginning of mankind, people have been telling stories. The earliest tales were shared orally from memory or found carved or painted into stone by ancient cave dwellers. Ever since the invention of motion pictures, filmmakers have utilized the medium for storytelling. Audiences flocked to see this new medium, but soon became increasingly critical. They demanded more than simple captures from everyday life. The audiences demanded stories.
Storytelling conveys information – it accounts for the vast majority of our knowledge of history before written word – and artfully wraps this information into an organized form that is comprehensible, entertaining, and memorable. Exactly the point of most marketing campaigns.
Today, digital video still captures audiences on the web or in presentations by simply being “new”. Businesses have been employing video to convey information about their company and sell their products or services. But with video shared across TV, web, social networks, and mobile devices, it is becoming increasing difficult to stand out from the rest. Businesses that are succeeding in their marketing are getting more creative. Many are employing storytelling as their driving concept to push their message.
The art of storytelling aligns perfectly with the art of marketing. Stories are:
– Compelling
– Organized and Structured
– Informative
– Relevant
– Personal
– Memorable
– Shareable
Humans have a built in desire to share stories. With the importance put on social networking in business marketing strategy, the use of storytelling has proven to increase the chances of a video going viral.
Some Ideas
So you’re convinced storytelling is the right path for your marketing campaign – now what story do I tell? The obvious approach would be to tell the story of your company’s progression, maybe share the history of your CEO, or recount how the idea for your product came about. You can tell a story that utilizes your product or service. But you may also take a more abstract approach through a fantastical narrative that somehow winds your viewer back to your underlying message hidden within. Multi-part narrative series work really well, telling only part of the story and asking viewers to come back to hear more. This gives you multiple chances to convey your message and repeat traffic to your site.
Crafting a marketing message into story form takes planning and discipline. It is not always the first approach that comes to mind. Video was created to tell stories. The goal of storytelling is the same as marketing. Taking the extra steps to craft your message as a story will inevitably lead to more results.
The R.E.D. Team
www.rapideyedigital.com
www.rapideyedigital.com/blog
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