The power of storytelling in digital marketing

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Table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. Why does your brand need a story?
• It helps your buyers to relate.
• The feeling of “I am finally understand”.
• Narrative over data.
• We are not rational creatures.
3. How should you build up a story for your brand?
• Identify the core story.
• The introduction of Pringles
• Create your personas.
• Make the messages short but memorable.
• Drive the message to your potential buyers.
4. Conclusion

1. Introduction

Stories have always accompanied humanity throughout history. In the Stone Age, humans depicted their daily lives on cave walls. In the Middle Ages, kings had storywriters to picture them as the saviour of the poor or the whole country.

Nowadays, almost 70% of the world's population has access to the internet and uses it from time to time. Browsing the internet, searching for websites, and even buying products have become everyday phenomena in Europe, East Asia, and North America, but citizens of other regions have also started to do the same.

That’s why you need to take advantage of storytelling in digital marketing. In this article, we will present how a good story overwrites clear data, and what you should do to unleash the power of storytelling on your website!

2. Why does your brand need a story?

In this section, we will discuss the strengths of attaching a story to your website.

a. It helps your buyers to relate.

Through a story, a potential buyer can read your personal traits. How funny you are, how honest, or modest. They can understand you. They can get to know you personally. And customers are more likely to buy from someone they know or adore.

These can enhance their trust and loyalty. And we should all know that acquiring a new customer costs five to seven times more than convincing a loyal one.

b. The feeling of “I am finally understand”

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Sometimes, we don’t understand things at first glance. This can happen when the topic is too complex or we lack the core information to decode the message.

You may have a website that sells a mechanical gadget to solve a niche problem. You can describe how the gadget works, use mechanical phrases to demonstrate your knowledge, or give your potential buyers the proper message. However, the readers may require something else if your target market is not business-to-business.

They want a story! A real-life example of when the gadget was useful and how it saved your day. Practical examples that help the readers understand its value.

“I don’t want to be stuck in that same situation that you once were. I would rather buy the product.” Many would think the same.

c. Narrative over data

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A—sometimes considered negative—human behaviour is that we tend to believe more in stories than in certified numbers and data. Many political campaigns have been built upon this recognition, even by oppressive tyrannies. Now, we don’t say that you should always use narratives over data because, in the long term, that will definitely cause big troubles.

Instead, try to use them simultaneously. For one buyer persona, which contains people who are more into your niche and industry, show the data first and then the narrative if they need it. For another buyer persona, with less knowledge of the given topic, show the narrative first and then the data to certify your assumptions.

d. We are not rational creatures.

It is very deeply attached to the last fact. Tversky and Kahneman, two of the most prominent members of behavioural economics, stated in Prospect Theory that humans do not always think rationally.
Since its publication, this theory has determined the use of marketing, shop structure, and many other factors. A story can also affect us emotionally instead of rationally.

“Even if I don’t want to spend on my cats for entertainment, look at this climbing wall and how happy those cats are. We should relocate our budget to this”. It is an everyday scenario that we described, although we can replace the climbing wall with other objects. We don’t decide rationally, but who knows, maybe that’s why we become happy often.

3. How should you build up a story for your brand?

In this part of the article, we will describe the structure of storytelling. We will focus on and lead you through a brand story that should be born on the same day as the brand.

Of course, storytelling can be used in minor ways, such as in some of your blog stories, marketing campaigns, or PR activity. But if you establish it effectively, everything will connect to and attach to your core story.

a. Identify the core story

Your brand’s tone and voice can determine many things. In what way can you call your clients? What words can you use in marketing campaigns? How can you call your brand, or what domain name should you choose in a domain name registration process?

These all come from the created story.

b. The introduction of Pringles

In 1968, chips were nothing like today: all chip producers strived to rely on the general flavours (salt, cheese, garlic), with the general package, and the chip format. However, buyers were nothing but happy: they believed that the chips broke too easily and that they wanted new, revolutionary flavours.
Pringles entered the market with a friendly, funny, and cheerful tone. Their logo became a character with all these positive characteristics: a head with a cute moustache, or a funny, young, adventurous guy who loves being different from the average. A guy who makes everybody laugh but can be serious in certain circumstances. In 2006, they even devised a name for this figure: Julius Pringle.
The success of Julius Pringle is not rocket science but a suitable attachment to well-established core values, and a story that most of us have wanted to be part of.

c. Create your personas

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Your core values need to resonate with your potential buyer's personal traits. For example, if they are lazy but love humorous content, make fun of their laziness.

However, your potential buyers can be distinguished into groups. Even if they have many things in common, they have some differences. Detect these and make personas of the given groups. This will help you more easily understand what different buyers need and how you can target them simultaneously.

d. Make the messages short but memorable.

A brand’s story doesn’t need to be a script for a blockbuster. You don’t need to create a Hollywood classic. The less complex your story is, the better results you can get. But as you may have realised when writing short history essays for your school leaving exam, crafting a brief, memorable message can be even more challenging than a long, complex one.

We advise highlighting key values you want to include in your story and using AI tools to generate ideas that fulfil the given criteria. Sort them out, and complete the best story with your ideas.

e. Drive the message to your potential buyers.

When the story is ready, there’s little left to make it public. However, this is also a complex task. Should I use BTL or ATL options? What platform should I focus on? What ad format would make the best return on investment? These questions are all marketing-related, and you'd better search for a marketing agency to release every inch of your potential.

4. Conclusion

In this article, we introduced you to the power of storytelling and why it can be even more potent than certified data.

A story alone can not make your company great without a proper service or a quality product, but it can help you become more successful. It’s like buying an amplifier for your electric guitar: it makes you louder and more remarkable!