Storytelling isn’t just for kids. It is a big part of our culture and what makes us human.
We grew up with stories and they are the ideal medium to help us remember important pieces of information.
This ancient form of communication and information sharing may seem pretty outdated in a day and age where we walk around with laptops and smartphones.
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Yet, there is still a place for storytelling in our lives and in business.
Stories help us make connections and remember important events and that’s exactly what makes storytelling the perfect tool in business.
We are going to go over the role storytelling can play in your business, what its strengths are, and how you can start to incorporate it into what you’re already doing.
Telling stories is a great way to have your content make more impact, create a deeper connection with your audience, and increase the conversions of your sales material.
It’s a powerful tool that you should have in your marketing tool belt.
And the best part? Storytelling is such a big part of our history and who we are, it comes naturally to most of us.
All it takes is a little practice and a few ideas to get you started and you’ll be ready to tell stories that improve your bottom line.
What is Storytelling in Business?
Storytelling is about so much more than sharing your favorite fairy tale stories with your children at bedtime.
It is a way we capture and remember human experiences and how we have retold them for centuries. There’s a reason why each culture had its bards and that Shakespeare is well remembered to this day.
We value stories and the people who make it their profession to tell them. And since the dawn of time, stories have been used in business as well.
We use them to connect our products to our audience. Stories help us see how a product or service can fit into our life.
They are a way to get past the pure facts and figures and show how a product can benefit us, how it can solve our problems, and how it can make a difference.
Stories can motivate us and inspire us in a way facts and figures can’t.
Weight loss stories are the perfect example.
Let’s say you come out with the hot new diet and your research shows that participants lose an average of 20 pounds in 6 months.
Sure, you’ll get some interest, but what if instead, you share the story of a young, overweight mom of two toddlers who loses 35 pounds and is finally able to play with them at the park.
She’s sticking to the diet, feeling and looking better and she happily shares how she’s setting a good example for her kids and plans to be around and active for them for a long time.
Isn’t that a lot more powerful and motivating than the facts and figures?
And if you can add some pictures to tell that story, all the better.
That’s what storytelling in business is all about. It’s about:
- Sharing information in a way that’s relatable and memorable
- Creating emotion and motivating your audience.
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It’s a powerful tool that’s helpful in any aspect of your business, be it reaching a larger or different target audience, getting them on your list, or closing the sale.
We’ll talk more about the power and place of storytelling in the following posts, but for now, realize that it is about more than spinning a pretty tale for your customers to get them to buy your product.
It’s about:
- Creating an experience for your customers and helping them improve their lives
- Creating loyal customers and loyal employees
- Building a lasting business
What Makes A Good Story?
A story is a particular way of compiling information in a way that makes it relatable and memorable.
A good story will sweep you up and move you right along. It will make you empathize right along with the main characters. A truly great story will transform you.
It will help change your perspective and learn something.
A story can make you think, help you make a decision, or illustrate a point in a way that’s not only easier to understand but also easy to remember.
Storytelling is a craft and a powerful strategy that you can use to entertain, capture, and influence your audience.
Why Is This Important In Business?
That’s all fine and good, but what does it have to do with your online business, you ask?
When you have the power to grab your reader’s attention and take them on a journey, you can use storytelling to help grow your online business.
Your prospects have to know, like, and trust you before they are ready to make a purchase.
The easiest way to do that is to share something about yourself, your life, and what has gotten you into this business.
You can use storytelling to show your passion for your market and illustrate how you can help them.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Storytelling is a great way to build a memorable brand. With a strong brand comes ever-growing reach and a loyal customer base that’s ready to buy from you again and again.
Think about some of your favorite household brands. There are many different carmakers out there, different companies that build washing machines or make skincare products.
Yet, somehow you’re attracted to a particular brand.
Maybe you keep going back to Volvos because they are reliable family cars. You buy Maytag washing machines because there is no doubt in your mind that they offer the highest quality product and best customer service. And you keep going back to Aveeno Skincare Products because they are all-natural and gentle on your skin.
These brands have worked long and hard to share their core stories, what makes their brand, and we automatically associate those traits with those companies. And they’ve done it mainly with storytelling.
If big brands use this strategy on a regular basis, shouldn’t you be able to make it work for you and your online business as well?
Storytelling is an important part of marketing your business because it works.
It’s worked for a long time, and it will continue to work because we have such a long history with stories.
Telling Stories With A Purpose
It isn’t just about spinning a good yarn though. Yes, you can grab your audience’s attention with any good story, but in order to make a profit, you have to tell stories with a purpose.
Before you start to tell a story you need to figure out what you want to accomplish with that story.
We will go into a lot more detail on the different ways you can incorporate stories into your online business in another post.
What’s your end goal? What do you want your audience to do at the end of the story? Is it to:
- Give your readers a chance to get to know you better?
- Entice your website visitors to sign up for your weekly newsletter?
- Convince your readers that they need your latest product?
- Show how your coaching program can help them reach a goal?
- Showcase your expertise in a particular area?
- Build your brand?
- Grow your reach via social media shares or a guest blog post?
- Get the attention of media outlets to help grow your reach?
Once you know what your end goal or your purpose is, you can craft a compelling story that helps you reach that goal.
Along the way, you’ll be entertaining your readers or listeners, leading them along on a path that will help you fulfill your purpose.
Storytelling in business only becomes powerful when you do it with a purpose, with an end goal in mind that helps you grow your reach, your customer base, and your bottom line.
This post is part of a three-part series:
- The next post is all about the Power of Storytelling. We went into detail on how to use storytelling to grow your brand, how to use it as a sales technique, and how to include it in your copywriting.
- The final and biggest post of this series is looking at various ways of How To Incorporate Storytelling in Your Business. All it takes is a little thinking and focusing on what the purpose of your stories are.
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