Did you know that there are successful brands out there whose leaders and marketers hate selling? It sounds confusing and ironic at its best, considering that the primary goal of any business to make money through sales. For most people, the idea of bothering people to convince them to buy a product or service they are not interested in is a complete turn-off. So how do you make sales without feeling guilty that you are bothering people?
The truth is that you do not have to be sleazy to sell, and that is why most brands have embraced the art of storytelling. It helps businesses establish trust and build loyalty while at the same time opening doors and connection lines with prospects. To succeed in marketing through storytelling, you must be aware of the right places to give you maximum returns. This article highlights some of the best places for marketing through storytelling.
- On social media
There is a tremendous growth of social media platforms nowadays, making social media a great place to target your customers and prospects. The best thing about marketing through storytelling is that it needs no definite beginning, end, or middle –just something that presents the significance of your brand in the life of your prospects and customers.
For instance, you can document people’s lifestyles in connection to your service and product on Instagram. Such an approach does not aim at selling your brand but presents a picture of the lifestyle the brand promotes. Sharing photos and videos in support of a lifestyle that your prospects ascribe to, or one where your brand reinforces your customers’ certain beliefs, helps build loyalty.
- In email marketing
Email marketing is a great approach that ensures information is delivered to the target’s mailbox. You can deviate from the traditional and utterly boring course of marketing by using stories. You do not have to give the features and the benefits of a product you just launched. Instead, you can create and share engaging stories around your brand.
Derek Halpern provides good examples of how marketers can and should use storytelling in email marketing and other areas of business and life. Upon launching his online course-building software, he shared email stories of how people relied on courses to grow their business.
Specifically, he was able to weave a story that included the objections and obstacles that people overcame. Reading these emails at your convenience made the experience and information seem more personal to each reader. In addition, it allowed subscribers to see the exceptional value of his product, as it related to the readers and the similar issues of the characters in the storyline, which the reader might face.
- On your blog
At times, storytelling is that simple –telling your audience a story. It could be a story about the origin of your business or anything about your customers. Some marketers use stories to give their blog posts an interesting angle. It is the same concept preachers, and teachers use to explain a given concept or subject.
You can use the same approach to fascinate your readers! The use of stories in blogging is considered a great approach to create interest, set the mood, and help the readers connect with their related experiences before you get into the details of the storyline.
- On a website’s about us page
The about-us page of your website is a great place to hook your site visitors with your brand story. Nevertheless, most business’ about – us pages are just a turn-off because they narrate everything the company does and your superiority. This page should be about your brand story and help you leave a mark on people. If anything, that’s the only way you can set yourself different from the rest. Copyblogger and Moz’s about-us are great examples of how businesses can market themselves through storytelling.
There is no limit to where you can apply the storytelling approach to market your brand. The secret is to ensure you use words, emotions, and examples that profoundly resonate with your audience. The more they “see” themselves in the storyline, the more likely they are to feel a connection with you, your brand, your solutions, and much more.
If you would like personal assistance to elevate your storytelling, speaking and presentation skills, please reach out to me, Al Jensen, at Al@NextStageCommunications.com. I specialize in transforming mere mortals into confident-storytelling Super Stars.
If you’d like a free copy of my report “How to Avoid the Three Biggest Mistakes Speakers Make,” click HERE