Scheherazade

Anyone who has ever heard the story of Scheherazade (pictured in our featured image) knows that storytelling can be a lifesaving skill. In the tale, Scheherazade was destined for beheading by a bored and vengeful King. A skilled storyteller, however, Scheherazade managed to keep herself alive for 1,001 nights by telling the King stories. At the end of 1,001 nights, the King decided to spare her life and realized, in the process, that he had actually fallen in love with her. For content marketers, the tale of Scheherazade is more than just entertaining – it’s a framework for success. Storytelling is one of the best ways for companies today to set themselves apart from the competition. Additionally, it is a fantastic way to reinforce company values and add interest to your products, goods and services. In today’s world of competitive content marketing, the only way to truly be heard is to tell a story that is better than everyone else’s. What is Storytelling In Content Marketing? For many communications professionals, storytelling may seem unrelated to business. With tools like traditional advertising and PPC ads under their belts, many marketers fail to see the value of storytelling, which is often regarded as a fanciful pastime. Storytelling can be fairytales, yes, but it can also be the process of producing a human connection through great business writing. Whether you realize it or not, there is no successful product, business or site on the web today that doesn’t utilize storytelling in its content marketing. This is because storytelling is one of the most effective ways to spike customer interest and encourage increased interaction. In order to purchase a product, a customer needs to feel a connection with that product. This only happens when they can see themselves using the product or when they fully understand what makes it special. This, in turn, only happens when the person creating the content for a given company is capable of telling a story that sucks customers in and keeps them interested. A great story transcends traditional facts and figures and evokes a strong response from customers. Additionally, telling a great story helps to create “sticky” memories that remain with customers long after the story has ended. Content marketing provides the ideal vessel for great storytelling and, when done correctly, it can easily help a company reinforce their values in the eyes of their customers. It can be difficult, however, for Type-A company mindsets to wrap their heads around the fact that something as seemingly “fluffy” as storytelling can actually help boost their business in large ways. Fortunately, we’re not making this up and the first step of telling a great story is simply finding out whether or not your story is worth telling in the first place. The 4 Types of Stories Worth Telling Whether or not you realize it, storytelling in content marketing is almost exactly like storytelling in novels or journalistic content. Stories, at their core, are archetypal and storytelling in content marketing is no different. The 4 types of stories that are worth telling in a content marketing setting are as follows: 1. The Origin Story Where did your company come from? How was it born? Was there a colossal failure that leads to success? Telling your origin story helps customers find something to relate to within your company, which in turn helps them build loyalty. Customers love a shared mindset. Take Cory’s Cookies for example. With an origin story like that, how could you resist? 2. The Product Story Why did you create the product? If you answer is “to make a bunch of money and add more consumer junk to the mainstream” you can bet you won’t be very successful. People want to know why your product is different and what inspired it. Canadian clothing manufacturer Lululemon tells their product story by including a “why we made this” segment in every product description on their website. 3. The Customer Story How has your product affected the life of your customers? Why do they love it? What do they do with it? Potential customers look to existing customer reviews as a main source of information when making purchasing decisions, which means that by including the customer story in your marketing, you can help inspire confidence in your potential clients. 4. The “What I Stand for Story” Think about Apple’s wildly successful “Think Different” campaigns. Why were they such a runaway landslide of success? Because the marketing department of that company is and has always been great at extolling the virtues of exactly what the company stands for: end-to-end integration, beautiful products, seamless software, art and technology combined into one package. As a result, Apple has an absolute cult following of people who want to stand for those things, too. Five Tips for Great Storytelling In terms of execution, storytelling for content marketing and storytelling for book writing diverge slightly. Since content marketing storytelling is designed to invoke a response from customers, it follows a different set of guidelines than novel-based storytelling does. Incorporate these 5 tips for great storytelling in your content: 1. Give the Story a Message: As is true with other sectors of marketing, it is important to know whom you’re writing to and what you want to convey. In order to create great story, begin by asking yourself about your target audience. Are they young or old? What do they care about? Where do they live? What are the values experiences and concerns that they are most likely to connect with? How much money do they make? These questions will help you hone your statements to get right to the heart of your audience. Additionally, it will help you devise a moral and construct a story your target audience will love. 2. Include Your Experiences: We’ve all heard the saying “Write what you know” and storytelling in content marketing is no difference. In order to tell a great story, you need to mine your life experiences in order … Read more