Storytelling: what it is and how to create stories that sell

Every day we receive a lot of information, which we either easily and quickly remember, or it simply passes by. Just remember your studies at school or university – you still remember some teachers and remember the interesting stories they told, while others are hard to even name.

The reason is that vivid examples from life, a lively style of presenting information and the ability to engage the audience with the help of storytelling as if each listener was present exactly where this or that event from your story happened is a great art. Some have it intuitively, while others have to learn. However, nothing is impossible if there is really a desire.

Storytelling, the art of telling exciting stories, came and went marketing, and is an integral part of it in order to keep the attention of potential customers and achieve the ultimate goal in the form of making a profit. So, let’s analyze in this article what storytelling is, how to master it and use it correctly to increase sales.

What is storytelling?

So, storytelling is the ability to sell through stories. A mandatory component of effective storytelling is the emotions that the reader or listener is immersed in. The method evokes emotions that can dramatically change each other, and usually works best on a female audience. A vivid example of how our brain works in this direction are TV series, each series of which leaves open the question of how the situation will be resolved. And I want to watch new and new series to find out the end of the story.

Any story becomes exciting thanks to the following emotions, which are understandable to everyone:

• love, care and family values;
• admiration for other people’s achievements, inventions, strength, ability for self-development;
• patriotism;
• getting pleasure from anything.

Storytelling is used in marketing to create advertisements in various formats: videos, photos, blog texts or sales articles. Stories force you to watch and read to the end, because nothing can beat human curiosity – we just need to know how the adventure ended, the conversation of the characters, and so on.

Basic rules of storytelling, types and tips

Before you start writing storytelling for a video clip, you should do some research:

• the market, i.e., note the current trends in your niche and study the working advertising of competitors;
• the audience to which this particular advertisement should affect; a detailed understanding of the potential client’s interests, pains, desires, marital status and financial capabilities will give an understanding of what emotions need to be given to the consumer in order to push him to buy;
• product promotion path – how, where the potential customer sees the advertisement, what he does next and how he comes to the decision to buy; it is ideal to conduct a customer survey to look at your product or brand from a different angle and be able to improve it.

Using the storytelling method, it is important to turn on all your imagination and add to the text not ordinary facts about the product, but, for example, an incredible story of its creation and modifications.

The consumer himself learns and remembers the technical characteristics of the product if the storytelling captivates and evokes pleasant memories and positive emotions.

Basic components of storytelling in marketing

There are only three components to a good selling story.

1. A well thought out idea. The essence of the story should be clearly understood both by the person who writes it and by the person who will read it or look at the photo, picture or video. It is unnecessary to play hide-and-seek here, because only famous brands can afford such a format.

Imagine and describe exactly what emotions your potential client needs, and what you will do to evoke them. Next, consider how the product will be demonstrated. For example, there is a very interesting advertisement used to sell watches. And looking at each such photo, everything becomes clear to the consumer even without words.

But here the marketers came from the side of the history of flights into space, which is very unusual and interesting. The design is impressive.

2. The presence of a plot and a main character. For example, a very revealing advertisement for Nike sneakers with an exciting and in some places unexpected plot that you want to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUor824a74

3. The use of such artistic techniques as allegory or metaphors in storytelling will be persistently associated with a product or brand. That is, your client should immediately think that the solution to his problem is in your product.

Types of storytelling that sell

It doesn’t matter what form the advertisement will take later, the main thing is to create the story itself. And although many people now like to watch videos, there remains a large part of those who like to read. So let’s talk about the most popular techniques or types of storytelling and how to write storytelling.

1. The hero’s journey or “who am I?”

This is a story to build trust, a story about the path taken, for example, by the founder of a company to realize his dream, to create a company. The end point is a happy end, but a climax and a logical, clear presentation of events are mandatory. Such a story can be divided into conditional series and used in social networks.

2. Mistakes to learn

It is a pool of stories that are similar to the hero’s journey, but there will be no happy ending. Their storytelling is about obstacles, failures in business or even the closing of a project, or maybe several. And, of course, about the conclusions made by the hero of the story. It’s a bit strange, but people quite often react to the failures of others and give feedback. This story format gives the effect of a quick emotional rapprochement with the audience.

3. A game of contrast

For storytelling, one real story from the entrepreneur’s experience is used, and the other is fictional. Contrast comes from comparison.

A 25-year-old girl, let’s call her Kateryna, cannot get rid of the problem of age spots on her face. This causes her a lot of discomfort in life – lack of self-confidence does not allow her to find a higher-paying job, to meet the same guy she has liked for a long time, to buy a red dress from a shop window, which she looks at every day when she comes home from work.

One day, Kateryna’s best friend called and said that she could not go to her dermatologist and offered to go instead, because the appointment was already paid for. The consultant advises Kateryna to use care cosmetics of a well-known brand, which has proven effectiveness and a pleasant price. She agrees, because she is tired of such a life and is finally emotionally ready for improvement.

After several months of using the cosmetics, she notices that her skin is getting much better, finally buys a red dress from the shop window and goes to a cafe, where the same guy approaches her. Happy and self-confident as never before, the girl finds her dream job and lives the life she dreamed of since childhood.

But just imagine, all this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the incident with a friend and the care cosmetics that really helped improve the condition of the skin! Kateryna would go to a low-paid job every day, which annoys her, she was ashamed of her appearance and spent all weekends at home, watching TV series. And her cheerful, full of adventure and love youth would pass by.

Don’t waste precious life time because of skin problems that can be eliminated in a few months of using complex care against age spots!

Such storytelling should make the reader think: “Oh, I have very similar problems, but this Kateryna is even a little worse! But these tools helped her. Must try. I will buy it today!”.

4. Everything about everything

The trend today is business transparency at every stage. Show the client that you have nothing to hide and that your product is really worth paying attention to – tell about the goals and mission of the business, production, packaging, delivery and more. This type of storytelling will show that you are “yours” and that your company, brand can be trusted and products can be bought.

5. First the end

The story begins with the final point of the story, the finale. And the meaning of this information, which the consumer received immediately, is revealed sequentially. The reader usually doesn’t understand almost anything at first, but that’s why it’s interesting, so you want to finish the story telling to get an explanation.

6. Useful content in a new format

“TOP-10” and step-by-step instructions are relevant, but not always. If we want to capture attention for a long time, it is worth trying to reformat this information into storytelling and tell how exactly you learned to do these step-by-step actions to achieve your result. The WOW effect is guaranteed!

Where to get stories: searching for ideas

Deciphering the term storytelling, we have already talked about the emotions that attract attention the most. They are the same endless source of ideas about what you can write about, create pictures and advertising videos that will sell.

For example, let’s consider some options, what each emotion can be associated with, and what to advertise:

• love is small and large gifts, jewelry, flowers, a bracelet or a keyring with inscriptions;
• taking care of loved ones – buying silk bed linen, delicious tea, a subscription to a massage, swimming pool or gym;
• family and family values ​​– an offer to buy small things for the home, quality dishes, ecological detergents, safe cars, toys for children’s development, things for relaxing in nature with the family (table and chairs, blankets, barbecue, grills, games and other);
• admiration of other people – this is, for example, about advertising of sports shoes and clothes by famous athletes, and children’s nutrition – by media pediatricians;
• satisfaction – we have long been forced to constantly buy something in order to feel happy: from figurines for the table and food to booking tours to the sea and buying houses;
• patriotism – unfortunately, for today it is, first of all, powerful video messages of the military with a call to stand up for the defense of the state, which motivate new recruits.

How does it work? Advertising creators use storytelling and show: if you love and want to please your significant other, give jewelry and get an insanely pleasant reaction, hugs and kisses in return. You have a family and value it – do everything for their comfort and happiness. If you want victory, join the army, because without you there is no way. All these stories have one thing in common – as a result of the actions proposed in the advertisement, the consumer will be “in the plus”, will receive moral satisfaction and an improvement in the standard of living.

Examples of successful storytelling

In order for textual storytelling to be impressive, you need as many details as possible that bring the characters to life. In this way, there is a maximum of confidence in the product offered later. And also follow a simple pyramid of information, which includes only 3 points that are gradually revealed in the text:

Statement (statement) – Argumentation – Conclusion (re-statement)

Here is an example of a short story telling from Instagram about the creation of the company and its products – card games with various questions that you can ask your loved one, friends, colleagues and acquaintances, and thus become closer to each other. This is a simple, but at the same time valuable for humanity business idea touches the soul.

Opening the curtain on the creation of Memo Games, which have long since become more than just games. We pride ourselves on creating tools that help improve relationships between people. This is what inspires us.

According to a Harvard study that lasted more than 75 years, it can be understood that:

🧷COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING.

This is what makes us truly happy. People. Team. Family. friends Beloved

Our mission: to bring to life products that help people in more than 100 countries spend their leisure time having fun and reminding them that

🧷RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PEOPLE ARE THE GREATEST VALUE.

Thank you for staying with us and supporting our values ​​❤️

Visual storytelling makes the story voluminous, adds flavor. Here, it is more important to think through the details of a picture or photo before it is created. Here are examples of incredible visual advertising.

To summarize

Storytelling takes marketing to a new level and fits almost any niche. It is only important to determine the values, pains and dreams of your target audience – then the created story will help develop considerable trust in the brand and leave far behind those competitors who do not yet use this powerful tool.

Make your business open to every buyer, tell funny and sad stories from everyday company, open up to customers from a new side every time and don’t be afraid to experiment. The result of using storytelling will be constantly growing sales and sincere recommendations of your product to friends and acquaintances.

Olha Tyshchenko

Editor

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