People love good stories. They help your marketing audience to understand product and service concepts, because it can put itself in the place of the protagonist of the story and experience with it. As marketers, you want your client to be the main character in your story.
If you sell a program or a book based on your experience, you share your own narration, for example, the story "From Dirt to Riches". Everything was terrible, until you developed this amazing system that you put together into the program. Your story explains how your program helped you overcome obstacles, because such a story inspires people and contributes to the sales of the program.
Storytelling (storytelling) allows marketers to interact and create a closer relationship with customers, which leads to an increase in sales. This is especially true for social network marketers who need to build connections and relationships, rather than throwing them in with advertising.
Airbnb is a great example of using stories to create good customer relationships. Images and short videos on social networks are accompanied by stories about the lives of the owners who rent their homes on Airbnb.
Storytelling makes you remember. Reading a long story is easier for people than a short description of a product or business! When you recommend a restaurant, you don’t say: “There were 27 regional dishes on the menu.” Most likely, you will share a story about how you went to a restaurant for a romantic date and what a beautiful setting, delicious food and excellent service.
General stories that work for business
Stories come in different types. To effectively tell stories of business and marketing, we recommend starting with one of two common storylines: Overcoming or Quest.
Overcoming: in its simplest form, this storyline is about the struggle between good and evil, the hero and the villain. Anyone who watches superhero films is familiar with a story in which an outsider defeats a monster.
For entrepreneurs, this story is particularly relevant. If your story is about how you started your business, a low start that you have overcome can be a monster. A villain can be a problem that your customers face, and you tell how to deal with it. For a company that produces organic cosmetics, toxic ingredients can become a monster.
Facebook's algorithms are undoubtedly a monster for marketers, because their goal is for subscribers to never see your organic, free marketing messages. Therefore, when advancing in social networks, our company pays great attention to storytelling.
Visual details can enhance the feeling, so storytelling must necessarily be accompanied by at least one picture or video.
To position your business as a hero, you need a monster. If you focus only on the positive aspects of your business and do not discuss a bad alternative, you do not have the full story. When you portray your business as a perfect entity, customers doubt it, for there is nothing absolute in this world.
Quest: The quest may intersect with overcoming, but both scenes have special features. Quest history is all about a heroic journey. Examples of this story are "The Lord of the Rings", "Game of Thrones", "Alchemist" (a popular book) and "Star Wars".
In business, every entrepreneur is in some kind of search. Quest can be about becoming successful, doing good, destroying the system or something else. The quest in which you participate as an entrepreneur has an infinite storytelling potential.
For marketers who are employees of the company, the story of the quest can be about how to become a hero for your client or take him on the road to success.
By the way, unexpected and unplanned events in your business make the story even more interesting for the public.
Storytelling should attract your most loyal customers who can help you build a strong business.
How to tell a good story with a three-act structure
When you are telling a story of any type, we recommend using a three-act structure. The story with three actions should not be long. You can use this tactic to create a short video or story on Instagram.
Act 1: This act sets up your story. People call it a clue. Some marketers show a short teaser that may not pay off. However, the lead is more effective for attracting your ideal customers. She does not disclose details, but only reports on their availability.
Act 2: The second act is the basis of your content. He answers your question.
The second action also needs a conflict. Without this, your story is crumbling. To add conflict to the part related to the business, think about when things you do well are not bad, and how you overcome the problem.
Naturally, it is important to develop the skills of successful content creation in order to make your story readable.
Act 3: In this act you add the resolution and conclusion. If you read several stories from different authors on Instagram, you will notice that not everyone writes about their findings and conclusion. We ask the question: “What happened? This is the end? Is there anything else? People often feel that way when the season or the series finale didn’t satisfy them. The final series of the series Lost is a good example.
To avoid this problem in your content, make sure that you have completed it. you need to think about what you want people to do with this conclusion. Properly written 3 act should increase customer loyalty, trust and interest, as well as lead to an increase in sales.
Also, instead of / after the conclusion, you can ask the audience a question so that they themselves come to the conclusions you need.
For example, you can ask: "How are you going to move in social networks using storytelling?". In this case, do not indicate or ask you to order this service from Futureinapps.
Do not forget the cliffhangers - offers that make subscribers wait for the next post. For example: "Next week you will find out ...".
To efficiently create cliffhangers, we recommend creating content in batches.
The next time you sit down to write a lot of content for your social networks - remember this article and these wonderful tips, or just contact us for promotion!
