How Storytelling Drives Modern Business

You may have noticed that every major social media platform has some form of “Stories” these days as an added feature. The commonality is no mistake. All of the big brands have done their homework and they know that consumers best respond to storytelling. Snapchat alone sees 500 million daily active Stories users. So, clearly, the strategy is working.

This is a cohesive narrative that combines the emotions and facts that your brand evokes. In modern business, you can’t just tell someone why they should buy your product or service. You must arouse an emotion in them that speaks of value.

Sharing the story behind your business, why it exists, and what you are doing is a stellar start to getting consumers interested. Here are a few ways in which storytelling is driving modern business:

Recollection

Telling consumers the story behind your brand ties value to your message. It’s not enough to simply sell something, you must possess the ability to talk about it. Modern consumers are very curious and well-informed. They don’t need to be sold to.

Telling a story increases the ability of people to recollect a brand. It’s not just recalling a product or service, but an entire reason for existing. It answers the “why” for people and that’s important. It makes it easier to remember.

Community Building

When you tell stories that your audience can relate to, it also connects people. It allows your customers (or prospects) to relate to each other. These interrelationships form the basis of your community and is how community building happens. The more stories you tell that hit a home run, the easier it will be to build a community around your message.

Relevance

Storytelling creates relevance. You’re not just trying to sell someone something. And if they can’t relate to the story, perhaps they were not a good fit as a customer. In a sense, it can weed out poor leads. Marketing may not always hit the mark when it comes to understanding the audience, but a detailed story is something people can apply to their own lives.

Authenticity

Storytelling should be used to create deeper emotional connections. That’s the entire point. That’s why, if a brand does go this route, the story should always be authentic. It may not have to be true, but it must always invoke the intended emotion. If consumers feel they are being lied to or cheated, storytelling could backfire. The best practice is to always start with a story that is true. Like how your business began and the early challenges faced.

Increases Loyalty

Storytelling helps your audience get to know, trust, and like your brand. When an audience is involved in what you do as a business, they feel a part of the process. How could this not create a sense of loyalty when people feel they have an “in”? It’s setting yourself up as a friend first, business second.

This is about turning your brand into an experience. Something people can consume in addition to a product or service. Give people something more. Storytelling makes the difference between simply gathering people you sell to or creating a tribe of loyal customers who network and share in the joy of your brand.

Storytelling offers your audience values, emotions, thoughts, and ideas to consider outside of your basic offering. It adds many layers to your business and humanizes efforts. Storytelling brings you closer to the people you are selling to and who wouldn’t want that? The better you know your customer the easier it is to market, develop products, and ultimately, service them to satisfaction.