Storytelling Trends for Marketing Your Business

More than ever, it is becoming essential for businesses and brand owners to invest in a narrative that helps them sell. According to recent research, brands that tell compelling brand stories are likely to have a 20% increase in their brand value.

However, this is not achievable without effective business and marketing plans in place. To implement and maintain these plans, you need to stay on top of 

The needs of consumers change over time, as they move through the different stages of life. When this happens, their buying behaviours also change. Marketers and business owners need to anticipate the customer’s next buying stage, as well as the most common needs within each stage. This can be mapped out for short-term changes, such as living in a college dorm. Long-term changes are a little more obvious and easier to anticipate, such as getting married or having a baby. Flexible and timely approaches such as brand storytelling, enables businesses and consumers to make the most of the storytelling opportunities.

1. Customer-led storytelling

Review and product-rating sites are popping up everywhere. Consumers are more likely than ever to share their feelings, opinions, and thoughts about their latest buying experience with their circle of friends. In fact, research shows that more than 91% of individuals trust information from their peers, rather than directly from mainstream media. For marketers this implies that they offer a platform for consumers to tell their stories. Customer-generated stories can help improve brand engagement, establish trust, and bring brand attention to a broader audience.

2. Data-driven storytelling

Businesses are incorporating more data into their storytelling plans and marketing campaigns. Providing meaningful info and examples, along with data statistics that are relevant to the story, adds an element of authority and of accuracy. Business brands benefit by creating engaging, data-driven stories, which intrigue readers and tend to draw the attention of potential consumers. Stories, which discuss solutions to a problem, also benefit by making the story stand out from similar content.

3. Mini-ads

Traditional advertising is facing a tough time in the wake of digital marketing. As a result, many businesses want more inventive, fresh ways to connect with customers as well as deliver their messages effectively. Mini-video ads are super options for businesses that want to increase brand/logo recognition. While video marketing is extremely popular, audience attention spans are short. Make sure your videos match your viewers’ attention span to the purpose/goal of the content.

Facebook targets marketers with six-second ads and YouTube tried out the ‘Six Second Story Challenge’. If your media isn’t viewed to the end, consider using mini-ad stories to drive engagement with an overwhelmed audience.

4. Immersive storytelling

Businesses are increasingly connecting with their prospects and customers through Virtual Reality (VR), through which brands can pass information to their audience. With Pokémon Go having recorded an unfathomable success (being downloaded more than 65 million times by US users) and IBM planning to a launch a new VR app, there is no doubt that brand storytelling has a different future; one full of inspiration, engagement, and education. 

Business will likely, earn more leads by using VR to immerse their target audience in experiences centred on their story. Brand storytelling, at its core, is a powerful way to develop a higher level of emotional-engagement with your target audience. 

As technology changes and advances, consumer needs and behaviours also change. It becomes necessary to find new ways to tell your brand story to your prospects and consumers, in ways that guarantee you maximum results. The bottom line is that only the focused, emotionally stimulating and an exciting brand narrative is likely to get you the results you envision.