7 ways to jump on the next wave of storytelling and reinvigorate your organization’s storytelling for more successful marketing this year. Storytelling is the foundation of how companies communicate who they are in the world and what they stand for. Here are seven ways to do it.
Go Deeper
Your storytelling must go deeper to be more effective
- Most brand storytelling today is superficial and still too corporate-oriented
- The business storytelling of the future-storytelling that is successful and sustainable-must go deeper
- It needs to get vulnerable, real, and drop the perfect endings
Think Bigger
Storytelling must be bigger than the company. People make choices based on social issues.
- Companies must not only give a crap about customers, but they must also tell transparent stories about their mission and how it affects society, not just customers’ economic situations.
Solve a Need
Great B2B storytelling sells emotional and personal value, not just rational value.
- Real storytelling must solve a human need for the buyer, a person
- Google and CEB did a joint study and found that personal value had twice the weight of rational economic value in decision making
- Emotional narrative is critical to great storytelling
Get Personal
The “corporate veil” is coming down in favor of a human frame
- Great, emotional brand storytelling must be told through the lens of a person
- A specific customer, a passionate employee, or a dedicated partner
- Anchor your stories through real people
Upgrade Your Endings
Economic benefit is a terrible ending for a story
- Shallow is emotionally unsatisfying
- What users really want to know is how their personal lives will change
- Find those passions and go there
- A great ending isn’t perfect, it just has to stay simple and hones
Know Your Best Storytellers
Customers trust people like you because they know you are trustworthy
- The best storytellers are often not in the C-suite, but in service, product, or sales
- Unleashing these people will increase the credibility and scale of your storytelling efforts, which will result in increased lifetime customer values
Start Co-Creating
Customers will have an increasingly important role in credible storytelling.
