In this day and age, people have very short attention spans. Research on attention span indicates that as of 2015 the average human attention span is as short as 8.25 seconds which is much shorter than that of the goldfish!
Marketers have tried multiple tricks and techniques to take advantage of this human weakness. And one of those tricks is telling a story.
Why should you tell a story?
92% of consumers trust their peers over advertising. This goes to show that no matter how good visually your marketing is, it’s hard for people to trust them if they don’t have personal feelings or attachments to it. Thankfully, you can build emotional connections quickly with your customers by telling them a story.
Asides from the quick rapport, marketing by telling a story also bring other benefits as well. Benefits like:
It helps tell a narrative people can follow
You can even use this narrative to help your customers out in choosing whether to buy a product or not. A good example of this would be this article about guiding of buy a chromebook, where it paints a narrative from the customer’s point of view and it helps them decide whether or not to buy the product. There are 2 big advantages to doing this:
It’s easy to follow
One of the biggest reasons why marketers should do this is because it’s easy to follow. Telling the story of your brand can’t be done with just using visuals, words also matter a lot. Having the right design or choice of words will determine how easy it is to follow the story as well as the emotions that they convey.
Most products or brands will shove their ideas and tell you why you should buy said products. This seems clumsy and forced and it may even do the opposite, which is to make your customers uninterested or outright hate your product.
This is because they do this too fast, to the point where the customer doesn’t even know what the product is in the first place. You need to choose the right words at the right time and tell the story of your brand in a way that your customers will be able to understand. Then later on in the story, you can tell them the reason why they should buy your product since your customers are now hooked.
A good example of this would be this website about laptop buying guide. It has tons of bold words in order to help readers focus until the end of the article. But this isn’t all, the bolded words are strategically placed all over the article so that people can identify information that they can use right away.
You see some readers won’t even read the article from start to finish, they tend to skim the article and look for important information they can use right away. If your article is strategically bolded like the one above, it will be easier to read and easier for skimmers to use as well.
It’s a unique way of presenting things
Another good reason to do this is that it’s different or unique. People are tired of seeing the same things all the time. Most products will tell the customers the same thing, “We’re awesome, We’re better than other products, and you should buy us.”
It can be tiring from the customer’s point of view; they don’t see the reason to buy your product unless it catches their mind. You can do things differently and have customers react differently to your product. A cool new gimmick or a different way of presenting things will do.
A good example of this is adding emojis to your content. Although it might seem unprofessional, it’s very unique and it will help differentiate your product from other brands. It’s also a waste since as of 2019, there are over 3000 emojis being used in everyday life. You are handicapping yourself by not using them in your marketing content.
It humanizes your brand
Telling stories will help your customers and viewers relate to your brand more. There’s a reason why a lot of fables and children’s books tell stories to teach a lesson, that reason is relatability. Children will find it much easier to understand something when they’ve seen the lesson from a character that they can empathize with or someone whose shoes they’ve put on.
Even video games and movies can help us with this as well, although it doesn’t focus much on teaching a lesson, movies, and tv shows will tell the viewers the story, journey and struggle of the main character making viewers emphasize with them and even like or love them in the process.
You can do this with your marketing. You can tell the story of your brand or product to humanize it for your customer base. People will have a higher chance of buying products that they have an emotional connection to and humanizing them is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to do that.
According to Forbes, telling the story of your brand is a good way to make it stand out from the rest. However, you have to make sure that your story is unique and it’s not just some copy-paste or generic version of a product.
Telling a unique story will help viewers see the value in your product. Making the story relatable is also a good way to resonate with customers and you should keep this in mind if you plan to market your product via a story.
Moreover, telling a story and raising brand awareness is essential for all the brands, no matter the sphere they operate in. The Healthcare industry is a very good example. To bridge the gap between patients and medical practice, do not hesitate to turn to a healthcare marketing agency.
Lastly, the story doesn’t have to be about the brand or product itself because it will severely limit what you can do. The story can be about a person or group of people as well, in fact, this will make it more relatable since people will have an easier time relating with a person rather than an inanimate object. Also, if you don’t have enough time you can always check virtual assistant services to help you.
Telling a story alone won’t work
Even though telling a story is very effective in having your customers relate to your product it won’t always work. Sometimes it can backfire and sabotage your marketing effort in the process. This is why it’s very important that you do it properly and ensure that your story is factually true.
Conclusion
Using a story is an effective tool in changing customers’ minds as well as their hearts when it comes to choosing to buy your product. Use them effectively but sparingly because despite being very effective, it takes more than stories to create a successful brand.