Sell Stories Not the Products — lauded in boardroom meetings and low-keyed in cubicles.
90% of founders yearn for a brand voice that connects their product or service to their customers. Only 1% stands firm to achieve it.
Why is it backbreaking to bring storytelling to a plan?
- Lack of theoretical understanding
- So could not extract the operational qualities from it
- Betting blindly on transactional goals with storytelling as a strategy
- Improper or mismatched resources to perform the storytelling operations
Theoretical Definition
The first page of Google SERP brings the following definitions of storytelling.
Did you notice the word narrative is in bold?
It is the common word with every definition I read on the first page. So, storytelling is the strategy involved in content creation. It comes after the TG analysis, market research, positioning framework, and distribution strategy.
The inference is that storytelling is a choice to communicate your marketing communication goals, not the marketing goals.
Ideally, the marketing communication goal evokes the emotion or a response from your TG. It is the micro-steps in your marketing goals.
I have heard people telling me, “storytelling for the B2B industry?”
Maybe, maybe not.
But if you look at the most successful content, there is always a story. Video ads have been the most effective and easy way to use the storytelling strategy. In blogs, they are like salt, not visible but embedded strategically (like in the beginning, under the benefits section, or at the conclusion). Audio content also effortlessly uses storytelling tactics.
RELATED: Difference between marketing and marketing communication
What can storytelling do or should do?
My friend from Mexico used to brag about her Christmas. She showed family pictures of Christmas.
She explained to me why the picture was memorable.
“My Abuela knits this sweater. She uses this special needle that is passed down to females in our family. It is like 8 generations of practice. Every Christmas, we wear the sweater knitted by our Abuela and click a picture under the tree. Specifically, the girls get red, and the boys get green scarves. Also, we open presents after we wear our special sweaters. This is a custom we have been following every year, and this year I missed it because I could not fly down there. Airlines had to ruin my Christmas”
Did you picture a family sitting in red and green under a Christmas tree or beside a firework?
So, that is the power we should leverage from storytelling.
Let’s get into how we can craft such stories using the top 5 elements of storytelling.
I have taken the elements and correlated them against the marketing mix.
Elements Of Storytelling
Hero vs Buyer Persona
I call him the “hero of the story”.
B2B or B2C, the buyer is the hero.
What does your hero have?
An undying passion, irrational problems, a villain to defeat, a desire for straightforward answers, and fancies for success.
If you notice closely, I described a hero with adjectives.
Why?
Adjectives translate emotions, and emotions trigger a purchase.
Example: Vinay is a digital marketer with strong marketing skills. He is hardworking with a lot of passion for digital marketing trends. Not a successful lad in materialism, but aspiring to establish himself in the industry to prove his knowledge. Apart from his career goals, there is a real-life waiting for him at the house to keep his life going.
Plot vs Pain points
There is a definite emotional trigger behind every sale. It arises from a pain point and paints a plot for our narrative. Also, the pain point varies accordingly in the buyer’s journey. At the TOFU & MOFU, the pain point can be functionality and at the BOFU it can be price, expense, etc.,
Example: Recently Vinay lost his star performer award and incentive. He worked hard to lower the CPA but failed to track them. He could not present and prove his efforts.
His pain point here is the inability to track his efforts. The emotion behind the pain point is “I worked hard but still not rewarded yet”
Dialogue vs Messaging
The one where you can plunge a plethora of emotions into your prospect’s minds.
From choosing the words to colors, this is the most crucial element and should never be copied. Understand your customer from their shoes because you are writing to them.
Please don’t “copy” but “Copywrite”.
Example: Our passionate digital marketer began his google hunt. Since he is at the TOFU, he would rely on informational content rather than a transactional one. His SERP page poured options, but he smiled on the “While you work hard, we track your hard work: Campaign Manager”
The Yoda Vs Your Brand
This is my favorite part.
Every hero needs a mentor. The Chanakya to Chandragupta and Yoda to Kenobi. You should be the Yoda that your hero is looking for.
Example: Vinay could not contain his happiness because he found a campaign manager who understood his pain.
Why does Vinay believe in the Campaign Manager?
They support marketers through guided learning. A close-knitted community from the Campaign Manager recognizes the member’s talents and achievements. So Campaign manager has placed themselves as successful Yoda under Vinay’s eyes.
The conflict Vs sales strategy
A story without a twist is eating idly without sambhar-chutney. You got to give something to smack the lips. Conflicts drive the story. It is the psychological entity that wires our brain to remember the story for a very long time.
While pain points might sound like your conflict, it is not quite true. A pain point is something that needs a solution. By solving the pain point, you are indirectly solving their conflict. It is more connected to their personal.
Example: As Vinay was flying through the clouds when he saw the product demo, the solid 4 digit figure on the pricing page crash-landed his airplane. He researched for cheap alternatives, but his heart went back to community learning, and that “hard work” title. He put his name in the newsletter and hoped for magic.
Our Yoda, AKA Campaign Manager, found Vinay’s been clicking on the product page links in the newsletter, but there is no active transaction under his name. They noticed Vinay was reading all the informative articles in their newsletter. So they surprised him with a special coupon “Early Black Friday offer: 50% deal for the first time purchase”
BINGO !!!
The rest became history. Now Vinay is leading the in-house digital marketing team. He has reached the position of selecting star performers on his team.
Conclusion
If you have pictured Vinay while reading, let me know how he looks.
Now, in the next article, how to pick types of narratives based on the marketing funnel, buyer stage and the end goal of the marketing communication channel is on the queue next.
A working template to craft content with storytelling techniques based on your TG, Buyer Stage, and Marketing communication goal is also in progress for the next blog.
