16 Feb The KEY to Building Personal Connection with Audience

In today’s marketing, personalization and networking are increasingly important as audiences form relationships with brands. Businesses need to connect with audiences and engage them on a deeper level to survive. This is where brand storytelling comes into play.

What is brand storytelling?           

Simply put, brand storytelling involves telling a story and clarifying your message to capture your targeted audience’s attention.

In order to connect with your audience, you need to invoke emotions in them through storytelling. In doing so, you’ll help your readers learn more about your brand, thus growing your audience.

Why is brand storytelling important?  

Storytelling is memorable   

A study by Stanford University, cited by the PRSA , shows that people are more likely to remember stories than straight facts.  

After listening to short speeches that featured three statistics and one story, 5% of the audience remembered statistics, while more than 60% could recall stories. Your content can easily get lost in the noise, so being memorable is crucial for your success.

Storytelling taps into emotions   

University of Southern California (USC) advises that an emotional response to an ad greatly influences a customer’s decision to buy. According to USC stats, 31% of ads with emotional content performed well compared to only 16% of ads with rational content.   

Storytelling makes your brand relatable

It is easier for people to trust you, listen to you, and, if you run a business, buy from you if they are familiar with your stories and identity. This shared identity concept comes from Dr. Robert Cialdini – author of “Influence” – and is called the Unity Principle.      

Storytelling showcases your personality

In the eyes of most customers, brands are simply businesses that sell products. In order to set yourself apart from your competition, you must break this image. The power of storytelling is that it allows your brand’s personality to shine. This is the perfect way to let your customers know what your brand is all about.   

Storytelling is the opposite of aggressive advertising      

Hard-selling tactics aren’t as effective at grabbing people’s attention anymore because consumers are tired of aggressive advertising. Storytelling works better when it comes to engaging customers. Obviously, your story needs to be good to catch your audience’s attention, and it must touch their emotions as well. 

The magic of brand storytelling

How to use brand storytelling to connect with your audience:

1) Share your customers’ stories   

Showcasing your happy customers is a great way to connect with potential customers. Show your audience how they, too, can reach their goals or solve their problems by using customer stories and testimonials.

2) Get emotional

Make your audience feel all the emotions, and the only way to do that is to understand them on a much deeper level. What are their deepest fears, strongest desires, struggles, and motivations?

Use strong emotions such as sadness, anger, passion, excitement, or humor to capture the attention, remember, share, and influence your audience to purchase your product or service.

3) Address an obstacle your audience faces

When your audience chooses your business, what challenges will they overcome? In general, people seek out new products and services to solve problems, so you should focus on these problems and explain how you can solve them.

Your business becomes more relatable when you speak directly to your audience and address their pain points. Relatability is a great way to earn people’s trust. 

4) Incorporate storytelling with your social media strategies

Whatever your current strategy for social media marketing is, you can incorporate storytelling to make it more effective.   

For instance, you can ask your audience to share their stories (related to your brand) and offer prizes for the best ones! Another way to engage your audience is to break up your story into installments. 

What’s your story?     

Brand storytelling has always been a part of marketing, and it will always be a part of it. It’s a great way to demonstrate your brand’s identity and values, build loyalty, and make your brand more human. That’s why storytelling is important.  

I understand how overwhelming marketing initiatives, noise, and competition can be. As a StoryBrand certified guide, I help health and fitness brands clarify their messaging to attract their target audience, increase sales, and grow their businesses.

So what’s your brand story? I can help you tell yours!