Many digital marketing campaigns fail because the business didn’t communicate their Story well enough. In most cases, this is because they didn’t even think about developing their Story at all.
Why is Story important in Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is a form of communication, with an objective to connect and motivate your audience to purchase from you. To do this you need a Story that is engaging and motivates the audience to take the steps required to connect with you, and then brings them along the journey to take the actions needed to complete a sale.
As well as engaging your audience and building your brand, your Story will also help to keep you and your team focused on what your business is about, which will be an overall benefit for the business.
Small business owners and marketers may not see the importance of Story as they don’t see bigger, well known brands communicating their Stories clearly. Well known brands may still do well without telling their Story, but they are assuming the audience already knows the Story. If they are rolling out to new markets or have a new product, they will be sure to develop and tell the story properly. Smaller, developing brands cannot take this short cut!
Where do most businesses fail with their Stories?
Companies fail by either not developing their Story at all and just push out their products and use “catch” phrases that they think will catch attention and drive sales. They may go for the sale at first contact, before giving the audience a chance to engage, which is a big turn off.
Others make their Story all about themselves and don’t include what’s relevant for the audience or what benefits the audience will get from engaging with them.
What makes a good Story?
The Story must be clear; relevant to the audience’s needs and interests, as related to your business; and communicated at every point of contact with the audience.
What to include in your Story
There are three parts to a good Story:
- Define the audience member’s problem that your product/service solves.
- Communicate how your product/service can solve this problem; including interesting and relevant stories about the product, company, clients, etc.
- The ‘fairy tale ending’ telling how the customer is left in a much better condition after using your product/service.
What NOT to include in your Story
Don’t include anything that is irrelevant or boring!
Don’t use sales language until the audience has taken in the Story and is engaged.
How to Communicate Your Story
Your Story is not only communicated in the text on your website, social media posts, etc.; it is communicated through pretty much every aspect of your business from the design of your site to the design of your letterhead; from the logo to the way that you write your emails when responding to inquiries. It’s important to use your Story when you are meeting prospects and potential partners face to face as well.
Include history, profiles, case studies and other information that reinforces your Story.
Examples of Good Storytelling in Digital Marketing
Whole Foods Market is solving the pain of cooking holiday meals. They also have coupons to save money, recipes if you don’t know what to cook and you can shop online.
They know their customers want healthy, quality, sustainably sourced foods so their About page details how this is at the heart of the business — and that they have lots of conveniently located stores too.
Evian’s site layout and main links provide information on what set’s their product apart. They know that their audience is interested in where the water comes from and may be concerned about using plastic bottles and answer this at the start.
Weight Watchers’ Twitter profile communicates that you can “Live Life Fully” using their product and how happy you will be:
Their Facebook Page, now with videos in place of a cover pic, takes this even further.
Even Marriott’s AdWords content and search result excerpts are inline with their Story. Also check out the Wikipedia excerpt — don’t forget to ensure that your Story is carried through to wherever you can be found.
You can tell that these brands carefully developed their Stories and use them all throughout their Digital Marketing activities.
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