In digital marketing and social networks, a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to videos. The excess of information that we find on the Internet causes users to pay less attention to long texts, while images and, above all, videos have the capacity to engage that text does not achieve. Therefore, brands must increasingly focus on generating audiovisual content so that their message reaches the public.
Video consumption has increased as a result of the integration of smartphones into our daily lives. In fact, according to a 2017 study by the North American company AOL, 57% of consumers watch videos on their mobile phones daily. In addition, the report also reflects that short videos (between 1 and 5 minutes) are the most consumed. For this reason, brands are aware of the figures and 70% of advertisers intend to increase the budget for audiovisual advertising on mobile phones.
And videos are no longer only presented as a succession of moving images, but now there are many more ways to create audiovisual content; The AOL study also reflects how users are experimenting with new formats: 65% of those surveyed claim to have already watched live broadcasts, while experiences such as virtual reality or 360º content have been tested by 32% and 52% respectively. For this reason, some of the new trends in videos in marketing are 360º videos, live videos, virtual and augmented reality, and storytelling.
What is storytelling
Storytelling is the art of telling a story with the ability to connect emotionally, which has always been used as a form of expression and transmission of knowledge. In the case of adapting this technique to audiovisual content, what is valued is the content that awakens some feeling.
Applied to marketing, storytelling is telling a story related to a brand, a company, a product or a service, which generates an emotional connection with customers and users. For example, one of the new communication content strategies is to make short films, a format that appeals to the emotional side of people and that generates a relationship of trust and loyalty with brands. Furthermore, in terms of engagement, this technique obtains very good results: the stories capture attention better and the messages that you are trying to convey to the audience are better retained.
What should a good story contain?
The key to developing an effective marketing strategy based on storytelling is knowing your target audience: what they are like, what concerns they have, what excites them. In this way we can create stories with which to reach and connect with the audience. Even if we can get them excited, they will spread it. Additionally, the piece must include these other elements:
- Let the story convey the values of your brand.
- Ability to generate emotions in your target audience.
- The language used should be based on emotions.
- Convey the aspects that make your brand different from your competition.
- The story must provide something positive that engages your audience.
How to do storytelling in marketing
Any story can be used to make a marketing strategy with storytelling, it can be formal or informal, artistic, with direct language or with metaphors… as long as the story draws the attention of the recipient and has an objective: entertain, educate, laugh, cry, reflect… To do this, you only need to know what excites your audience, choose the medium to create the story, and apply the three phases of any narrative: introduction, middle and end, all with your brand as the common thread and background of the story.
Here are some ideas to start doing storytelling in your business:
- How the idea of the business began, tell the dream that motivated it to be created.
- How he managed to overcome adversity to move the business forward.
- How the idea for a new product or service for your company came about.
- How to work in your company, tell about the daily life of the employees.
- Stories about the most technical aspects of your business.
- Cases of your clients, telling their real experience.
- Current topics that spark interest in your target audience.
- Stories, legends or famous quotes from which to draw a conclusion or reflection.
Advantages of using storytelling in your business
Some of the advantages of using storytelling to tell stories about your brand as a marketing tool are the following:
- Generates empathy and trust.
- They are easy to remember.
- Creates greater connection with the brand.
- Appeals to the emotional side.
- Ability to go viral.
The future of storytelling: storydoing
storydoing is an evolution of storytelling, being one of the key trends in communication and digital marketing for the future. It consists of promoting the active participation of users so that they become the protagonists of the stories we tell, and thus engage the public even more, through interaction, co-creation or episodic monitoring of the story.
Did you like this article? Rate it!
More related articles
This post is also available in: