Even before we could read and write, we told stories. It is how our ancestors communicated important facts, scary tales, fables, legends, myths and integral life lessons between themselves and down the lineage. In fact, the art of storytelling is perhaps the thread with which the fabric of society was sewed.
And because there was no pen and paper or iPad on which people could save these stories, the art of storytelling became a very admirable endeavor. Skilled orators garnered genuine adoration and respect among the clan members.
With that adoration and respect came power. Because these people could draw upon their own stellar memories and leverage their equally impressive creative skills to put a message across in an entertaining and captivating manner, everyone wanted to be around them. Everyone wanted to be like them, and people began to trust them as they went from cave to cave or village to village spreading joy and valuable life lessons to all who would listen (which was pretty much everyone within earshot).
If you think about it – that might have been the very first incident of content marketing! As these storytellers traveled far and wide spreading their message, they gained trust and adoration, and people pretty much did what they advised.
Furthermore, whoever could master their level of memory and oratory skills went forth and spread the good word as well. Isn’t that what we call ‘social sharing’ now?
Using Content Creation to Tell Your Story
Today, we have excellent storytellers like Harlan Coben, Stephen King, and Jeffrey Archer among many others with the late Ernest Hemingway making off with the title of ‘Undisputed Story Telling Champ’ of all time (Yes! We said it. Let’s try to move on).
But stories aren’t meant for just novels, memoirs or poems. No! There is a story in every single word you read. As a brand, you can use the art of storytelling in all types of content including:
- White papers
- Sales letters
- Blog articles
- Case studies
- Email sequences
You can even use the art of storytelling to spruce up your ‘terms and conditions’ pages (not really advisable – these pages need quite a bit of legalese to be effective, but you know what we mean).
What Makes a Great Story?
Every great story has a structure; your brand story does too! With the right kind of words, your brand’s digital marketing strategy can take the reader through several integral stages as all great stories do:
- Introduce the main character: this will be your brand! This is the hero of your story, and your brand will endeavor to bring good to the society within which it exists.
- Tell a bit about the main character’s background: this is where you showcase your worth through the about us pages. You can use this to connect with the audience and show them that you are just as big a part of their community as their families. You can also build them up to realizing why you are a big part of their community a little later on.
- The story needs rising action: these are the things that push the story forward. This is the section through which you showcase your product development process or tell them why your product/services are a game changer in their society.
- The climax of the story: this is the point at which you bring in the all-important call-to-action message. You can use this section to ask the audience to make a decision – preferably one that involves buying from you.
- Falling action: this is usually where the hero goes through some sort of turmoil; the results of which might be unknown. Think of this as your customer service section. You will get to deal with all sorts of people (satisfied customers, angry customers, belligerent customers and some who are just plain nasty). How you handle these customers – in this day and age of Yelp and social media protests – will determine how the society at large accepts or rejects your brand.
- The resolution: this is the last part of the story. This is where you bring everything together. Your products/services, your team, your customers and your platform as a whole. This is where you can highlight all your testimonials as proof that you are indeed good for society!
All this can be done using different types of content (all of which your business will need to employ at one point or another).
5 Types of Content You Will Need to Tell a Good Brand Story
One thing you need to know is that there is more to content marketing than just creating copy. As a business owner, there is a good chance that you can write circles around your product or services; you know it that well.
However, it takes a special kind of talent to create content that compels your audience to emotionally connect with your brand.
This is the type of content that spurs them into action; the kind of content that generates trusts and makes them want to buy from you again and again. It is the kind of content that gets them to do much more than just buy from you – it gets them to share your brand message with their friends and family.
To generate this kind of brand loyalty, you will need at least five different types of content:
- Web copy: this is the ultimate landing page. Your website is your digital storefront, and it needs to tell people everything they need to know about your brand.
- Blog articles: this is where you can go wild and showcase just how knowledgeable you are in your niche. Beautifully written and placed blog articles can generate trust and a multitudinous cult-like following for a brand.
- Testimonials: comparable to customer-generated content, testimonials are the social stamp of approval from the society to which you are pandering.
- Social media posts: with almost half the world’s population on one type of social media platform or another, you simply cannot afford not to have a heavy social media presence.
- Videos: they are entertaining; they are engaging; they are easy to digest, and Google is ranking them on the first page of search results now! You simply must have video content on your platform.
The idea is to find a way to bring all these content types together so that they tell a story that is not only engaging but also memorable and that paints your brand in the best light possible. That is why you need to hire expert writers. Hemingway isn’t around anymore, but our writers could very well make him proud.
