Storytelling is the art of telling stories to communicate a message through a sequence of events. It is the spark to ignite user interest and set off fireworks to achieve conversions. It’s a versatile tool that you can use in a wide variety of content within digital marketing. You can use storytelling in blogs, videos, social networks, infographics, webinars, advertisements, interactive content and much more.
In addition to storytelling, there are other strategies to promote products and services, such as case studies, question and answer (Q&A) sessions, tutorials, and interactive content, among others.
3 Essential Storytelling Techniques to Enhance Your Brand
To start, it’s important to dive into the minds of your audience, understand how they connect with your brand, and discover what interests them. This will allow you to develop your narrative, using language and cultural references that they understand and find interesting.
Cultural references, along with interests and experiences are so diverse among different demographics or economic social groups that if you fail to connect with your audience and tune into their consciousness, you could miss an excellent opportunity for connection.
For example, have you seen those videos where they put up a rotary phone and ask a child to dial a number? The child does not understand how it works because he is not familiar with its use. Your message is not really going to generate impact because experiences, values and cultural references are formed in each generation. You simply have to adapt the narrative to your audience. Today we share some tips to make your storytelling amazing:
1. Use popular references or trends
It is increasingly common for brands to use trends with different marketing objectives. For your next content, use this type of resource to give it that humorous touch or another approach depending on the intention of the content. An example of taking advantage of trends was Casio. This watch brand took advantage of the controversy over Shakira and Piqué’s breakup. In a fragment of the song “Perdón que te splashe”, Shakira mentioned the brand and they were far from being bothered by the reference and used it to create advertising. As a result, their sales increased, especially of their CASIO A168 model (the everyday watch), and they grew 60% in followers on Instagram.
Other brands that “clearly” took advantage of the song’s hit to create content were Burger King, Gandhi Bookstores and more. In the case of Gandhi, it’s a brand that is always taking advantage of trends to create iconic phrases that maintain the interest of its followers. In their Instagram post about Shakira and Piqué, they reached more than 19,748 likes.
2. Use Cliffhangers
The cliffhanger is a storytelling technique used to keep the audience hooked and intrigued with your story. The central idea behind this technique is to leave the audience in a moment of high tension or uncertainty somewhere in the story, thus creating a strong desire to know what will happen.
A success story of this technique was used by BMW, a well-known car brand. In 2001, they released a series of 8 action shorts called The Hire, where the protagonist is the car. The way they tell the story keeps you on edge and anxious from the first moment and in it’s entirety.
The interesting thing is that in each one they highlighted the characteristics of different BMW models from their new line of automobiles. The objective was to give a fresh look to the brand, get closer to the younger audience, and generate recognition without having to invest a large sum in advertising. Their storytelling managed to capture the attention of viewers and fulfill their objective of promoting their new line of cars to a younger audience. Its success was such that the shorts were the inspiration for the “The Transporter” film series.
3. Add a little drama
Raising the intensity in storytelling means adding more flavor to a story, almost as if it were a TV show or movie. You can add unexpected plot twists that keep the audience excited.
Describe a real situation and bring the scene to life! Use words that convey feelings, places and emotions, so the audience will feel like they are experiencing it too. In a blog, you can share about how your brand overcame certain challenges or what you learned from specific situations. For an infographic, graphics and visual elements is the best resource to highlight impressive data or statistics.
In advertisements, you can tell the story about how your product helped a person improve, overcome, make a change in their life, etc. In a video, other elements that you should take advantage of are background music and sound effects that convey emotions. This technique is used in the Dove brand video about self-esteem and social media, where drama is used to raise awareness about the impact of toxic beauty advice.
One last detail: it’s important not to abuse this technique, but to do it with balance and sensitivity. Too much drama can seem overdone and heavy if not handled carefully.
Let’s make magic together with storytelling!
So, are you ready to give your brand a twist using storytelling? We hope these techniques are useful to enhance your brand. Try putting them into practice! If at first, you don’t get the expected results, you and your team must persevere. If you need a push, at Mijo! Brands we will be happy to help you.
Let’s make magic together! Contact us
