Storytelling Marketing & Advertising: 3 Steps to Creating Your Business Story

Storytelling is a marketing strategy that uses a narrative to humanize your brand, product, or service. The end goal is to communicate a message through advertising that invokes feelings and inspires action from customers and potential buyers. 

It is through advertising that storytelling is most effective. You’ll see this through major companies like Disneyland Paris “The Little Duck” which portrays a real duck meeting his hero Donald Duck… or Guinness who highlights the true story of the Japanese women’s rugby team Liberty Fields RFC. Let’s create an example storyline for a business category in 3 easy steps.

Step 1: Decide Who Your Audience Is and How to Speak to Them

The first step is to determine your audience and the demographic they represent. Next, you need to use the best possible language to speak to them. For example, if you are an estate planner wanting to speak with an audience who will be retiring in 5 years or less, you would use more articulate prose, speaking in a caring and sensitive manner.

Step 2: Decide What Your Message Is

Your next step in creating a story would be to decide the reason for the message. You may want to inspire or excite your audience. In the example of the estate planner, we think the best example is providing peaceful results to an avoided task. Your message will be displayed by the story’s narrative.

Step 3: Decide What Your Narrative Is

The narrative is your story. Every story includes a character. In the estate planner story example, it could include a couple who tell their story about planning and how good it feels to know they are leaving no burden on each other or their children. Remember, through this process of storytelling, to always be authentic. Your story sells your product with barely a mention of it. An audience can recognize someone who is trying too hard to sell themselves or their products.

Step 4: Choose Your Advertising Platform

Your advertising platform will determine whether this story is completed in 60 seconds or displayed over a series of parts. Whatever advertising platform you decide to use, a successful story will communicate your message without having to explain it. 

Customers want to relate and connect to the products and services they buy. Storytelling naturally encourages customers to care about your product or service and causes them to purchase and even endorse it to others. Do you have a story vision for your business? Are you stuck on creating one? If you need help creating a story for your business, contact CB Marketing today!