The Art of Creative Storytelling: Content Tips and Techniques
Marketing, it’s a glamorous life of endless to-do lists, fire fighting, emails, phone calls, last min meetings and continuous interruptions often make it hard to focus on one task at a time.
This in turn makes it very difficult to get into the creative zone for storytelling, sometimes loosing sight of the fact that if Marketing isn’t creative then the company’s brand and story isn’t creative.
According to Smart Insights Storytelling is the future of Content Marketing strategy in 2018. Weaving a story intricately around your customers so they feel included in the narrative of your brand and products is no easy task.
As social creatures we have a built in receptors in the brain for stories, it is an ancient form of communication that we as humans respond well to.
In fact studies have shown that humans prefer a story to hard data and will recall a story much quicker.
What does storytelling mean for marketers?
Creating a story around your brand and products that has strong ties to emotions and personalization. Writing a good story involves a deep knowledge in two things:
Knowing your brand
Know the history of your brand, how it has evolved, what are the values of the brand?
What does it stand for and how do your customers perceive it? What problems do your products solve for your customers?
Understanding your customer
Who is your customer, what are their problems, their struggles? How can your products help elevate some stress from your customers life?
This is where you can connect with your customer and build trust as you make their life easier and help them achieve their goals.
Once you have fully explored your brand and understand your customer it is time to bring them together.
Creating storytelling content
- Be honest – don’t lie to your customers or fabricate a story, tell the truth.
- Opening hook – every good story needs to open with a hook that makes the reader want to keep reading.
- Have focus – know what message you want to get to your customer and focus your story around that, keep it simple don’t over complicate it.
- Problems & solutions – see your customer’s problems as the villains in the narrative and your brand is the superhero with the solution, build on this.
- Emotional appeal – Studies show customer decision making is often based on emotions, creating a story with emotional ties may help a customer remember a story.
- Add value – when writing a story think about the value it may add to your customer’s life, why they should take the time to read it.
- Know your Audience – stories can be told different ways for different platforms so keep that in mind.
How to get into the creative zone?
Becoming a creative writer is not something that happens overnight, it is many drafts mixed with frustration, sometimes you need to let a piece sit for a few days before you come back to it and start all over again.
Don’t be hard on yourself, brilliant ideas take time and as marketer’s time is something you may not always have.
Here are a few tips on encouraging creativity.
Book a space
Is there an empty office, training room or meeting space you can book? Somewhere quiet that you won’t be found, so you can create a space you look forward to going to, a sanctuary that will give you a fresh perspective?
Let the Music flow
Offices are noisy places, with phones ringing and conversations, it is quite easy to break your concentration. Put together a writing playlist of song that inspire you. Put on your headphones and move into your zone
Be inspired
Find blogs, imagery and videos that inspire you. Go to conferences to get new ideas and perspective in your field. Get up out of your seat and go for walk leave the office every once in while.
Keep a notebook
You just never know when a new idea will come to you so keep a notebook handy to write it down. Creative people often keep a notebook.
Mastering the art of storytelling will give a every marketer a huge advantage as people want to see a good story behind every brand or product.