Have you ever wondered why some brand stories stick with you long after you’ve heard them while others are instantly forgettable?
I’d bet a medium-sized pastry that you’d recognize and be able to tell me the brand behind “Think Different” or “Just Do It” wouldn’t you?
Storytelling is more than just a buzzword in marketing; it’s an essential skill that can set you apart in a crowded market. Whether you’re a social media manager crafting daily posts or part of a marketing agency developing comprehensive campaigns, effective storytelling can make all the difference. It’s about creating a connection, conveying value, and building a lasting impression.
And while storytelling is something I’ve been doing since I first launched my blog and newsletter in 2011 and began sharing everything I was getting right, and wrong, in marketing, the idea of becoming a great storyteller has recently come to the fore for me. Since accepting the role of Chief Storyteller at Agorapulse, I’ve made a point to think not just about the customer stories I want to tell for the brand, but also give consideration to how I can improve my craft. I’ve been studying experts at B2B brand storytelling like Miri Rodriguez from, Microsoft, and also considering how AI can be a valued assistant in everything I’m doing.
Since storytelling really is key to effective marketing, regardless of your role, I am going to share with you my notes, ideas, and learnings, when it comes to what makes great storytelling and how you can elevate your marketing efforts with AI-powered solutions.
Understanding Your Audience
The foundation of any great story is a deep understanding of your audience. It’s vital to know their needs, challenges, and aspirations. Take the time to research and develop detailed buyer personas. By empathizing with your audience, you can craft stories that truly resonate and engage.
Follow that up with personal conversations with your audience as often as you’re able. Not only will this deepen your awareness of what they’re struggling with, what they hope to achieve, and the language they use to describe those pains and goals, it will also create opportunities for you to surface stories. Engage with them on social media, invite them to have virtual coffee (or real coffee if that’s an option!), and meet them at events.
Crafting a Compelling Narrative
The best stories have a clear structure that guides the audience through a journey. Whether it’s the classic hero’s journey or a simple problem-solution format, having a well-defined narrative helps keep your audience engaged. Think about how your product or service solves a specific problem and highlight the journey your customers go through to reach a positive outcome.
In fact, Miri outlines multiple story structures in her book, Brand Storytelling. And while you don’t have to know and use every kind of framework, your storytelling will benefit from introducing variety, as well as understanding not every story is best told in that classic hero’s journey formula. Suppose, for instance, you wanted to share how several different employees from different departments were working to help your customers – that’s likely more of a petal framework than any other, making it easy to translate that into, say, a series of Instagram Stories.
Being Authentic and Transparent
Authenticity builds trust. Share real stories from real customers or employees, showcase their experiences, and avoid exaggerating claims. Honest stories, even those that share challenges, are more relatable and credible. Your audience is smart—they can sense when something is too good to be true.
Sometimes that means a story you’d like to tell may not be worth pursuing for your brand because it’s not impactful enough, or perhaps the original angle you wanted to drive home isn’t the one that will resonate with your audience and you’ll need to pivot, all the while staying authentic to the original story and sequence of events or results.
Maintaining Consistency
Consistency in your messaging is key to reinforcing your brand identity. Ensure that your core message remains the same across all platforms, but adapt how you deliver that message to fit each platform’s unique audience. For instance, a LinkedIn post might focus on industry insights, while an Instagram story could be more visual and personal.
Which means, of course, you need to know and have identified your brand identify. 😉
Incorporating Visuals
Great storytelling isn’t just about words. High-quality images, videos, and infographics can make your story more engaging and easier to understand. People are visual creatures, and sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Most of my customer or prospect interviews are conducted over video in a virtual studio so that we can capture great video, audio, and still images, along with the content of the story itself. On some occasions, I’m allocating budget to go onsite with a videographer to really level-up the quality of the video medium.
Highlighting Real Results
Data and real-world results add credibility to your stories. Share case studies and testimonials that demonstrate the tangible benefits of your products or services. This not only reinforces your value proposition but also provides proof that your solutions work.
The challenge of course – and one of the real differentiators – is to turn a result into a true story. Sharing that a client achieved $250,000 in sales sounds like a great result, but that’s not the story. What were they doing before, and what was stopping them from achieving success? What changed? What did they have to go through to get to that result, and how did that feel?
Staying Innovative
The world of marketing is always evolving, and so should your storytelling. Keep up with the latest trends and don’t be afraid to experiment with new formats like AR and VR. Continuously refining your approach based on feedback and performance metrics is crucial.
We’ll come back to this point in a moment.
Engaging Your Audience
Storytelling is a two-way conversation. Encourage your audience to share their own stories and interact with your content. Responding to comments and feedback not only builds a community but also provides valuable insights that can help you improve your storytelling.
This is where ‘engagement’ as a metric is truly valuable, because if you’re sharing a story to social media or another channel where it’s possible for the audience to engage, and they don’t, that’s a sign that the story didn’t resonate and needs to be evaluated as to why. Conversely, when you share a story that really hits home with your audience, they’ll let you know.
Ethical Considerations
Being ethical in your storytelling isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also good for business. Ensure that you respect data privacy, avoid biases, and strive to include diverse perspectives in your stories.
I cannot stress this point enough. Is it more challenging and time consuming? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
Measuring Performance
Finally, it’s important to track the performance of your storytelling efforts. Use metrics like engagement rates, conversion rates, and audience feedback to understand what’s working and what isn’t. This data will guide you in refining your approach and making your stories even more impactful.
Establish business-impacting metrics as well, such as how often your sales representatives incorporate you stories or content into their conversations and sequences, and if possible, work with your Ops team to set up threaded attribution so that when prospects touch your stories throughout the sales funnel, you’re credited.
This applies whether you’re creating social media content, blog content, podcasts, videos, emails, or something else; whether you’re doing it for yourself, your brand, or for your clients. Understand the impact your stories have on the brand’s bottom line.
How Generative AI and AI-Powered Solutions Can Help
Now, let’s talk about how generative AI and AI-powered solutions can assist you in these aspects:
Audience Insights: AI-powered tools can analyze data to provide deeper insights into your audience’s preferences and behaviors, helping you craft more personalized stories.
Content Generation: Need ideas for your next blog post or social media campaign? AI can generate content ideas, outlines, and even full drafts, saving you time and inspiring creativity.
Consistency and Adaptation: AI can help ensure your messaging is consistent across platforms by adapting content to fit different formats and audiences.
Visual Content: From creating infographics to editing videos, AI-powered tools can streamline the process of incorporating visuals into your stories.
Data Analysis: AI can analyze the performance of your content, providing insights into what resonates with your audience and helping you refine your strategies.
I will be diving into all of these applications and will share more tactics and tools as I implement and learn about them, particularly in my AI in Marketing: Unpacked podcast and newsletter.
Great storytelling is a blend of understanding, creativity, authenticity, and innovation. By incorporating these best practices and leveraging the power of generative AI and AI-powered solutions, you can create stories that not only capture attention but also build lasting connections with your audience.
Mike Allton is the Founder and CEO of The AI Hat. He’s a seasoned digital marketer with over 15 years of experience helping businesses grow online. He’s also a recognized expert in AI, with a passion for sharing his knowledge and helping others succeed. Mike is the author of the popular blog The Social Media Hat and a sought-after speaker and consultant. He’s committed to making AI understandable and accessible for everyone, and he believes that AI can be a powerful force for good in the world.
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