How to Use Storytelling in Your Marketing: Part 1

If you’ve been in marketing for any length of time at all, you’ve no doubt read hundreds of articles about storytelling. You’ve heard it mentioned by famous people, in Ted Talks, in meetings. But what does storytelling really mean? How should you use it? And why does it work?

In our 5 part series on storytelling, we’ll do a deep dive into the how’s and why’s of using stories to engage your audience and up your marketing game. Read on for Part 1: a general overview of storytelling in marketing.

There’s a little something your brain does when confronted by a story called “emotional engagement”. And studies have shown that when someone or something can engage your emotions at even a surface level, you retain them in your memory for longer and can recall them more accurately. We’ll do a deep dive into how to do this, and why it’s important, in the following parts of the series, but just remember that emotions are the key!

No one likes too much branding. It’s important to strike a balance between letting your audience know who you are and turning them off by obnoxious brand presence. Use your brand logo in the footer or header (but not both!) and potentially as the sender name if you really must, although real human names have shown to perform better.

Think outside the box! The more unusual an element or story is, the more people will remember it. The more people remember the more likely they are to talk about it or share. Viral content is the ultimate goal for most of us, and with most people getting upwards of 5,000 different ads a DAY, only the truly unusual really stand out.

Multimedia has become something of a ubiquitous form of communication in the last 10 years. If you’re not using video, audio, images or interactive content in your messaging and campaigns, start now! Images are processed and stored in the brain much more quickly and permanently than words alone, and adding interactive content cements the messaging much more easily.

Social media is your new best friend. Research shows this is where a majority of people are getting and consuming their content. It’s easy! Use a sharing service like Quuu Promote and let them do the difficult work for you. For example, we’ve gotten up to 1500 shares on Twitter with a well-written article headline!

These are some high-level tips to get you started storytelling in your marketing. In the next 4 installments, we’ll dive into each one of these topics and teach you how to become a storytelling pro, driving more engagement with your content and ultimately helping you to become a thought leader in your industry.