Lots of people talk up brand storytelling as a powerful method for giving life to your business, products and services. And it is. It’s why we read about multi-million-pound software companies started in teenage bedrooms by high school dropouts, or revolutionary healthcare equipment invented by frontline nurses.
It makes for great PR, but what about using storytelling in marketing? While many talk about how important it is, hardly anyone explains how to actually do it. As such it has become yet another piece of industry jargon – an overused term that is poorly understood at anything but the most superficial level.
That’s a shame, because it’s extremely effective. We’re all psychologically, socially and culturally hardwired to respond to stories. So, let’s look, in practical terms, at how to use storytelling for marketing.
There is one golden rule: structure the narrative in a way that makes your customer the centre of the story, and not your business. The idea is to let the customer immerse themselves into the action, exactly as they would do when reading a great novel.
This is, as you might have spotted, the exact opposite to using brand storytelling in PR, when the aim is (usually) to put your own business at the heart of the story.
With the need to view our customer as the hero in a journey* in mind, let’s look at an example. Here, we have a company that needs to get digitally fitter because its competitors are stealing a march.
We can break our customer’s journey down into 12 stages, just like this:
1. Limited awareness of a problem
Everything is OK. I’ve got a working website, we do some social media, we’re selling stuff.
2. Increased awareness of the need for change
We’re starting to fall behind, our competitors are doing new things and stealing sales, customers are leaving.
3. Fear/resistance to change
This could all be a flash in the pan and increasing our digital capabilities will be costly and time-consuming.
4. Overcoming fear
I’ve done some research and talked to some people. Maybe this isn’t as hard as it seems.
5. Committing to change
We can’t go on as we are, let’s do this.
6. Experimenting with new conditions
OK, this is harder than I thought. I’m not sure which pathway is right and I feel confused by all the many options.
7. Preparing for major change
I’ve overcome the initial challenges. I’ve got more insight now on what needs to happen next. Bring it on.
8. Big change with feelings of life and death
Now I understand what the real issue is: I’ve been playing at the edges but to thrive in the digital world I need to stop focusing on technology and rethink how we do business.
9. Accepting consequences of new life
We are now a different business with new ways to compete and serve our customers.
10. New challenge and rededication
Now I realise this isn’t over. This is just the start. There are more and better ways to thrive in the digital world. Let’s get to work.
11. Final attempt / last-minute dangers
OK, we’re digitally competitive (for now) but I need to be vigilant about what’s just around the corner.
12. Mastery
Finally, we’re fit for today and ready for tomorrow (whatever that may bring).
A marketer’s job, then, is to create powerful content for each one of these 12 stages in their customer’s journey. Their goal is to move the customer along to the next stage by enabling them to see themselves in the story and arming them with the information they need to make progress.
At stage three, for example, when the customer is fearful and resistant to change, your business could produce data-backed story showing how others just like them have reaped real-world benefits for their businesses, and a personalised roadmap enabling them to put themselves into the heart of what it really means to make such a change.
When you really put your customer at the heart of the narrative, you’ll realise just how powerful storytelling can be.
*The Hero’s journey is a popular and recognisable structure detailed in The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, later adapted by Christopher Vogler as a screenwriting standard.