Storytelling Will Build Your Business

Storytelling has been around for thousands of years. It is one of the most powerful means of influencing, teaching, and inspiring others.

June 24, 2021

Everybody LOVES a Good Story- Even in Business! 

Everyone loves a good story. Stories are the framework of our consciousness. We tend to relate stories to our own personal experiences. Storytelling can change minds and win hearts.

From watching a thrilling movie, to reading a great book, storytelling is an awesome way to convey compelling information. Although I usually think about storytelling as a form of entertainment, there's a lot of ways to use storytelling to build your business.

Customers Hate Being Sold – but they Love to buy

Because I know I do not like being subjected to solicitation, I am absolutely so turned off by sales pitches. If you're like me, we make purchases because we can relate to an item or service. Why? A great story!

Think about the commercials that run during the Super Bowl. These are some of the most storytelling sales ads of the year. Although they are 100% designed to sell everything from beer to chips, it isn’t what they are selling that people are interested in, it’s the story being told. The thrill of the story is what people are intrigued by and what motivates them to fall in love with your product. Once they're in love, they'll buy.

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Storytelling Does the Selling for You

Storytelling does all the selling for you. Creating a great story can make the sale because it sets the scene, creates trust, and solves problems.

Storytelling sets the scene

Storytelling allows you to create an experience with characters that your audience can relate to, therefore, imagining themselves benefitting in the same way.

This can be done through testimonials from other customers who have had similar needs or experiences. It can also happen through creating stories that trigger the same emotional responses from your prospects as your character. In fact, when people see themselves in a similar scenario as your story, it sets the scene for a sale.

Storytelling creates trust

Great story’s generate trust. Choosing stories that uplift and educate your audience can help them know, like, and trust you and your products. Stories that build rapport and relatability can passively help your readers trust what you have to say without selling them on it. They come to their own natural conclusions based on the value of your story. Sharing anecdotes, testimonies, examples, and clever stories can quickly build trust with your audience; hence, people buy from people they trust.

Storytelling solves problems

Using a story can be the fastest path to showcase a solution to a complicated problem. People buy goods and services to solve problems. While sometimes the solution is clear- a bar of soap will wash away dirt; other times it’s not so clear, that’s when a good story comes in to play. Using a smart story helps customers feel their problems being solved through their emotions. Following along with a story can creatively help customers identify their problem and experience the solution, then they will see you as the obvious choice to solve their problems too.

Know Your Target Audience and Tell Them Great Stories

Every successful business has a niche. A niche is the term used to describe the very narrow sliver of the market a business serves. The narrower the market, the more powerfully you can serve them. Knowing your target audience can help you hone in on their needs and help you market to them specifically.

Once you’ve identified your target audience you can begin to tell them great stories that resonate and help them make their buying decisions.

Example of Targeting Your Niche

For example, athletic companies sell apparel and equipment to athletes and sports-minded people. Their target audience already loves sports so they aren’t trying to recruit people to become athletic. Their storytelling likely speaks to athletes and includes language, emotion, and imagery that sports-minded people relate to. Telling stories that encourage them to be fit, overcome obstacles, and feel good about sports will influence them.

Developing a target audience can help you serve them well with stories that matter to their unique needs. Creating stories they relate to will help them see themselves benefitting from what you have to offer and make you the natural choice. This works especially well if your competition isn’t doing it because you’ll really stand out.

Where and How To Share Your Story

You can easily share great stories in multiple areas of your marketing including

• Emails
• Flyers and branded content
• Blog posts
• Sales pages
• Public speaking gigs

Each touch point is an opportunity to build rapport with a great story. It could be a funny story about something that happened to you over the weekend or a great story of a time when something relatable happened. Infusing your touch points with personal stories that your target audience will resonate allows them to see themselves in similar situations. As above, when an athlete sees themselves wearing specific gear because they identify with the brand, it helps them become loyal to the brand and buy it again and again.

Ultimately, knowing your target audience cuts down on your marketing because it narrows your niche down small enough to condense and laser-focus your efforts. Develop a target audience and send them relatable messages through storytelling.

Top Tips for Telling Stories that Build Your Brand 

You may be all in when it comes to the idea of telling stories in your business; however, you may be scratching your head wondering where to begin. There are a range of ways to start telling stories that build your brand and help the market identify you. Some are subtle and some are bold and obvious. Telling stories is very powerful, however, your story should include one or more of the following to build a brand and get loyal customers.

• Use humor
• Give exclusive scoops
• Be vulnerable when appropriate

Use humor to tell compelling stories

Humor is a great ice breaker and can keep difficult topics light. I love a good laugh or an escape from reality. Humor is great to use in these situations. Setting a story up with humor can make it similar to stand-up comedy with a great punch line at the end. Build up to a funny finish that will help your customers blow off some steam and appreciate your humor.

Give some exclusive information now and then

When your audience gets the inside scoop or valuable information, they lean in. Because people thoroughly enjoy being an insider, sharing stories that give your audience a look behind the curtain or exclusive information can increase their interest and loyalty. This works especially well with audiences who have been with you for a while. Being able to know you better or get first-hand info before the rest of the world builds rapport.

Examples of this are current talk show hosts. They love getting personal with their audience and sharing with them what they did over the weekend or the night before.

Be vulnerable when appropriate…but not all the time

Sharing deeply personal information can be a strategic and powerful form of storytelling. Being vulnerable from time to time can build rapport and know, like, and trust. Choosing special stories to help your audience relate to you or lead them to a specific conclusion can be wise. The key is not to use vulnerability too often. Being too open too often can negatively impact your audience. Sharing chronic problems, struggles, or situations can deteriorate your authority; consequently, taking you from being vulnerable to creepy.

You can begin to use stories in your business instantly. From sharing a bit about your weekend in a Monday email to telling a vulnerable message in your newsletter. There are plenty of ways to use storytelling to impact your audience. Choose the tip that works best for you, try it on and see how you feel.

The “Hero’s Journey” Can Be Very Effective In Your Business

Have you ever heard of the hero’s journey? While you may not recognize it by its name, you’ve experienced it many times. The hero’s journey is the term used to describe a style of storytelling. All great books, movies, and other compelling stories use a version of the hero’s journey whereby the main character goes through a specific series of events that takes the audience on a wild ride; such as The Lion King, Aladin, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, and the Harry Potter.

The hero’s journey is perfect for creating compelling marketing for any business. Sharing stories that showcase an average person overcoming obstacles to achieve something great wins hearts and encourages people. You may not have had an experience like Harry Potter, but you’ve surely got some heroic story to tell.

Tips to create heroic stories for your business

• Share a time that you had to dig deep down and overcome. Share this with your audience in an email series or blog post. Tie the experience in with your product or services.
• Share a story that inspires you. A heroic feat that gets you motivated can also motivate your tribe.
• Use social media to engage your audience. Share videos or ask open ended questions that generate buzz. You can easily use hero’s-journey-type content to spark conversations.
• Create a YouTube channel and showcase stories or create business related content that adopts the hero’s journey methodology.

The hero’s journey for storytelling is an excellent way to build excitement and enthusiasm for your business. You can create new and unique content or piggy back off existing content for your audience. Either way, using this dynamic method will get your tribe excited and interested in your business in a whole new way.

Your Backstory Could Increase Your Sales

Most people make their buying decisions based on their senses and emotions. When it comes to clicking the buy button or pulling an item off the shelf, people are motivated by

• A product’s reputation
• Packaging design
• Customer loyalty
• And more…

People make their buying decisions because they have been influenced in some way.

Testimonies are an Excellent Way to Make Sales

One of the most common ways to get a sale are testimonies; prior customer first-hand experiences with your goods and services. Having someone share their positive experience can help other people say yes to what you have to offer. While testimonies from satisfied customers are excellent, you may be surprised to know your testimony may be the best one of all.

People love a great backstory. If you listen to business-related podcast interviews or read biographies about people in business, you’ll likely hear amazing back stories about how they got into business. How they developed their product and much more. It makes for highly entertaining content plus it increases their sales.

Backstories Increase Sales

Most companies see a spike in new customers, sales, and brand loyalty when key people share backstories. It’s part of building the know, like, and trust factor. In the same way people love to tune in to an exclusive interview with a star athlete, movie star, or legendary CEO, everyday people love to learn more about the business leaders for the goods and services they buy.

Here are some great ways to use your backstory to boost your sales-

• Be a guest on a podcast and share your personal experiences
• Share your backstory in bits and pieces in a series of emails
• Do a live Q&A video on your favorite social media platform
• Use your backstory as part of a keynote speech
• Use your backstory as a testimonial in your marketing material

When you think about it, there are many ways to share your backstory with your audience as well as potential audiences. Strategically sharing relevant and interesting stories can elevate your status and people’s interest in your goods and services.

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In Conclusion

Everyone LOVES a good story and it’s a smart move to use storytelling to promote your products and services. From marketing to sales, storytelling is an simple way to get your customers to an easy yes.

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