How to create great stories in business that can engage customers
30 September 2022
Stories are a part of our everyday life from the books we read, and films we watch, to sharing our experiences with friends and family. We don’t connect with each other with data and stats but by sharing experiences through stories in business that engage our emotions.
Why do we tell stories in business?
We tell stories to connect with people and build a sense of commonality and community. Stories help us to remember details and they make us care.
According to neuroscientist Dr Paul Zak, stories make our brains release the neurochemical oxytocin, the hormone related to empathy.
Stories in business can help your brand connect with customers in a deeper and more meaningful way by putting your target audience at the centre of the narrative. They can help explain complex issues from the point of view of a customer, detailing their wants and needs, explaining any obstacles encountered and how they were overcome.
Storytelling is also a way for a brand to humanise itself. If brands can demonstrate authenticity through stories it helps customers connect by demonstrating a more accessible side of the business and the people behind it. Sharing the real stories behind your business can make your brand more relatable and lead to brand loyalty.
What are the benefits of storytelling in business?
There are many benefits of storytelling in business, in addition to being an extremely effective marketing tool, stories can also:
- Trigger emotions that help customers connect with your brand and persuade them to take action.
- Engage your target audience on a deeper, more personalised level. When stories resonate and leave a lasting impression, the reader is more likely to become a customer.
- Help to build customer loyalty by emotionally connecting with the audience.
There are many opportunities for storytelling in business. You need to make sure that you find authentic stories, which may include:
- Your customer review and case studies
- An employee’s success story
- Challenges you’ve overcome with your team
- Your company’s story
What makes a good story in business?
There are a number of key components that make a good story in business. A story should be entertaining, relatable, believable, educational, memorable and well organised for your target audience.
There are 3 key elements that make a good story in business, no matter what type of story you’re trying to tell.
1. The characters
Start by introducing the characters and the setting.
You’ll need at least one character in your story and your main character, often referred to as the hero or the protagonist, who’s the link between you and your audience.
Making your main character relatable to your target audience is key, as this is more likely to make them follow your call-to-action. Decide who your protagonist is, it could be a client or somebody in your company who the story is about. You’ll need to put yourself in your audience’s shoes to tell a story where your readers can see themselves as the protagonist.
For example, if you’re writing a story about a client who’s suffered a personal injury and their journey to justice, add details about who the main character is. This can include their name, age, job, area they live, if they are married and have children and a picture of them. The details should provide an overview of the person so your audience can relate to them but still be relevant to the story.
Remember, if you’re writing about a client’s story, you’ll need their written permission first.
2. The conflict
Next a challenge arises, and the protagonist has to overcome obstacles.
You’re trying to convey a message to your audience and teach them through your story. You, therefore, need a conflict to show how your character has overcome a challenge. A conflict helps your audience to relate to the experience of your protagonist and triggers their emotions. Without a conflict, it’s unlikely you have a story.
3. The resolution
Finally, the protagonist either does or doesn’t achieve their goal.
To wrap up your story you’ll need to give context and conclusion to your conflict. But remember not every story has to have a happy ending so decide what your story’s message is in the planning stage. You’ll also want to leave your readers with the next steps and a call-to-action.
In addition to the 3 steps above, are there any elements of surprise or plot twists that you can add to the story. These should be relevant to the story and can keep your reader engaged as they didn’t see them coming.
What’s the process of storytelling in business?
Before you jump straight into writing your story, you should do preparation work first. Taking the time to follow the process below will ensure you’re clear on the story you’re telling, who it’s for, and the message before you start drafting your story.
1.Who is your audience?
The first step is to define the target audience that you’re developing the story for. Do as much research as you can before you move on. Do you know what their issues are, do you know the language they use, do you know where they consume their news? Create customer personas as part of your content strategy to understand your audience as much as possible before starting the story. Determining your audience can help you decide how to write and publish your story.
2.What is your message?
To create a baseline for your story, you should refer back to your content strategy and consider the message you want to communicate to your audience. If your story centres around a common customer problem, you’ll need to think about who’s telling the story, the message you’re trying to get across, what impression you wish to leave, and how the story will connect emotionally.
You should also decide at this stage the type of story you’re telling and how you want your audience to react. There are a number of different types of stories including to educate or impart knowledge, convey values, foster community, incite action or tell your story.
3.Who is your hero?
Good stories have a hero. This is the person that faces conflict but ultimately finds resolution in your story. Your target audience should connect with your hero on a personal level, you may be able to achieve this by putting your hero in common conflict situations amongst your target audience. The aim is for your target audience to relate to your hero so think of them as the link between your customers and your brand.
4.What is your call-to-action?
What do you want your readers to do after reading your story? Be clear from the planning stage on your call-to-action (CTA). For example, if your objective is to get subscribers to a newsletter, your CTA might be to “Subscribe to our newsletter.”
5.What is your story’s medium?
There are many different formats your story could take, such as written, audio, digital or spoken. Depending on the story you’re telling and how your target audience likes to consume information will play a key role in determining the right medium for you. You’ll also need to consider other factors such as your available resources, capacity and budget.
6.How to structure and plan your story?
If you’ve followed the steps above you should have a clear idea of what you want to include in your story. The temptation is often to dive straight in and write the story but we advise working on the structure first.
When you’re storytelling for business there can often be a multi-level approval process in place. To ensure that your story stays true to its original goals, mapping out the outline of your story can help. You can do this on any resource you have available such as storyboards, wireframes, or a PowerPoint presentation.
If your story is going to be online you’ll need to conduct keyword research which should take place at this stage. If you don’t have a SEO team or agency to do this, there are a number of free SEO tools available such as Google Search Console, Google Trends, and AskThePublic.
Make sure you share your vision with those involved in creating it so you’re all on the same page.
7.How to write your story?
It’s now time to start writing your story. If you’ve followed the process above this is where it will pay off as you’ll know who you’re writing the story for, what the message is, who the protagonist is, what the CTA, the medium, and the structure.
When writing your story make sure you keep it concise with only relevant information. Think about what your audience wants to hear, rather than what you want to talk about. When you finish your draft, consider why your target audience would spend their valuable time reading it. Does it hit the brief, is there anything else that needs adding/taking away, does the story conclude, is there a clear call-to-action, and will it satisfy the audience?
Make sure once you’ve written the story that you get someone to look over it with a fresh perspective. Not only will this pick up any spelling or grammatical errors but also any cognitive bias in your story.
8.How to share your story?
Once you’ve created your story it’s time to promote it on your selected medium. This might be through your social media channels, email newsletter or on your blog. Your story is likely to get more engagement the more places you share it. Consider your customer research and the places your target audience consumed their information.
Make sure that your story is added to your content calendar with defined metrics to measure success.
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If you’re looking for help with your content strategy or storytelling for your business, contact us today for a no-obligations conversation.
All content in this article was correct at the time of publication.
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