The Power of Storytelling in Marketing: Techniques Agencies Can Use to Engage Audiences
Once upon a time… there was a host of marketing agencies that utilized telling a great story as a way to engage customers and impress clients. And did they live happily ever after? With the right techniques and a focus on authenticity, a “happy ever after” could be on the cards.
Create an Emotional Connection
There’s a misconception among many marketers that B2B campaigns don’t need to have as much “heart” as B2C campaigns. However, business decision-makers are still driven by emotions just like regular consumers. You’ve just got to tune into what’s important to those buyers:
They’re passionate about their business and want to succeed
Their pain points really irk them — lean into that
They relate to others in their situation
The need to save money, time, and effort or drive productivity isn’t just an emotionless business goal — it means success or failure
When you realize how important gaining a meaningful solution is to the target audience, you can start to tell stories that engage their emotions based on their business needs.
Build a Brand that Resonates
The more time you spend building a brand that generates trust, energy, excitement, and purpose, the more likely you are to attract leads.
How are brands and stories connected? Because one drives the other. Talk about how your organization came into being — if you have a brand messaging framework, your goals and passions will be highlighted there, so use these to tell your story. Buyers love to see the human side of brands and want to know that they’re investing in services with history and integrity. Bake your passions and values into your brand so that one can’t be separated from the other.
Techniques That Help Craft Compelling Stories
Here are just a few ways marketers tell stories with campaigns.
Context, Conflict, Climax, Closure
The right narrative structure can help create a story that keeps viewers or readers hooked to the end. Create a situation, show what the problem is, push that problem to its limit, and create closure by fixing the problem — which is where your/your client’s solution comes in. Take Monday.com’s video ad focused on team management. They show the stressed-out manager whose computer eventually crashes with all the apps he's trying to manage. The cool, relaxed manager is the “him of the future” who has all the answers — the app on offer.
Make Your Audience the Protagonist in Your Story
Which brings us neatly to the next technique — create marketing stories that center your ideal customer as the protagonist. Your buyers/client’s buyers should be able to directly relate to the person having the problem in the blog, video, or social post. They don’t need to put themselves in that person’s shoes (or glass slippers) — they’re already wearing them.
Combine Media for Maximum Impact
Stories don’t have to be just words. Images, infographics, and videos are all powerful ways to tell impactful stories.
Final Word
Storytelling isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s part of what makes us human. Keep that at the core of your strategy for effective marketing techniques that continuously drive successful campaigns. To learn more about the next chapter of your story, book a free 15-minute introductory call with a marketing specialist here at Arch Collective.
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