How can you measure the impact of your story on different audiences?

Aligning stories with goals is the best way to get audience reactions whether it's to like, comment, share or click. You can only effectively measure the success of a video when you know the reason why you're creating it - what is the purpose of the video - to get attention, to educate or entertain, to influence or create community. Know the purpose of your video then choose a story that aligns with that purpose and CTA.

Leveraging analytics tools to track website traffic, engagement metrics, and social media shares can provide insights into audience response. Conducting surveys or feedback sessions with your target audience to gauge their perceptions and emotional resonance with your story can offer valuable qualitative data. Final thought, monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, lead generation, and customer retention can help assess the tangible impact of your storytelling efforts on various segments of your audience.

There are many ways to find your audience - through polls and surveys, conversations with customers and prospects, using AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard or Jasper and reactions to marketing and promotions. When you understand who your audience is and where they spend time, it helps with the story selection process so the best story will be shared with a video and the goal of the video.

The best way to track the performance of a story is to do A/B testing: create one video with the story and one video without the story (or a different story). Test on the various platforms where your target audience is spending time. Leverage analytics tools to measure the impact. Be sure to look at the details - beyond the view and click. There's a story in the data as well. The results will speak for themselves.

Your audience won't be shy about their opinions of your video and your story. Watch the responses and be sure to engage with them - good or bad. The more engagement you have the more data you'll have on whether the story in the video worked or didn't work.

People relate to stories more than they relate to anything else. Stories are what bring people together. You'll know who your ideal customers are by those who respond to your video and story the way you intended. It can also do the opposite which is information that will help you better understand who your audience is - and isn't.