Storytelling is not only limited to conversations between our peers on interesting facts and gossip. This is also integral to business, especially in marketing and communication. But what is it about storytelling which makes it popular in business??
We at Datahyv have collated 75 tips on how you can incorporate storytelling into your business, especially in marketing.
What is Business Storytelling?
A story has a stronger impact on your audience and listeners. That’s a fact and can be attested as well by you yourselves. When you read, you do not only process the words, statements, and language. It also stimulates the zones in your brain to have an image, a visualization of that piece that you are reading.
?But this does not work on facts, right? In an office setup, when your manager or boss would narrate the history of the reason behind gathering the data that you are doing in your work, it’s a bit of a struggle to process, admit it. Why? Because you’re not interested. There is no entertainment involved.
Business storytelling focuses on the human side of work. Essentially, it is conveying stories rather than simply listing facts. As I have mentioned, we tend to focus and listen more to stories that are engaging and entertaining. Something that would stir our interest. And in business, if you’re too serious, your audience might not get the essential narrative from your talk. Not just because it entertains the audience, but it also helps in retaining and remembering the inputs.
Good stories stick longer and engage your audiences more. They will pique the audience's curiosity and surprise them. They'll persuade you.
Tips and Techniques in Business Storytelling
It’s not new to encounter agents around the mall convincing you to either buy their products or invest in their company’s offer. On a personal note, I would often remove myself from that situation most especially if I have something else to do.
This is a common problem and businesses would often have a hard time fixing this. With that, here are tips and techniques in Business Storytelling. These are proven to work for businesses of all levels and industries.
- Use the form of a story - Write a narrative with an introduction, conflict, climax, and resolution.
- Tell actual stories or anecdotes - It can be your story or an anecdote about your business. Include specific statistics and data in the stories.
- Using storytelling techniques to trigger story effects - You can use figures of speech to give an impact.
- Tug in the emotions of the audience - ?Give them a dramatic ending or situation. In short, pay attention to their pain points.
- Tell personal narratives - You can use your experience for certainty and genuineness. This is necessary because authenticity is pivotal to your company branding. You need to show what goes behind the scenes for transparency, especially for ESG inspections.
- Focus on your audience - You can tell a personal story but focus more on getting the audience interested.
- Right structure to tell an idea - Be organized in telling a story.
- Implement day-to-day life - A day-to-day life basis is helpful to properly give them an idea of how your product/service can benefit them.
- Use traditional dramatic structure - Include conflict in the story which shall be resolved with your product.
- Tell your audience who you are - Establish your brand with authenticity and clarity of who the team is and what you do.?
- Tell your audience why you’re there - Inform them of your purpose to avoid wasting people’s time. Show them why your business is going to help them.
- Tell your audience why they’re there - Show your prospective clients - directly address their concerns.?
- Transform your audience - In buying something, people often want to see change in their lives. Show how your business can transform them for the better.?
- Mark the most important concept - Never forget to mark the whole point of your story. Support it with concrete data and facts.
- Provide a summary - Wrap up with a summary to ensure that the audience will absorb what they heard.
- Provide clear CALL TO ACTION - Do not just give a story for nothing. You should always provide an action which the audience can take. Whether they should buy, order, or call you, say it clearly.
- Provide visuals - Many people are visual learners. Make your presentation less wordy and more on visuals.
- Provide a story arc - just to guide the audience.
- Provide jokes - to add fun and flavor for entertainment instead of being so serious.
- Tell a coherent story - Be organized and stop jumping from unconnected stories to the other.
- Use multimedia presentations - This can make your storytelling more interactive, engaging, and less mundane.
- Avoid lengthy powerpoints - visuals over words.
- Be comfortable when giving stories - Being awkward and shy in front will only make the talk so boring.
- Be casual yet comprehensive - You don’t need to be formal. You can be casual to also help the audience be put to ease while listening to you.
- Evoke sensations and emotions - Tug in the hearts and emotions of the audience to inspire and motivate them.
- Highlight the need or desire for a product or service - Make the audience feel that they need the product.
- Introduce the role of the product or service - Show the audience how the product or service can help them and the benefits they can get from it.
- Highlight the solutions - Of course, there are problems along the way, hence, you also integrate solutions.
- Highlight the benefits - What will the customers gain from your products? Hence, let them know the benefits to further interest them.
- Using narratives to manage conflicts - Narrate but still in a comprehensive way.
Here are more tips we prepared for you!
- Using a narrative to interpret the past and shape the future - Relate the past and present and see how it can change the future. Show how your product could have changed what happened if they have it with them.
- Using a narrative in the reasoning process - You reason out by narrating to further provide a wider perspective.
- Highlight the types of archetypal characters - For example, make use of Superman or other heroes who can catch the audience’s attention.
- Connect with the people - Do not focus on just advertising something. You connect with the people to get their interest.
- Wear something nice in front - The first impression always lasts. Your outfit can affect the interest of your audience.
- Think of nice content and theme - Think thoroughly about what concept you’d like to use that will suit your story.
- Evoke a sense of purpose - Ensure that there is a purpose instead of just pure entertainment.
- Empathize to the audience - Connect to their emotions.
- Raise simple questions and invoke deep answers from them - Interactions can also start with short questions and answers in between. This can be engaging.
- Provide contents that must reflect well in your organization - Make sure that the contents are in relation with your organization to emphasize the purpose and actualize consistency.
- Be precise - Make sure that you are providing on-point arguments.
- Be concise - Avoid going around the bush and make sure that your story is not that lengthy.
- Set Parameters - Inform them of how much your company can help them, the exact extent.
- Be honest and authentic - An honest organization can attract more people.
- Provide a clear outcome to avoid wasting the time of your audience - Since you are telling a story, end it with a clear outcome instead of keeping your audience hanging.
- Be consistent with your approach - Avoid going around in circles. Your audience might get bored along the way because of your lack of consistency.
- Get the audience involved - Interact with them, engage them in questions and answers, or any activities you have prepared to make them feel that they belong.
- Be organized with your points - Avoid saying things differently from your point.
- Ensure memorable points - Leave the audience with thoughts that they may ponder upon.
- Give stories that are universally relative - It is often hard to relate to someone since people are different, hence, make your approach more universal.
- Make it educational to ensure that there will be valuable lessons - An educational talk is good with a bit of entertainment. This can make your audience more engaging.
- You should know your audience - Know what they need and want. This can help you in conceptualizing your theme in the story.
- Define the core of your message - Provide a clear description of your message to avoid confusion.
- Define what kind of story you will tell to your audience - Whether it’s a love story, horror, or a fable, let the audience know what they are in for.
- Cite actions - Insinuate actions that the audience should take to provide justice with your storytelling.
- Foster community collaboration - Do not make it about you or just an individual benefit. Motivate your audience to start collaborating. This can help the community and yourself in the process.?
- Choose your story medium - Is it in a third person’s POV? A first-person perhaps? Or you’d like to simply use video presentations? It’s up to you as long as you will use something doable and suitable.
- Share a personal story - Sharing a personal story is good as long as it will not be the focus but only a stepping stone of your entire point.
- For a smooth customer journey, align storytelling with the marketing funnel - smoothly transition or integrate the marketing funnel in your story without destroying the essence of the story. This is to avoid inconsistencies and boringness.
- Create an intriguing environment - Get your audience intrigued with your setup or with your outfit or the location. This will attract more listeners to come.
This may be a bit overwhelming but we have a few more tips left for you!
- Influence a purchase decision - Do not forget that the whole point of your storytelling is to advertise a service or a product. Hence, carefully integrate a purchase decision in your story to ensure that the audience will get your points.
- Encourage participation - Call someone from the crowd to participate or assign them roles like what magicians do to make the audience feel that the storytelling is engaging.
- Do not: Focus solely on yourself rather than your consumer - Do not forget that your storytelling is for your target audience.
- Do not: put a higher priority on making connections than answering questions - Connections are good as it grasps the interests of the audience, but do not overlook the real questions asked towards the product or the service itself.
- Do not obfuscate the truth - Be honest and authentic. Lying will destroy your brand.
- Do not: Put storytelling ahead of offering a fantastic product or service - Although you can integrate both as that’s the whole point of business storytelling. However, do not forget the real point in this kind of marketing.
- Avoid going into much detail about every little thing - However, DO NOT be vague as well. Just give them what the audience should know.
- Be shareable, so that the reader can share their feelings with others - As mentioned, the connection can also be good as it allows other people to open and share their experiences as well.
- Feature a trial-and-error scenario that requires time, effort, and talent to solve - It’s also nice to have a trial and error scenario so that you can anticipate how much time, effort, and talent you should put in.
- Simplify business jargon - There are business jargons that others may not understand. Hence, it’s important that when you’re telling a story, you include a layman's term for everyone to understand.
- Provide a thought-provoking message - Thoughts that can make other people ponder will stick in their minds. What more if it's a thought-provoking message about your service/product.
- Share your mission and values - At least your audience would know that there is a purpose and you’ll never know, there might be other people who also share the same mission and values as your organization.
- Use the right platform in telling your story - This depends on the kind of audience that you have. Hence, make sure that you know your audience and your platform in telling a story is suitable to your audience.
- Be confident - Awkwardness will not help your organization. Always come prepared and confident.
- Be consistent with the flow and your points - Avoid inconsistencies and stick to clearer points.
Conclusion
Storytelling is a useful tool as well as an art form. When done correctly, it engages, captivates, connects, cultivates community, and provides social proof, all of which help you expand your audience and revenues. The business narrative is critical to your organization's success. It enables you to interact with customers on a more personal level, raise brand awareness, and eventually improve revenue.
Know who you are, who your audience is, and how to effectively use facts and storytelling aspects. No matter what kind of tale you're telling, start with the truth and put the customer first.
And in business storytelling, you need clear, easy-to-follow data insights. You can get them with a data warehousing and analysis system. Datahyv offers holistic data systems for businesses to create data-driven business decisions and compelling business narratives. Book a free consultation and demo: www.calendly.com/datahyv/60min
