Building brand awareness is tough. It takes a lot of time, work, and hustle to be able to pull off the ability to get people to recognize your brand. With all of the information available to us today on the Internet, everyone is fighting for your attention.
The real currency in 2019, isn’t money–it’s your eyeballs scanning this page on your screen right now.
In other words, the ability to get someone’s attention and get them interested enough to keep consuming is what will really pay dividends.
The war for your attention is what every entrepreneur is fighting. We want to be seen, to be heard, and to make the most of the brands that we’ve built. And the best way to do that is through communicating with your prospective audience about what it is you do, and how you can help them.
But there’s a big mistake that most entrepreneurs and marketers make.
They try to sell you on their products and services too quickly.
In my own experience, I know firsthand that the more you get people interested in your company, the easier it is to get them interested in what your company can do for them.
It is far too common to see companies trying to sell something without giving their audiences value beforehand.
So why do you need to practice good storytelling in your content, in order to sell more products?
Two Ways to Sell a Product: Rational vs. Emotional
When you want to sell a product or a service to your clients it can be done by going after two primary human motivation factors: the rational, logical mind, and the emotions of the person you are helping.
First, you have to determine which is right for you and your offer.
If you are selling toothbrushes, the one that with the best features may drive the most sales. Or, it could be the one that is the most affordable.
The rational mind wants to buy products based on their cost, their effectiveness, or their features.
But we don’t always use the rational mind to make purchasing decisions.
Instead, we also use our emotions, such as buying the red toothbrush with fewer features, because we like the color or the feel of it in our hands.
Emotional decisions drive a lot of purchasing power, and as an entrepreneur this is one of the things that you can use to override the rational objections that customers may have for not buying your products or services.
Once you understand which type of logic: emotional or rational is going into your customer’s purchasing decision, you can figure out how to influence their decision through storytelling.
For instance, if your product is mainly purchased based on rational decisions–it can be good to try to override objections through storytelling.
However, if your product is mostly purchased based on emotional reasons, then you will need to play up those reasons through your content, and that means creating a story to get people to relate to your brand.
So how does storytelling help you and your brand communicate value?
Storytelling Is Emotional By Nature
Story makes us feel. It compels us to become invested in the outcome of the story and how the heroes and villains interact with the plot.
For some companies your villains will be your competitors, or maybe you are fighting a problem such as procrastination that you are helping your customers to solve in their lives.
In your content, you can play up these elements in a way that makes your customers and audience want to engage with your material.
You can do this by telling personal stories, showing your viewers, readers and listeners times when you dealt with the villains, and how you were able to overcome them by using your product or service.
So long as it is authentic, people will appreciate your honesty, and the best part is they won’t feel like you are selling them.
This will also do something else that is very important: it will get them interested in forming a relationship with your brand.
Since relationships are always emotionally based, this is what great content creators and branding experts use to grow brands. If you aren’t establishing a relationship between your brand and your customers you are doing yourself a disservice and missing out on a lot of money.
However, the fact remains that if you are trying to establish an emotional connection with your audience you have to consistently create content that tells a story.
Using storytelling to build a relationship establishes an emotional connection. This is the equivalent of an investment.
Every time that your brand puts out content and someone consumes it, they are investing in your brand.
Content makes your audience feel a certain way, and it makes them pay attention to what you are saying. In order to continue to make your audience feel connected to you, you have to get people to believe that what you are saying is true.
This is how experts and influencers get so big. They create an engaging relationship with their audiences, and it allows them to get their message received in a way that catapults their digital presence.
Story Makes You Seem More Relatable
When you decide to do business with someone you either do it with someone you know and trust, or someone you don’t. Most people choose the former, because the latter scares them.
With the internet and social media, that gap is narrowing, but people still want to work with people who they know and trust.
When you create content that is based around story, people will remember you more, and will grow to know and trust you as a result.
If you don’t put out engaging, personal content that uses personal stories, people may wonder what your motives are, and may be concerned that you are just trying to sell them on a product or service.
Your brand is appearing in front of someone else, and in order to make the most of that you need to make a good impression.
Telling stories grabs their attention right away and makes it easy for your content to seem relatable. It will also make them more likely to share your story with their friends and family, faster than they will share your article about something generally related to business.
Remember, stories work because we get so emotionally involved in them, and we want to see them through to their conclusion.
If someone starts telling a story, it’s really rude to interrupt them, and everyone wants to hear how it resolves.
Story is Entertaining
Story isn’t just about emotions, it’s also about something much more practical: entertainment.
As humans we all love to be entertained. We watch reality television, and we love to get involved in soap operas, and Netflix binges.
With content, it’s no different. We get attached to the outcome of stories–especially social media stories, blogs, podcasts, and Youtube videos. This binge-worthy response is just as true for Youtube stars as it is for TV shows, or musicians. Content needs to be personal enough to be emotional, relatable, and entertaining.
If you are able to do all three, your brand will really be able to make the most of this incredible time that we have where our smartphones literally are our ticket to fame and fortune.
Back in the old days, we could only see stories on television. Now, anyone has the ability to produce content that chronicles their business, their lives, and their unique spin on the world.
Even celebrities like Will Smith have started leveraging Instagram stories to make the most of their audience engagement, and get more people to support his movies and artistic endeavors.
What This Means For You and Your Brand
The playing field has leveled out, and everyone is vying for attention through social media in order to grow their brand.
However, when people are creating brands, they are vying for a position in someone’s mind. When you position yourself in someone’s mind, you want to be first in line.
And the way to do that is to be memorable through the stories you share.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just need to insert some personal anecdotes, funny stories, and engaging conversation in order to capture your audience’s attention.
When you are able to capture someone’s attention through content, you have the opportunity to develop a relationship.
The relationship you form with that person can last for as long as you create content–meaning that you can have customers that watch your videos years after you made them! This will result in them digesting the information and becoming customers and clients of your brand!
However, the biggest pathway to success is becoming memorable through story. Think about people like Will Smith, The Rock, Joel Olsteen, or Steve Harvey. They use stories and anecdotes from their personal lives that are so memorable, that some people never forget them.
When you are able to create stories that stick with your customers and stay in the back of their minds, chances are you will have repeat customers for years to come!
Just imagine what it would be like to maintain and grow your client or customer base for the next DECADE based on stories you start telling on social media and content marketing TODAY!
