For any business selling products/services, the most important thing you can do is figure out how to convince your target audience that what you have will meet their needs and demands. 

How does your product or service help your customer?

A creative and fun way to connect with your target audience is by telling stories they can relate to…and integrating your product into the storyline.

Who Can Benefit from Telling Stories?

Well, this may sound like a no-brainer but to answer the question…

You! Using storytelling for product selling, a.k.a., ‘storyselling’ helps your brand in several ways. A great story can be used to:

• Get you consumers attention
• Sell Products better
• Create a tribe

Why Use Stories?

In our digital world we still need human connection. Storyselling allows your brand to blend factual and fictional narratives to evoke specific emotions. If you can connect with other people , they will buy your products.

3 POWERFUL BENEFITS OF STORYSELLING

1. Get consumers’ attention

You may have noticed that consumers constantly find ways to evade advertisements through ad-blockers and willingness to use premium subscriptions. No one likes self-promotion.

So how do you bring awareness about your brand and products without sounding like a sales pitch? Storyselling allows you to cleverly implant yourself into people’s lives and eventually close the deal.

Take the case of Hinge, the dating app with this eye-catching catchphrase “The dating app designed to be deleted™.” It tells a different narrative by convincing users that the intention is not to use the app long-term but to help them find love which will mean deleting the application.

2. Sell products BETTER

Storyselling, as the name suggests, helps get the word out about what you are selling with a creative angle. Your goal is to build interest by connecting with your customer, and eventually getting them to buy your product because it helps them. 

Unlike bland marketing , storytelling entertains and make it fun to buy your product

One company that nailed this is Heinz using their 2011 “Get Well Soon” soup. This campaign’s success was due to telling engaging stories about their customers and how the soup made their loved ones feel better with their product. In the content, Heinz made its customers the heroes by letting them personalize the get-well-soon canned product.

3. Create a tribe

One of the most fulfilling moments for a business is when customers become brand advocates. Storyselling is one of the marketing strategies that can help you accomplish that objective. For instance, if your product has a positive impact on the environment. Storyselling allows you to show consumers that their purchase goes beyond supporting your business. It makes them feel like they are part of the people helping to solve a global issue.

One brand that has successfully created a tribe is Apple. In 2014, the company set out a social media “Shot on iPhone challenge” that encouraged users to share their favorite shots on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, adding specific hashtags. This challenge got an overwhelming response. To date, this challenge has over 15 million posts.

The company selected photos from their customers and featured them on their stores and billboards. The company used this successful campaign to promote new iPhone features then. For instance, Apple used a five-hour “Shot on iPhone” video to show users how long the iPhone 11 Pro battery lasted.

What Are Common Storytelling Elements of Commercials?

Weve looked at some powerful examples of storytelling…. the next step is to implement this strategy in your commercials. So, what should you include in your story to ensure it’s effective? We recommend using some basic storytelling techniques : the setup, debate, and resolution/conclusion.

the Setup

During this first stage, you introduce characters who will help tell your story. For this reason, you must select the cast carefully because you want the target audience to see themselves in these characters. So, if your audience is searching for good analysis software, having a data analyst as the main protagonist in your story would make sense, as it would compel users to keep reading.

the debate

Once you have set up the story, next is the debate or conflict your characters face, and the use of specified products. This debate matters as it is what separates your story from an aggressive ad.

This conflict serves as a lesson to your readers or viewers. Let’s use the same example of the data analyst. Here, you could talk about the advancing deadlines and how none of the products at their disposal has helped the analyst solve their problem.

the conclusion

The final stage pays attention to your product which will solve the character’s conflict. This resolution encourages consumers to act, i.e., buy your product. A tagline could be, “what you and your company require is a data analysis software that is simple and customizable.”

creative STORY driven IDEAS for your brand

Integrating your product and the story is possible through the following techniques. Below are some content ideas you may want to try:

1. Highlight your products’ benefits

Quick question, “how do you list the product benefits without sounding too salesy? Well, as long as you get the three elements right, specifically the conflict, listing your product’s uses will appear as solutions rather than advertising.

2. Tried and tested

One of the most effective ways to influence buyer decisions is by proving that a product works. Using the tried and tested approach, you can provide visual evidence to support your claims. Remember that iPhone campaign we mentioned earlier? Apple shot a 5-hour video to prove that one of its products had long battery life.

3. Customer feedback

Customer advocacy matters as it means the users are doing the marketing for you. You can take advantage of users’ reviews to tell your story. You may also include your product’s benefits.

4. Origin story

This technique is a classic, especially for products entering the market. It allows you to portray your brand’s personality, values, and the products you sell.

5. Social purpose

Some products do more than solve the consumers’ problems. For instance, if you sell eco-friendly items, you can use storyselling to highlight your company’s social purpose.

6. Story on Raw materials

Every product has a list of materials that go into them. Telling a story of how each piece fits into the puzzle is an excellent way to include products into your story.

7. Shine a spotlight on your team

The goal is to evoke emotions. And what better way than with the team’s story that makes everything happen, from product development to marketing? 

Talking about your team also shows consumers that you care about your employees.

conclusion

There’s no denying the significance of storytelling in today’s marketing campaigns. Consumers are used to the instant gratification of everyday products. They want something they can connect with, or they will shrug it off.

Having a good media team would be best to get the storytelling elements and techniques right.

Dreamvision Media offers production services for commercials and other marketing campaigns. Let us help you get your story out. To learn more, visit our site or submit your inquiries here.