Storytelling: Make Your Customers Fans

Storytelling is one of the latest trends in marketing land. Storytelling is about conveying a message based on a story. By telling your story, the chances are not only greater that you reach people, but the message you want to proclaim will have more dwelling time. Brand messages that have been placed in a storyline will stay longer in the memory. It is easier to retrieve information if the context and the story around it are known. That is the power behind storytelling.

As long as people have walked the earth stories have been told. As a small child we all have nagged our parents for a good bedtime story. If stories have been part of our lives since birth why is storytelling now suddenly new and hot? There is nothing new in telling stories at all?

Stories help give us meaning

Telling stories is a way in which people can communicate with each other. They are there to entertain us, to teach us something, to tell us about culture or to teach us norms and values. A story contains a setting, characters, a plot, and a beginning and an end.

Because stories are fun and have a recognizable structure, stories help us to think back and remember things. By adding context to somethings or, for example, inventing a mnemonic, you can recover information more easily. In addition, stories evoke emotions. A good story ensures that you are fascinated and wants to know what happens next. We prefer to read an exciting book in one go ... We learn about the past, the present and the future. Stories help us to give meaning to our lives and make choices.

Storytelling and brand involvement

We live in a time where people are overwhelmed by all kinds of advertisements and content. People get the content to which they are interested in. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to make the right content, therefore fans receive the enormous stream of relevant content. By telling stories, you can engage and engage people more, so that fans want to know how your story ends. Because you bind people to your story, you enter into long-term relationships with your fans.

The social landscape is not made to advertise only 'traditionally'. Social media is about conversations, brands need conversation starters. Brands therefore want to enter into dialogue with their fans, but brands also want to achieve certain objectives. By casting brand messages in a story line, they will stay better with the fans. After all, people can remember things better, retrieve them and put them into context when it is a story.

With the use of storytelling it is possible to reach people as well as to touch them. When you touch your fans with a beautiful story, brand involvement and loyalty grows. This brand involvement and loyalty are important triggers for purchase intent.

Combine Storytelling with retail

Relevant with a creative and strategic mindset

In order to properly address storytelling as a brand, you need a creative and strategic mindset. You must be able to tell a nice and catchy story based on good content that is consistent and coherent. In addition, it is important that you can interweave the brand values ​​and brand promises behind this content. A good story does not only include what you sell, but also the why.

By building up your story in different phases, you as a brand can slowly 'incorporate' your brand into the message. By starting with a general phase in which you create more awareness around a certain topic, you can create a 'problem' for which you offer the solution in the form of your product at a later stage. When you have made your product relevant, you can even encourage them on to purchase.

Dyson book: this is how you make fans.

What story do you tell?

Storytelling offers a perfect solution to, for example, introducing a new product, but also discussing a complicated but important message from the brand. By building these messages slowly it becomes important, recognizable and relevant for the fans. In addition, it offers a good opportunity to tell and communicate the vision of the company.

Autotrack book: simply telling a complicated story

Focusing on influencing communities with storytelling

By dealing with content in a strategic way, in the form of storytelling, we are able to make a certain message with communities important. This is an important step in professionalizing community management: we are able to influence content-oriented communities and thus make a demonstrable contribution to brand objectives. Create arguments that are valid, compelling, irresistible, convincing, valid and clear. Consider what makes you distinctive from competitors: the context. For example: a shoe manufacturer does not sell shoes but a nice walk. So look for something that distinguishes you from your competitors something unique.

Promotional products

Promotional products are very suitable to communicate the story behind your company. Do you know that 57% of the promoters of promotional products can remember the name of the company or the brand of the product? This percentage is twice as high as the 28% advertising recall of TV commercials.

A promotional product is not as short-lived as a commercial, publication on social media or an advertisement. A promotional product can even be cherished or saved. Just look at Albert Heijn or Heineken. On the Leoprinting website you will find all important information for the purchase of paper promotional products Leoprinting can help you make your brand stronger than anyone else. We also have examples of projects that Leoprinting has been able to realize. To name a few here: Dyson, Philips, Autotrack. A promotional product can also increase brand awareness for SMEs.