Users come to social networks to relax, have fun, find out the latest news and get useful information. That is why direct advertising here gets worse than in search engines, where people are looking for goods and services right now. Storytelling helps to break through the immunity to advertising and increase the effectiveness of promotion in social networks.
What it is, what other tasks it solves and how to create stories that work, we will tell you in this article.
What is storytelling and how it works
Storytelling in literal translation is storytelling, but in simple words – a technique of presenting information in the form of a plot with characters, place, time, conflict and denouement.
In marketing and advertising, this technique is used everywhere: in commercials and announcements, articles for a blog and media, on selling pages, in publications and promo posts for social networks.
Storytelling in SMM
In SMM, storytelling helps bloggers and brands show a human face, get closer to subscribers, gain trust, and remove barriers. And also – to make the content interesting and engaging. Reading stories based on the laws of drama is more interesting than dry instructions, reviews and selections.
Storytelling is not a specific format, but a technique that can be used to solve a wide variety of problems. For example, you can:
increase the level of engagement;
warm up the audience by promoting it lower in the sales funnel;
form an opinion about the company, product, expert;
to inspire confidence, if, of course, the story is true and there is no doubt about it.
Storytelling in targeted ads
The main purpose of storytelling in advertising is to grab the user’s attention and engage them in interactions. In an age of banner blindness and content-saturation with useful content, when people are becoming less receptive to ads, compelling stories have become a powerful tool for engaging users in the sales funnel. Of course, if these are not boring stories of information businessmen, written like a carbon copy.
Targeted advertising uses storytelling to:
attract subscribers to the company’s communities on social networks;
collect a base for mailing through lead magnets and information products;
sell goods and services through unobtrusive native advertising;
drive traffic to your website or landing page.
When done well, the storytelling technique does its job so well thanks to:
simple form;
emotional coloring;
intrigue;
nativeness;
proximity of the target audience.
Let’s figure out how to make such quality stories.
How to make stories that work
In a sense, storytelling posts are more difficult than regular posts. After all, we need not only to collect facts and draw conclusions, but also to weave all this into the canvas of the plot, invent or describe characters and events, add details and develop a conflict.
Start with your goals and key message. Any post in a commercial community or blog is written for something: to attract new subscribers, increase activity, sell. Before creating a story, decide what kind of result you want to get. Then formulate a key message that needs to be conveyed to subscribers in order to achieve the desired result. For example, if we want to attract users to the online school community, the thought might be that the content will help solve financial problems or determine the field of activity.
Target your target audience. You can write a story that is as engaging and engaging as you like, with powerful conflict and vivid detail, but if it doesn’t resonate with readers, the feeling “this is about me,” no miracle will happen. So here, as elsewhere in marketing, an analysis of pains, needs and barriers is needed. Selling earning training with the story of moving to Thailand to those who are barely making ends meet is a dubious idea. For them, Thailand is somewhere in another life, but loans and savings on necessary things are here and now. Although, of course, everything needs to be tested 😉
Take real events as a basis. Often the texture for the story is taken from the ceiling – the imagination is limitless. However, posts based on real events are more realistic and close to the audience. These can be cases from the life of a brand, customer cases, stories seen somewhere. For example, to advertise the same online school, instead of fairy tales about beaches with laptops that have long ceased to work, you can take the real story of a student who, thanks to the courses, was able to find a good job.
Write and speak simply. There are many articles, courses and even the famous orange book about unnecessary terms, bureaucrats and stamps. In storytelling, writing without all this rubbish is even more important than in reviews and instructions, because the story should be captivating and read in one breath. So when writing a text or script, imagine that you are telling the story to a friend. This will help you choose best social media marketing company that will convey the desired thoughts and will not complicate the perception.
Add details. They solve two problems at once: they make the story more realistic and allow the reader to see themselves in the events and heroes. However, do not get carried away: only those details that help to reveal the essence and lead to the necessary conclusions will be useful. A detailed description of the appearance in a post for an online school group will be superfluous, but for a nutritionist or stylist account, it may enhance the effect.
Be realistic. Even the story that actually happened can be embellished and distorted so much that no one will believe in it. Yes, in storytelling, real-life events are often supplemented with fictitious details to enhance the effect. However, it is important not to overdo it – the refined posts of information businessmen have become so familiar that now users look critically at any storytelling.
