What Is Storytelling? The Implementation Secrets Nobody Tells You

Among effective marketing strategies, leveraging Storytelling brings many benefits to companies and businesses, such as boosting brand awareness and attracting interested customers… Join The7 in this article to find out what Storytelling is and how to make your storytelling more persuasive in marketing.

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What Is Storytelling?

What is Storytelling? In Vietnamese, Storytelling is understood as “kể chuyện” (telling stories). It is the interactive art of using words and actions to bring out the events and images of a story.

In marketing, Storytelling means a company or business building, developing and spreading a story around its products or services to promote them and strengthen brand awareness in customers’ minds. When Storytelling succeeds, it creates an emotional connection between customers and the company or business.

The Origins of Storytelling

As you know, communication is an essential part of modern life. People always have a need to tell stories or to listen to stories from family and friends around them. This quietly builds a connection between people and helps us empathize with and understand one another more easily.

Of course, a story needs both a teller and a listener. The people who take on the role of telling stories are called storytellers, and the way they deliver a story is Storytelling. This is the origin of the “term” Storytelling (storytelling content).

How Has Storytelling Evolved?

According to available sources, Storytelling has gone through three stages of formation and development. Each stage is closely tied to the ways people communicated in society at the time. Put simply, Storytelling did not develop in isolation: each stage inherited from, added to and ran alongside the others, all the way to today. Here are the stages of Storytelling’s development that The7 wants to share with you:

Stage 1: Telling Stories Through Images or Word of Mouth

You may not know it, but millions of years ago, people began drawing and carving on stone slabs, cave walls and more to tell stories. These stories might be a legend or a historical event they had witnessed. Over time, storytelling through images gradually shifted to oral storytelling.

Oral storytelling could satisfy the curiosity and the desire to explore of people at that time. To this day, oral tradition has been passed down from one generation to the next.

Stage 2: Telling Stories Through Writing

This stage came a few centuries after Stage 1. By then, people had begun to tell stories in writing. Archaeologists have found that around 5,000 years ago, people started creating systems of characters and scripts to recount the stories they had experienced or witnessed.

As society advanced, these stories were not only written down but also printed in books…

Stage 3: Telling Stories Through Digital Media

In this third stage, people began to use photography, music, social media and more to tell stories and communicate with one another. Phones, TVs and computers are widely used media in today’s digital age. Combined with the strong support of the Internet, they have made it easy for people to tell stories in many different formats. From there, people bring their stories closer to the community through interaction.

What Are the Benefits of Storytelling for Businesses?

Today, Storytelling is no longer a new approach for many companies and businesses. It is so widely used because it delivers significant benefits, including the following:

Attract More Loyal Customers to Your Business

Storytelling often carries the vision of a company or business and serves to “retain” customers. Once customers understand a business, they trust the brand more. Over time, they become loyal customers of the company or business.

Support Your Business in Communications and Brand Promotion

Communication “masters” regard Storytelling as a fresh, natural way to promote a brand, and an extremely effective one. The story behind a company’s brand-building journey helps customers better understand the vision, mission and goals the company or business is working toward step by step.

Stories told by companies and businesses are usually grounded in real events and are easy to understand and remember. This gives customers a deeper awareness of the company’s brand. Afterward, customers tend to look up information about the products or services the company or business offers. Above all, remember that a meaningful story directly influences a customer’s decision to buy a product or use a service.

Build a Strong Competitive Edge Over Rivals

In practice, many companies and businesses compete in the same field. If your company has more compelling storytelling content, you will stand out more clearly from your competitors. Once customers feel the value your business wants to convey, buying your product or service becomes faster and easier.

Tap Into Customer Psychology and Attract Customers Successfully

Through Storytelling, customers can easily sense how a company or business was built and has grown. At the same time, they get a clearer picture of the products and services the business offers. Remember that stories based on real events tend to have an extremely strong psychological impact. For example, a company or business might choose to retell a mistake it made in the past…

On the other hand, the stories you share with customers should also be vivid and emotional so that they create more empathy. Once you understand your customers’ psychology, it becomes easier to draw their interest to your company or business.

Boost Productivity and Employee Engagement

Storytelling is also used effectively in a company’s internal communications. Specifically, corporate culture stories cover the company’s history, vision, mission, growth goals and more. Employees are an extremely important factor throughout this process. Storytelling helps employees better understand the values the company or business is building, which gives them more confidence in its sustainable growth.

The Difference Between Storytelling and Content Marketing

Storytelling and Content Marketing are both ways of using content to get closer to customers. Ultimately, the marketing activities of every company or business need both approaches, because they share the same goals:

– Attract the attention of potential customers

– Retain customers who have used or are using your products or services

– Build trust and maintain customer loyalty toward the company or business…

Even so, Storytelling and Content Marketing differ in scope. In fact, Content Marketing is a part of Storytelling.

Content Marketing is the production of content that informs and communicates with customers through different formats such as:

– Blogs

– Social media posts

– Images/videos

– E-books

– Webinars…

Storytelling, on the other hand, revolves around the brand-related messages a company or business conveys, including:

– How Content Marketing is carried out

– Social media content

– Website content

– A focus on conveying the company’s core values

– Messages that show what makes the company or business different

– The experience customers have when using the company’s products or services

– Customer reviews of the company or business

– How employees talk about the company or business to others

– Press releases

– All brand information across media channels.

Common Types of Storytelling

Here are the most common types of Storytelling in marketing:

Telling Stories With Numbers (Data Storytelling)

Data Storytelling is used to present revenue results along with the future plans a company or business is aiming for. This approach brings dry figures to life through the viewer’s perspective.

Telling Stories With Images (Visual Storytelling)

A story with images becomes more vivid and easier to picture. Visual content can be photography, video, graphics and more. Using visual storytelling content lets customers have authentic emotional experiences in the context a company or business has been through. This makes it easier for the company or business to reach customers with its brand message and retain them.

Basic Principles of Storytelling

In Storytelling, there are a few basic principles marketers need to master to carry out this marketing strategy as effectively as possible. The principles of Storytelling are based on the G.R.E.A.T. formula: Glue, Reward, Emotion, Authentic and Target.

Glue

Glue is the connection between the story you are telling and your readers. The story must connect with problems readers have experienced or are experiencing, building a sense of empathy, sharing and understanding in them. Glue also means the link between your marketing message and your brand. Make sure the story points to a specific belief about the product or service you offer. Avoid straying so far from your brand that customers wonder what you are actually advertising.

Reward

Reward is the value and benefit readers take away from each story you tell. For example, an inspiring weight-loss success, finding true love, landing the job they wanted, buying their dream home… or anything else your readers are looking for.

When you carry out Storytelling, focus on building trust with your readers. Show them that if they use the products or services your business offers, they will get what they have always wished for.

Emotion

The story a business tells also needs to affect readers’ emotions. A good, emotional story pulls readers in from beginning to end and creates a powerful ripple effect across the community. Whether the emotion is happiness, joy, anger or disappointment, each one leaves an impression on readers. In fact, emotion, not reason, is the main factor driving consumers’ purchasing decisions.

Authentic

Customers are extremely perceptive, so they can easily tell whether your story is genuine. That is why you should build a highly credible story. Do not weave in too many exaggerated elements that stray from reality.

Most importantly, you must deliver content tied to your real values and your brand. Honesty is the bridge that leads a business to every customer.

Target

A business needs to state clearly who its audience is and what its goals are. If you do not identify the right audience, the message and the story are as good as failed. The target audience is the core element of Storytelling. From there, you can develop and steer your story toward the audience you have defined

How to Write Storytelling Content in Marketing

Now that you understand what Storytelling is, you need to learn how to write Storytelling content. Here are The7’s suggestions:

Define the Story’s Perspective

Before writing Storytelling content, you need to define your own perspective on the story. Who is the main character? What things and events revolve around that character? Then sketch out every idea that comes to mind.

Don’t forget to put yourself in your customers’ shoes to understand them. Only then can you target what customers and the community are really looking for.

Outline the Plot

To carry out Storytelling, you have to create a plot. Naturally, the plot must give an overview of what the company or business wants to convey to customers. One tip: don’t make the plot too complicated, because the more concise a plot is, the easier it is to understand.

Refine and Make Choices

For your Storytelling piece to reach many people or communities, the content needs to be flexible and put the right emphasis at the right moments. This depends largely on polishing the story once you have the main character, plot and ideas. You need to select and adjust to create a finished product.

One tip from The7 for writing effective Storytelling is to ask yourself questions. For example: Which media channels will you choose? That makes it easier to adjust the content and how you present it so that it fits.

Storytelling Content Formats Worth Using

Storytelling content helps customers recognize your company’s brand among countless stories from other brands. Storytelling content formats you can use include:

– Storytelling through images: With this format, you need to script the image sequence in great detail to bring every line of text to life. You can use still images, illustrations or video, or add graphics, voiceover and music to make the story more engaging.

– Personalized stories: With this Storytelling content format, you can retell the story in a personal style to create a sense of closeness and familiarity in every line.

– Live-commentary Storytelling content: This format is often used in major TV programs, sporting events and the like. It requires you to be flexible and quick on your feet.

As social media grows, the ways of delivering information have become more varied. Building Storytelling through images, sound or video in particular is a trend for reaching customers that you should not overlook.

Tips for Writing Storytelling That Captures Customers’ Interest

Mastering the Storytelling writing tips below will help your company or business reach customers as effectively as possible.

Keep the Story Simple and Easy to Understand

When you start writing a Storytelling piece, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Most of them won’t care about long, rambling stories. So keep your story short and easy to understand, but don’t be careless about it!

To achieve this, you need to help customers understand why they should choose your company or business over others. Within your story, introduce the products or services and the brand of your company or business clearly and transparently.

Take Advantage of Multimedia

With multimedia, you tell the same story in several different ways, including:

– Conveying it through language

– Conveying it through images

– Telling it through music or video…

This way, you can present your story in many formats to create novelty and reach different customer audiences more easily. So in addition to good content, you also need to choose the content formats that fit.

Add an Emotional Element to the Story

Use emotion in your Storytelling pieces so customers can see themselves in the story you tell. This makes the story more likely to touch customers’ hearts and helps them remember your company or business more easily.

You can look at Storytelling examples from today’s well-known brands such as Tiki, Lazada and Grab… They have cleverly placed their brands in the hands of comedians or in music videos… The message needs to portray everyday stories so that audiences always feel close to it and enjoy it more.

Create a Short, Concise and Appealing Title

The title of a Storytelling piece needs to make an impression so readers keep following the story. When writing a title, aim to keep it short, concise and easy to understand.

In practice, many Storytelling headlines are clickbait that puts customers off. They are usually titles that are not transparent or that play on negative trends. So when writing a title, choose to spark customers’ curiosity rather than attack them.

Develop the Main Character

A well-directed Storytelling piece needs a main character who captivates customers. It is best to choose people who are highly relatable to customers so they can express customers’ aspirations in the story you want to tell.

Build a Logical Storytelling Structure

To keep any story coherent, you need to build the structure of the piece before working on the details. A Storytelling piece has a basic structure made up of:

– Introduction: A brief description of the character and the problems the character in your story faces. Remember that this is only the introduction, so keep it short and concise so readers understand the issue you want to talk about.

– Start of the conflict: The main character sets events in motion and pushes the audience’s emotions to a peak by making things more intense.

– Resolution: The main character offers a solution to the problems they face, while delivering the message the story wants to convey to readers. This is the moment to end your Storytelling.

Important Notes When Writing Storytelling

To help you write Storytelling that is compelling and engaging, The7 also shares the following notes:

– Invest time before you write

One important note: before writing Storytelling, set aside a certain amount of time to prepare the story. Think carefully about what you are about to write, such as the purpose of the story and the message you want to convey… You also need to decide exactly which content format and media channel to use. This lets you shape your approach to the writing and avoid spending a lot of time on revisions.

– Tell the story in a compelling, coherent way

A story that earns customers’ attention needs a coherent plot and a truly engaging voice. Specifically, the plot needs a beginning, a climax and an ending, along with a takeaway message. If any one of these elements is missing, your story becomes stifling and hard to follow.

In addition, the storytelling tone must suit the customer audiences your company or business is targeting. This also helps draw their attention to your brand.

– Don’t tell long, rambling stories

One more small tip: use plain, easy-to-understand language to tell your story and avoid writing at length or rambling. When customers see a post with too many words, they tend to skim past it without reading.

You have been reading What Is Storytelling? and how to make the stories you tell in marketing more authentic and persuasive. The7 hopes the knowledge above helps you better understand how to build your company’s story in customers’ minds. If you have questions about Storytelling, you can contact The7 directly through this website for quick support.

For all information about our full-service marketing, contact us today by Hotline: 082 246 7979 – 028 3899 7377 or visit https://the7digital.com/ for a consultation!