Storytelling is the most effective way to engage and persuade people, especially when it comes to marketing your brand. But, how can you do it online to better market your brand and build closer connections with your audiences? Here’s our guide to Storytelling online, a more effective way to build your brand.

What Is Storytelling And Why Is It Effective

We’ve already discussed what storytelling is and how your brand can use it, but we haven’t actually talked about why it’s so effective! People’s brains are hardwired to respond to tales. In our, every day lives this and gossip make up 65% of our conversations. It’s a way we can learn more about others and they can better understand ourselves. As we’ve been communicating through stories for over 40,800 years we’re very good at it, and it’s not going away any time soon. That is why it is the most effective form of marketing we have!

Persuasion

Stories are a great way to influence decisions and create experiences. Your customers will think in terms of cause and effect based on their own previous experiences, and these create experiences. Use this format to influence your audience’s decisions by making them think that your idea is their own. This is a kind of emotional marketing. Instead of manipulating a reader, you are actually warming them up, drawing them in with your content in order to persuade them to react more positively to your brand.

How To Engage With Storytelling

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Metaphors

Metaphors can ensure that stories engage your audience even further. The more vivid the metaphor, the more engaging and engaged they will be. A February 2012 study by Emory University looked at the metaphors’ effect on brain activity. Participants who read sentences such as “The singer had a pleasing voice” or “He had strong hands” only triggers the Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area of their brain. However, other participants who read sentences such as “The singer had a velvety voice” or “he has leathery hands” triggered the sensory cortex in the brain, developing a much deeper connection that is more memorable for the reader.

Senses

As we’ve explained above this format of content triggers sensory reactions, meaning they are more engaging and memorable for the reader. Think about using words that evoke the senses in your next storytelling campaign. These could be words you associate with sounds, warmth or touch or even strong words such as “perform” or “coffee” that evoke that smell or taste in the mind of the reader.

Movement

Try to encourage action or movement in your content as these will ensure that your reader’s take action, responding to what you’re saying. Don’t use overused words when telling a story, in fact, try to remove these from your marketing campaigns altogether. These are words such as figures of speech;

• For example – “a rough day”
  • • • “awkward”
      • “Not gonna lie”

Or overused buzz words and adjectives such as;

• “Responsible
• “Proactive”
• “Creative”

Overall, the role of storytelling, if done effectively is staggering in marketing. Storytelling allows deeper and more memorable engagements that secure your brand with life-long customers who buy in to your stories.