Everyone loves a good story. That’s why bedtime stories have always been a hit among kids and also why blockbuster movies make it to the box office. It’s all because of, you guessed it, a great storyline.
Here’s the thing. There’s something about a good story that builds a personal connection with human beings. Stories that are relatable will always have a long-lasting impact. Such stories also build and enhance loyalty and top-of-mind awareness.
Storytelling is no different in business, especially in the digital age where online presence and eCommerce are the ultimate growth frontiers for businesses today.
You see, brands out there are pulling all the stops, shoving all sorts of messages in the audiences’ faces, all in an effort to sell them something. It’s an admirable effort. But much like infomercials, all these tactics get boring and annoying with time.
Driven by unprecedented growth, the noise in the eCommerce space is deafening. According to Shopify, the global eCommerce market is expected to total $4.89 trillion in 2021.
Image Source: Shopify
Ecommerce sales also grew significantly, reporting an impressive 27.6 percent jump for 2020 for a total of $4.280 trillion despite the global health crisis, which was largely expected to stifle growth across major industries.
Image Source: eMarketer
But despite the staggering eCommerce growth, people still crave interactions with a human touch.
This is where storytelling comes in.
Stiff and cutthroat competition between brands notwithstanding, marketers need to go back to the basics if they really want to grab their audiences’ attention and storytelling is a tried-and-tested tactic that delivers just that.
Storytelling can be the best of both worlds. Getting your key brand messages out there while capturing emotions and prompting your audience to act the way you want.
Storytelling is the process of creating compelling narratives that capture the audiences’ imagination and create an immersive experience for the consumer.
The core objective of storytelling from a business perspective is to integrate the all-important human touch so that your audience can relate to you and your products/services.
With this in mind, modern marketers are now increasingly using storytelling as part of their overall digital marketing strategy as their weapon of choice. This is mostly due to the fact that consumers react better to great stories – not just promotions or rock-bottom offers, but good old-fashioned stories.
However, not just any story can help you to grab customers’ attention let alone inspire them to buy from you.
You can bang on about your one-of-a-kind, ground-breaking, record-breaking product or service all you want but without an underlying storyline, your messages will simply be lost amid other messages.
Great stories that deliver results need to be well thought out. They need to have a deeper and compelling meaning so as to capture your audiences’ imagination and finally motivate them to act the way you need them to.
eCommerce businesses that are struggling to stand out in an otherwise crowded digital marketplace need to borrow a leaf from brands that have mastered the art of business storytelling. Let’s take a look at some iconic stories real quick.
In 1988, sports apparel giant Nike developed a thirty-second video advert that was inspired by 80-year old Walt Hack – a man who ran 17 miles every morning topless along the Brooklyn Bridge. The ad was simple but the message packed a decent punch.
Nike was simply but strategically addressing the stereotype that sport was not for everybody. The tagline – Just Do It – resonated exceptionally well with their target audience and has since become synonymous with the brand.
Diageo put together a television ad that aimed at promoting inclusivity within rugby where they highlight the incredible and heartwarming story of the Japanese ladies rugby team, Liberty Fields RFC.
Image Source: YouTube
According to Niall Mckee, Head of Guinness Stout Europe at Diageo, the inspiring story of Liberty Fields RFC captured the ‘Made of More’ campaign brilliantly. The story was timely and relevant to what was happening in the world at the moment. It was an authentic story that Guinness was able to tell and capitalize on.
These are just two iconic stories that have had a lasting impression — just think about the fact that we’re still talking about them decades later. The general idea was to strike a chord with consumers using real-life experiences and life-changing moments and, in turn, position the respective companies strategically as brands of choice when it comes to buying. And, oh boy, did they do that!
Storytelling in itself is not exactly a hard mountain to climb. With the right story idea and execution, your eCommerce business can tell great stories that ultimately boost leads and convert more customers.
Marketers are spending a good chunk of their time trying to figure out how to stand out in a crowded digital marketplace. While most of them know that storytelling is an effective tactic to help them get their brand messages out there, most of them do not have the slightest clue on how to go about it.
Coming up with a solid storytelling strategy that will eventually help you to attract and retain customers is crucial. Below is a list of strategies that you can use for your eCommerce business.
Every business has a backstory to tell. Most eCommerce startups that have been built from the ground up have a moving story that their target audience would love to hear. Such stories are a good place to start.
They are a gold mine because they are usually driven by passion, personality, and, most importantly, a human face. For example, you can highlight some of the challenges you encountered while starting your business and how you finally overcame them to finally get to where you are now.
Just like your business, your customers also have great stories to tell. As part of your engagement with your customers, you should be constantly on the lookout for stories that you can relate to or other customers can identify with.
Such stories can enhance your chances of connecting with your customers at an emotional level. You can look for stories of how your products helped your customers through a difficult time, how they helped them shine, or, simply put, how they made them happy.
But your products don’t even have to be in the mix. You can create amazing story-telling campaigns by simply letting the amazing stories of your amazing customers stand out. This strategy works because of the principle of association: just like in the Nike story, everyone wants to be associated with someone who beat all the odds. So they will most likely start by buying from the same brand.
Even though we live in a highly digitalized world with most brands deploying automation and bots to interact with their audiences, humanizing your brand is super important. Storytelling with a human face can help your customers understand your brand better and not just what they are buying.
For example, if you are introducing a new product in the market, don’t just do an unveiling activity. Introduce an emotional aspect to why your team came up with it in the first place.
Stories that have a happy ending work like magic. A good example is a story that highlights a persistent problem that your product or service finally solved for a customer. That’s a happy ending right there.
Such stories highlight the customer’s journey of finding the right solution to his or her problem and how they finally managed to get a solution thanks to you. But even as you tell such stories, do not exaggerate. Your stories need to be authentic and realistic in order to work.
Find stories that will touch your target audience and drive them to act the way you need them to. It’s easier than it sounds, really! You just have to open up your mind to the stories that are all around you.
Great stories are everywhere, you just need to look in the right place, package them strategically, and share them with your audience.
