Storytelling is one of the most important skills a business can possess in content marketing It allows you to evoke emotion in your audience, and emotional engagement gives your customers a sense of belonging and can help you to express your values better. Storytelling as a technique is all about telling the story of your ‘brand’ via multiple channels and using various tools and methods to do so.
And yes, storytelling content can come in many different forms. It can be a video, photography, an article that you post on your blog, and more.
Consumers tend to remember information far better when it is presented in the form of a story rather than as a list of facts. But there are right and wrong ways to tell a story. Read on to learn the five essential elements of a successful storytelling.
There’s No Story Without the 5 Cs
The 5 Cs of a story provide its structure and give it the best chance of making a meaningful impact from the outset. When these fundamentals of storytelling combine, you will ensure that your message is clearly communicated, leaving no room for confusion or ambiguity amongst your audience.
A good introduction tells the audience the basics of what they need to know in the opening section of a story and should give the viewer or reader enough to know whether the information in the rest of the piece will be relevant to their needs. Even it is relevant, you still need to hook your audience in early, so they won’t look want to leave to look for that information somewhere else. So, first, you need to lay out the circumstances. This is where you establish your subject and provide critical information to your story with an attention-grabbing headline.
After grabbing attention, next you need to try to continually pique the audience ’s curiosity. When something is mentioned in which we already have an interest, or which sparks a new interest, we naturally want to find out more. Hints and teasers can be used to give just enough information to stimulate interest and curiosity to keep watching or read on. Use this element to leave the reader wanting more, including in your headlines.
Presenting strong characters in your stories help your customers to create connections. In branding, your character can present a person with a problem and the audience will have a desire to root for him or her in overcoming it. Characters create someone that your customers can relate to. If you are producing video advertising, using real employees instead of actors will reinforce empathy in the story you are telling. Ask yourself this question: “Are the characters in my story relatable?”
Do you think you can make people talk about your story? Creating conversation will boost the popularity of your campaign. People might not remember your story word for word, but they will always remember what they felt when they read or watched it. In order to create memorable moments that people want to talk about, you should aim to invoke emotion in your audience. Your audience will use word of mouth or the power of the social media to create the conversation you desire.
Conflict is the last of the five Cs of storytelling. We usually try to avoid conflict, but if you think about it, every story contains some form of. Conflict is simply the presentation of a problem followed by a solution. Whether you make video content or publish your story as written material, you should always present a problem and, a struggle, and eventually how it was resolved. The product or service you are offering can be the solution in these scenarios.
Using storytelling in your content marketing makes the information you are communicating more engaging to your audience. If you can provide them with what they want to hear and focus on developing the right story, storytelling can be one of the most valuable marketing tools you have at your disposal. Here you can check some of the most famous examples of storytelling from large corporations around the world. And next time you launch a marketing campaign, don’t forget to ensure your storytelling includes the 5Cs!
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