Storytelling is more than an art form. It’s also a very - if not the most -powerful content marketing tool out there. When used well, it’s a superpower that maximizes your business’ profit, visibility, and impact.
Research done by the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies show that stories affect people in a very different way than standard presentations. Storytelling has a much higher impact on the audience than presenting mere facts and figures.
What is storytelling?
As long as you’re talking to human beings, stories are the way to go. Regardless of where someone is from or what language they speak. We’re all hardwired to love a good story. It’s been this way ever since we started walking upright.
From swapping stories around a campfire to Instagram; storytelling is the natural way in which we communicate. We use stories to make sense of our world and to connect with one another.
But somehow in business we ended up communicating through spreadsheets, executive summaries and boring slides. Not very exciting, right?
Storytelling enables people to experience and better understand complex information. And, maybe even more important, storytelling makes it easier for people to remember this complex information.
In short, good stories grab our attention, foster understanding, and help us remember.
How to build a good corporate story?
By now, you’re probably wondering how to get started with storytelling for your business.
First thing, corporate stories don’t differ too much from regular stories. Every story follows roughly a similar story structure that consists of 7 elements.
1. There’s a hero, who
2. faces a problem, then
3. meets a guide, who
4. provides the hero with a plan to solve the problem, after which
5. the stakes become clear which moves the hero to action, so
6. the hero can avoid failure, and
7. delivers success.
This universal structure is what all good and captivating stories have in common. In our next blog we'll dig deeper into this structure and teach you how to unleash your inner storyteller for the creation of effective corporate stories.
Show, don't tell—why visuals are crucially important.
The way you tell your story is nearly as important as the story itself. It’s crucial you think about how you can communicate your story most effectively. This is where strong visuals come in.
When someone tells you a story your brain simultaneously activates up to seven areas, including the area that processes images. You can process images 60,000 times faster than language. Basically, you respond to what you see more than anything else. Which is why visual stories are so impactful.
But stories also influence your other senses, such as touch, hear, taste, and even smell. In a 2006 study published in the journal NeuroImage, researchers in Spain concluded that words with strong scent associations, such as “perfume” and “coffee,” make our primary olfactory cortex light up. You can actually smell that cup of good coffee when someone tells you a story about it.
The online space offers tremendous opportunity for telling visually stunning and engaging stories digitally. Think about photos, videos, animations, and even virtual or augmented reality. Whether you’re using Instagram or a Zoom meeting to engage with your audience - what people see counts as much as what you say.
Visual stories help you pay attention. The more focused you are, the more information you can retain. Your mind works like an infinite visual library. A library that stores information that allows you to make sense of the world. Visualizing your corporate story helps you grab your audience attention. So you can stay a float and stand out amidst an ocean of words and information overload.
Digital storytelling combines the power of a good story with the impactful effects of visuals. It’s an interactive and effective way to get emotionally resonant stories across.
"Your mind works like an infinite visual library. A library that stores information that allows you to make sense of the world. Visualizing your corporate story helps you grab your audience attention."
What benefits does corporate storytelling deliver?
There are many ways you can explore digital storytelling for your business. You can use it to add more value to your customer experience. It can take your experience marketing to a higher level. You can use it to transform plain presentation slides into engaging stories or to breathe new life into your quarterly financial reports.
There are companies out there that have turned customers into loyal fans and brand ambassadors through storytelling. Brands like; Microsoft, Gatorade and Under Armour have mastered the art of digital storytelling. They've adopted this as an integral part of their business practice. They use stories to turn every customer touchpoint into an opportunity for personalized interaction.
You can also use storytelling for your company’s internal marketing and business communication. Use stories to create a sense of community among your employees and grow a strong company culture.
Anyone and everyone in your organization can benefit from storytelling - sales, marketing, product, customer success, HR, and even procurement and finance. After all, stories are one of the most effective ways to communicate complex information.
And we all have something to say that we want others to know and understand.
Getting started with storytelling may seem a bit daunting at first. You probably have tons of information available that you’d like to turn into visually compelling stories. Yes, this will take time. But it’s time well spent. Storytelling can unlock a whole new world of business opportunity and profit.
You can also use storytelling for your company’s internal marketing and business communication. Use stories to create a sense of community among your employees and grow a strong company culture.
Anyone and everyone in your organization can benefit from storytelling - sales, marketing, , product, customer success, HR, and even procurement and finance. After all, stories are one of the most effective ways to communicate complex information. And we all have something to say that we want others to know and understand.
Do you want to know more about how digital storytelling can benefit your business? Get in touch with us. We are more than happy to show you the different ways in an exploratory conversation.
