The number one thing that all the best stories have in common is the same things that you can implement in your marketing and advertising to drive more results. This is specifically true if you are taking a story-driven approach.
The world of marketing and advertising is immensely focused on how to capture the audience’s attention and then maintain that attention over time. The answer to this question is that there is a common characteristic shared among all the best stories, movies, and television shows, which you can take and implement to drive better results.
Storytelling – An Overview
Storytelling starts with a hook so strong that your readers stay engaged, and your viewers cannot look away. Storytelling is not only for adults but also for kids. For instance, if you are working on a picture book, and you want to capture the young reader’s interest from the first to the last book, you might want to hire an illustrator so the professional can make drawings according to the written content as a way to perfect the art of storytelling and ensuring that the young readers don’t lose their attention span and they stick to the last page.
Nonetheless, apart from the illustrations, your storyline must be interesting, too. In the case of the previous example, if you want to create a picture book, you must ensure that the story follows a simple plot:
- Conflict
- Solution
- Moral Lesson
Now, when it comes to storytelling and how you can use it in marketing to boost sales and get more customers onboard, you might want to omit the moral lesson, but you will definitely want to intertwine conflict and solution. And all of this starts with a great hook.
The Importance of Having Conflict and How to Integrate it in Marketing
Assess your favorite books and think about what hooked you to the story in the first place? The obvious answer is that there was some sort of conflict going on in the character’s life that needed some fixing. So, what is conflict? Simply put – conflict is a challenge that needs to be overcome. It is also the question in the viewer’s mind whether they need to continue watching the movie or they need to continue reading the book to find out the answer.
It is important to remember here that conflict doesn’t have to always be dramatic and catastrophic. Sometimes, it is simply a question that you place in your viewer’s mind, which is why conflict is super important for you to use in your sales and marketing strategy.
When you use conflict, you can guide the audience to where they should pay attention. As humans, we mostly pay attention to the things that need answers or need solving.
You might want to think of it from the following perspective: you might have watched “Breaking Bad,” which happens to be one of the most popular television shows today. Imagine how boring this show would have been if nothing terrible ever happened to Walter White and if it was all sunshine and rainbows.
If it would have all been sunshine and rainbows, no one would have ever watched that show. Or, should we rather say that in the absence of conflict, no one would have gotten hooked on the storyline and intrigued to find out what happens in the next episode?
This aspect serves as an example of how you can implement conflict in your marketing and advertising to get the reader’s attention, draw home a message, and prompt them to perform a desired action. At the simplest level, you may start by thinking about the potential challenges and pain points that your audience might be facing that your offering, whether it is your product or service, can actually solve.
You will want to start there rather than coming right out the gate with your potential features and benefits, which is also going to make your marketing more effective and engaging.
How to Use Storytelling to Your Benefit?
When it comes to making sales and spreading brand awareness, you will want to understand how to incorporate storytelling to your benefit. The thing is that no one wants to watch or read someone talking blatantly about how great your company is.
But if you start with a story about a problem that you faced or something that stood in the way of them getting what they want and then how you actually helped them get there – this aspect is going to be so much more relatable to the audience in a way that holds their attention because they will be questioning themselves about what is going on.
They will be questioning how you can actually get their problems solved. So, what you will be doing by implementing conflict is that you will be creating something that is known as open loops in the reader’s mind where you are keeping them interested and engaged to the point where they want to find out what the answer is. This way, the readers or your target audience will stick with you longer.
Where to Start?
Now that you understand how you can use storytelling as a way to improve your business, you might want to start by outlining the problem. When it comes to creating the outline for great hooks, you will want to start with outlining the problem.
People consume content and look for products and services to solve problems, so you will want to craft the hook by addressing their problems, for which you will have to understand what the problem of your target audience is and why they would choose your business over others.
So, when you start writing your hook, you should confirm the audience’s problem by either addressing it directly or implicitly and getting right to the benefit. If you give away the solution right away, people won’t have a reason to read your entire content or watch your entire video, which is why you will want to balance things by omitting the solution and focusing on the benefits first.
