Storytelling is part of our evolution. It’s how early humans passed on knowledge for survival and a better way of life. New Research also suggests that within a hunter-gatherer community, a good storyteller is valued above most others. Meaning that community members would rather hear a good story than eat a good meal.
So what does this have to do with your marketing? Well it’s all about understanding human behaviour especially if that behaviour is so ingrained that it dates back to prehistoric times. Telling stories should be a focus in your marketing and here are my top 5 reasons why.
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Entertainment.
- Capturing the attention of an entire audience can be difficult. Especially when it comes to your marketing material. One of the most effective ways to do this is to tell good stories. Focusing on this will lead to higher number of watch minutes, longer website visits, and stronger engagement overall. The reason is that when you focus on the story, the viewer gets drawn in much more than if you share a list of services you provide.
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Connect with People On An Emotional Level
- Although telling sad, emotional stories can be effective I mean that more specifically any good story speaks directly to the emotional core of the brain. The cerebral cortex is responsible for higher brain function; everything from language, to emotion, and decision making. Basically it’s the impulse buying part of the brain that you need to connect with. Not that purchasing from you should be an impulse but it drives all decision making. So if you connect on an emotional level, your audience will be more likely to hold a belief that you are selling something that they need.
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People want to share good stories
- Good stories are a form of social currency. When we hear good stories we want to share them because it provides us a lot of benefits. Benefits like social status and being in the know. Remember that study I was talking about? Well one of the ways they came to their conclusion was that they gave rice to villagers to share with anyone they wanted. What they found was that those who were identified as being the better storytellers received more rice than anyone. So it’s not surprising that we all want to be perceived as a good storyteller.
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Stories are memorable
- There is a very good reason why early humans used stories to share lessons about survival, morals, and values and that’s because they are memorable. Before written language, all we had was the tradition of telling stories and often those were passed down from generation to generation. How that was able to continue is by memory alone because good stories stick with us.
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Most Effective Way to Communicate.
- Think of your Brand as the moral to a good story or the lesson or Takeaway. You want people to know who you are and what you stand for, a story is the best way to convey that message. It really comes down to all of the above. That’s why storytelling is effective. Because of our own history and evolution, because of the way we are wired to respond to and consume stories, it is hard to deny that can be extremely effective.
When you’re looking for inspiring stories to tell, you often don’t have to look very far. Start with origin stories of your company, including your people or products. Dive deep to show us where that passion and drive comes from because at the end of the day your audience isn’t going to connect with just features and benefits or a list of services. They are going to connect with the people and the great stories they have to tell.
