Why is Storytelling Needed for Business?

When was the last time you heard a good story? Was it when you were reading a book or watching a movie? Stories are one of the most powerful mediums to connect, persuade, and influence people. That’s why storytelling can actually play a crucial role in business. 

What is storytelling in business? 

Instead of facts and figures, compelling stories communicate and connect better with employees, customers, partners, and basically everyone else that may be part of your business. People nowadays don’t really favor one-way conversations in sales pitches, promotions and advertisements. Sometimes it’s not just about the product that attracts customers, but also the process and service behind it. For instance, ads of the car industry don’t just how the specifications and engineering features of their products. Instead, they focus on utilizing stories of freedom, safety, or family to evoke emotional reactions from their potential customers. 

The Benefits of Storytelling in Business

Storytelling is a powerful marketing tool with many benefits, which includes: 

• Memorable

A plain statistic of your products can be quite hard to remember on its own. Combining a bit of story and context to your advertisements can actually make your product be remembered up to 22 times more according to Jennifer Aaker, a Marketing Professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. 

• Triggering Emotions & Encouraging Actions

Your business story doesn’t have to be particularly elaborate or even include an earth-shattering history. Through a genuine narrative that oozes with transparency can highly influence how customers celebrate your business’ uniqueness and acknowledge the human size of your brand. Use small details and add a local touch to further make your story appealing, and more likely to trigger emotions that can encourage action.

• Develop Loyalty

Once your customers have emotionally connected with your products and brand, the chances of them returning are highly increased. Your business start to be seen as something bigger than a brand or your product portfolio, and your customers start to see that your business is likely working towards a big cause and prompts them to support your brand even more. 

Tips on making a good story for business

• Choose your story concept 

Go over which characteristics of your brand, business, or products that you’d like to highlight. Maybe your company’s work culture, goals, or values and consider the tonality that suits your brand the most. Try giving these questions & parameters a look and see if they can help your business narrow things down: 

1. Who is telling the story? Will it be the founders, employee, or another character?
2. Why should your customers know about the story? You can hook them with a glimpse into the purpose of your business and showcase your uniqueness. 
3. What have you achieved or trying to achieve? Sure your story can give your customers an idea of how a product or your brand comes from, but by showing your outcome it can spark confidence in your offerings and values. 

• Use the right format

A good story can only be received and understood when it is properly distributed. Explore different channels and figure out which ones are easy for your team to use and help your strategies succeed. Some of the more popular ones include: 

1.  Podcast
2. Blog posts 
3. Newsletters
4. Infographics
5. Motion graphics
6. Case Studies
7. Videos

Storytelling for business is not a one-time effort, and consistency is essential to deliver the results your business is hoping to get. With a compelling story, your business, brand, and products can seem more relatable and accessible, making them much more attractive to new customers and retain them by evoking their emotions and loyalty. 

Discover the full potential of storytelling to develop your business by tuning in to our online webinar on February 25th, 2023, featuring Mia Rubianti, a Senior Partnership Officer at a leading storytelling agency based in Jakarta. If you'd like to know more about storytelling for business, you can register yourself and join our webinar by click this link.

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