Just like Wrexham AFC, every business has a story to tell. As humans, we really like stories. Stories are compelling, relatable, and emotive. The most successful businesses harness the human instinct to engage with stories in their content strategies, by telling stories to build deeper relationships with customers.

No matter how long or short the story, a good story always evokes emotion. Stories skilfully guide audiences on a journey resulting in an emotional outcome. The emotional response is what fosters the connection between brand and consumer. Let’s look at Red Bull – the drink that gives you wings in all kinds of situations.

Red Bull

The wings became synonymous with escaping from situations we all wish we could get out of. It resonated with audiences by creating empathy. “I wish I could have wings to get out of that too”, “it’s funny”, and many more responses. Creating a connection through a memorable narrative made the brand unforgettable.

Both clever marketing and narrative prowess went into this story. The physical effect of caffeine on the body is to provide a mental and physical boost. The idea of caffeine, and other ingredients, giving wings provides a literal representation for the effect of the drink. The Red Bull brand is built around the successful marketing of the drink. Their story centres on the flagship product and the brand became synonymous with being uplifting and ‘giving you wiiiings’. It is an example of a brand connecting with their customers and creating a product that people want to experience.

Connection and purpose

Businesses who tell a story have success because stories provide connection. Engaging with an audience through a story humanises businesses and makes them memorable to people. The purpose of storytelling is connection. The purpose of marketing is to interest people in the products or services a business offers to achieve a commercial goal.

Aligning with the purpose of connecting, stories and marketing are natural partners. Embracing this partnership elevates a business’s audience communication strategy. Stories engage audience attention, which is the goal of all businesses. Choose to connect on purpose through the art of storytelling.

A business story worth telling

The best way to connect with people is to authentically share what makes your business unique. A lot of businesses fail to see the relevance of their own stories, processes, and services, so they miss the chance to connect with their customers on deeper levels.

Most businesses have exciting stories, and primary reason your products and services exist are to solve problems. That is why your story is relevant to your customers and should be shared as part of your branding. Telling your story adds value and gives you a level of control over your business narrative.

Your story for your consumer

Every business should tell their story. They should own their journey and showcase it, demonstrating learning, expertise, and service. There is nothing worse than hearing your story as told by someone else and that becoming the story associated with your business.

Sharing stories gives businesses the capability to scale and to gain recognition for practices which make them unique. Customers choose to align with brands that have purpose. An open and honest business story communicating the values of sustainability, for example, will attract customers who feel sustainability is a part of their buying journey. Consumer Goods Technology say that a huge 82% of customers want the brands that shop with to have values which match their ow, and if they don’t they go elsewhere.

Telling your story with clarity, conviction, and charisma is worth doing. Customers become loyal to your brand if they connect with your story. Business storytelling is a means of fostering community connections with customers that increase return custom and brand loyalty. Embracing storytelling as part of a communication strategy brings consumer connection on a deeper level.

Storytelling as a strategy

The use of story in a business content strategy is endless. Applying it to both long and short form content, storytelling is a way to look at marketing differently; from a more consumer-centric perspective.

Harnessing the power of storytelling as a marketing tool is different from understanding the purpose of storytelling for your business. Although a story can be told to a consumer for their enjoyment, using storytelling as a marketing tool requires strategy. Fact and narrative must blend seamlessly, the voice of the business narrating a story echoing the perspective of the consumer.

A business story delivering facts in a mundane way will have no impact upon the target audience. The story must be authentic, use a recognisable business voice and most importantly, provide emotional connection which resonates with your target audience to be persuasive.

Emotional connection

Delivering a business story is a like connecting with a friend. Finding a common interest to share is part of creating the connection. Trying to connect with everyone is an unrealistic goal. As a business telling a story you need to know which of your customers you want to talk to. Having an audience profile to visualise the customer you are talking to helps you to create an authentic conversation to share.

Delivering authentic content is crucial to building brand integrity with your audience. The process of making a connection functions in the same way as if you were making a connection in person. The story must resonate. It must be told for your audience.

Tell the story for the audience

Business storytelling requires specialised delivery. The key characters are the business and its consumers, who exist in a living, breathing, evolving world rich in experience and backstory. Capturing the essence of this experience is crucial to delivering the story.

Delivery of a business story should be strategized and targeted to deliver a key message about the business to a specific subset of your target audience. This ensures your story will resonate and builds a rewarding connection for both customer and business.

Delivering the story from the perspective of the business is not acceptable. Delivery must be in the tone of the business, but always from the perspective of your audience. Writing that is egotistical is unappealing.

Silently persuading your customer to take action through the narrative and emotional connection the story fosters is part of the skill of business storytelling. Knowing how to deliver the story with impact, integrity, and ingenuity is key. Following the 5 w’s will help to build a persuasive narrative and connect with your audience.

The 5 w’s

Creating a persuasive and effective business story requires an understanding of the following 5 w’s in storytelling:

• What the business story is and how it should be told.
• Who the customer is.
• Why this story is relevant to the consumer.
• When is the story to be shared; when did it happen?
• Where to publish it; where is it set?

Storytelling with the five w’s helps answer queries and questions which consumers will have about the values, services, and products a company provides. Marketing to meet this consumer curiosity helps to construct a narrative.

Narrative branding

Building narratives with colour is also part of answering the five w’s. Think of them as the w’s of consumer curiosity. Points of customer engagement to be shared in the business stories communicated. Building your voice into that communication is key to building recognition and affinity with your customers, talking to them with recognisable tones and phrases to strengthen connections.

Some strategically chosen words should become synonymous with your style of story. A brand guide helps to keep this conversation on track when multiple people are responsible for disseminating your business stories across multiple platforms. This prevents words, phrases, and values that don’t fit with your brand slipping through and potentially causing offence to your community of customers. Your story and your content is an extension of your product and your image.

Building relationships

Business storytelling for marketing purposes is not about selling. It is about building customer relationships to increase brand awareness, increase brand loyalty, and to develop brand integrity. The impact of this is usually increased sales, but this is not the purpose of, or how a business story should be conveyed.

Overt and continuing communication pushing sales fails to engage customers. Brands who recognise and value their customers will naturally sell more. By sharing business stories brands foster authentic relationships with customers who place value in the products and services offered by a business. By sharing stories about the business customers feel connection, caring about the business as if it were a friend. The stories become memorable and shareable, with brands gaining word of mouth marketing for free from customers who resonate and relate with the stories they share.

Sharing stories

Business stories can be shared across many mediums. Business stories can be visual, written, aural, or a combination of all three. Sharing stories to business to business or business to consumer audiences adds value to your business. Communicating stories in short form social media captions or print advertisements, in long form digital formats like blogs or through printed publications like magazines adds value. Stills with captions, reels or videos, businesses can share their stories and add value. Choosing the format that works best for their business, through an informed evaluation of their target audiences means business stories have the power to target audiences 24/7, at a time when the consumer s ready to engage. The value of marketing using business storytelling is high.

Bringing value

Employing business storytelling as a marketing strategy brings high value rewards to businesses. Including benefits such as:

• Building brand awareness and recognition.
• Creating customer loyalty through deep emotional connections that lead to word of mouth marketing which is free and highly valuable. This type of marketing is likely to attract other customers who will place greater value in peer recommendations than any marketing content you produce.
• Cultivating authentic customer relationships.
• Growing your business through inbound techniques which increase sales and customer engagement and retention.
• Avoiding uncomfortable and costly cold sales pitching.
• Standing out from the marketing crowd by championing an authentic story.

The value of storytelling for any business is indisputable when deployed effectively and it is a content strategy every business can use. It is an accessible and underutilised marketing tool, with the potential to add value to all aspects of your business. Telling your business story s a content marketing strategy worth considering.

Conclusion

Business storytelling is a hidden marketing tool, bringing businesses better revenues, greater customer loyalty and connection, and growth. It’s a hidden asset that your business needs to be using. Remember that when you next tune into the Emmy nominated Welcome to Wrexham; you’re watching a business story.

Business stories are the words that work. Xiliant offers a no obligation chat so why not give us a call to see how we could help you share your business story. Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about business stories, why not take a look at our insight into content pillars. It’s an insightful read sharing part of the journey of strategizing and constructing a business story.