Why Storytelling Matters in the Digital Age

With Business2Community reporting that 80% of consumers do a “great deal” of online research before a major purchase (with an additional 46% saying that social media plays a factor), it is easy to get swept up in all the flash of social media marketing, SEO, and other digital marketing solutions. Unfortunately, it’s also all too easy to forget that your marketing is only as effective as your storytelling capabilities (when it comes to your brand, anyway).

In order to help you better facilitate your digital storytelling prowess, we put together a list of the most important things you should be considering for your digital content strategy.

Strong Visual Elements

Have you ever watched a truly great storyteller? Each gesture, each twitch of the eyebrow shades the story, adding context and meaning that the words alone lack. These shortcuts aren’t available on a digital platform, but that doesn’t mean the visual component is not needed or necessary.

That is why it is so important to pay attention to your website design. At the base level, your storytelling starts with everything from the colors used to the shape of your logo to your font selection, all of which your digital marketing team should be cognizant. To really take your visual storytelling to the next level, artfully incorporate multimedia elements such as videos, animations, and photography, which represent the most direct and universal way to tell stories digitally.

Emotional Appeal

Have you ever wondered why underdog stories are so popular? It’s because they create a shared empathy with the audience that sparks a deep emotional investment in the main character’s success.

Through your web content, you can help to develop a similar emotional connection with your clients. To do this, your digital marketing team will need the courage to create an authentic and intimate profile of your company on every important landing page. Highlight what makes your company human in addition to what makes it successful. Humanizing your company can be as simple as recognizing the emotions that might have led that person to your website for your solutions, and that emotional validation your company provides can be a powerful stepping stone for the user to take the next step to becoming a customer.

A Digital Story Doesn’t Have an Ending

Your company’s story isn’t finished after you have achieved digital marketing success. In order to maintain your momentum, your team will need to continue to develop and grow your organization’s story and share its experiences — this includes mistakes and triumphs. Your social media campaigns can be used to keep your clients engaged with every twist and turn in your company’s story, the good and the bad — at least when there is no risk of damage to your brand.

This type of ongoing storytelling will help you improve the amount of engagement between you and your clientele, which will in turn help to create a more loyal relationship between your organization and those you serve.

All puns aside, storytelling remains as important in the digital age as it ever was. With the help of your digital marketing team and the advice above, you can use your company’s story to engage and connect with your existing customers and attract new ones.