How to use storytelling to attract and engage the audience
Taking the path of storytelling is the key to success in online marketing. Gone are the days when you could talk aloud about products and services through advertisements with the hope that it will impress the buyers. The world of communication has changed a lot, and the strategies of advertising and marketing have also undergone a sea of changes. In a marked departure from the traditional strategies of advertising, the art of subtle marketing appeals more to the audience nowadays. The audience is more attracted to quality content related to products and services that appears to be more interesting to them. This has ushered in the new age of advertising and marketing that is based on feeding the audience with quality content.
“Content is king” is an often heard phrase in online marketing circles. It is not for nothing that content is holding the center stage among all other marketing and advertising strategies. The right content has the ability to increase traffic to websites in a way that no other marketing strategies can. This is a proven fact and needs no further corroboration. However, content marketing is not yet as widespread as it ought to be. The reason seems to be the lack of proper understanding about what it is and how it is to be done. Lack of clarity is preventing entrepreneurs from implementing content marketing in the right way (even though they are not completely ignoring it).
A simple approach
Taking a simple approach to understand content and content marketing is perhaps the best way to uncover its mysteries. Presenting content is much similar to storytelling. If you have a product or service to sell, start by building stories around it that will be attractive to the target audience. Next, tell the stories to them in a very engaging manner so as to make them eager to listen to you. Having done it, you have accomplished the task of feeding your audience with the right content, which is what content marketing is all about. Read on to know how you can gain mileage in marketing through the storytelling technique.
Story tellers are liked by all
While stories attract people of all ages, the listeners are almost equally attracted to the story tellers. Good storytelling abilities are highly appreciated and the people who can tell good stories are also loved by the audience. When you distribute high quality content, you enjoy the same kind of adulation from the audience and in turn the content makes a deep impact on them.
Creative content keeps the audience closely engaged and increases awareness about brands that leads to its popularity. The audience engagement is spread further through social sharing, which good content deserves. When the audience gains confidence in content that is consistently good and contains information about the products and services related to it, the brand or your name surfaces along with it. There are high chances that you will be contacted first when the need arises for the particular product or service.
Stories take you close to the target audience
Instead of looking for where the audience is, attract the audience by presenting attractive stories of a particular genre meant for some specific audience. In no time you will see the audience flocking to it, and it is the audience that is right for you. This is from where your business can take off. This gives a clue to business owners about the need for investing in content marketing experts. Storytelling helps to build relationships with the audience, invites them to your website repeatedly and keeps them engaged for long hours. It paves the way for making business happen.
Making the audience react
Content is looked upon as one of the most powerful vehicles of communication which is at the heart of any marketing effort. Presenting content in the form of stories would not only attract the audience but also make them react, which is something similar to a response to call to action. Stories have the innate power of triggering human emotions and being able to play on human emotions in the right way is the secret of success in business. However, questions may arise about the short reading span of online content that might hinder the chances of going through the entire content. The quality of content, if found to be excellent in telling what the audience wants to hear, will surely not deter viewers from spending more time to go through it from start to finish.
Content assures better return on investment
It’s true that you have to hire experts for developing content but it is an investment that is worth making. At the time of investing, it may strike to you about trying out other impacting ways of promoting content through news articles that carry valuable business information. When making the choice of investment, two things have to be kept in mind. Let’s discuss those aspects.
Content and new items, though supposedly meant to serve similar business goals, are entirely different in its impact and cost. Content is much more attractive than new items due to the way it is presented and this adds more value in terms of audience engagement. On the other hand, news items carry valuable information in a much more prosaic manner that does not assure audience engagement. You get more mileage from content marketing by spending less than traditional methods of branding with the assurance of much better engagement and conversion.
Blending tradition with modernity
Marketers are still hesitant to rely completely on content marketing despite its high impact on branding and marketing. The current trend is not to desert the traditional marketing strategies and brand building methods completely. Instead, a blend of both with content marketing as an added support to traditional marketing is what most businesses still prefer. It’s like getting the best of both worlds.
You can give your brand a voice and a body through consistent content development that gives it a special identity that the audience can relate to. It builds brand loyalty. The relations extend beyond the logo and brand and touch the business owners who take up the garb of storytellers.
Author Bio : Derek Iwasiuk is a Minneapolis based entrepreneur who runs a SEO company. Devising ways to contact engage the crowd is a specialty area that has given him fame. He is consulted by top SEO firms for sharing his professional expertise with them. You can follow him on twitter @Diwasiuk. He loves to educate those interested in SEO.