Storytelling is one of the best tools in marketing. It can be used to connect with customers, educate them on your products or services, and even persuade them to buy.
What’s a Story?
What exactly is a story? You can think of it as a narrative that communicates an idea or message to an audience. Stories are everywhere, including in advertising and marketing. Like all great stories, they have a beginning (a hook), middle (the conflict) and end (resolution). For instance: “Once upon a time there was a man named Bob who lived in Long Island and loved pizza more than anything else in the world…” The hook here is that Bob loves pizza so much he wants to eat it every day — but there’s just one problem: he lives far away from the best pizzerias on Long Island! That’s where we find him at the beginning of our story…
Types of Storytelling in Marketing
- Brand storytelling:
- Content marketing:
- Customer success:
- Social media:
- Webinars:
- Podcasts:
- Ads and emails that are optimized for conversions.
Example #1: Gambling Brand – GW Casino
GW Casino is a well-known gambling brand established in 2015 and a great example of storytelling in marketing. Their content marketing strategy is focused on providing value to their customers and potential players, rather than just selling gambling products. They use storytelling as part of their content marketing, but it’s also important to them that their stories are relevant, actionable, and useful for the players. They provide guides to the best online slots, poker, and other table games for real money and crypto gamblers.
Example #2: Cosmetic Brand – Dove
Dove is a brand that is known for its storytelling. They’ve done this in several ways, including their “Real Beauty Sketches” campaign, which featured a forensic artist creating sketches of women based on their descriptions of themselves and other women. The resulting images were all different from what the women thought they looked like, highlighting how society’s unrealistic beauty standards can affect how we see ourselves.
Another great example comes from Dove’s ongoing “We Are All Beautiful” campaign, where they show how all kinds of diverse women feel beautiful and confident about themselves — no matter what society tells them about ideal looks or body types.
Example #3: B2B Company – Salesforce
Salesforce is the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) software in the world, with more than 100,000 companies using its suite of products. It uses storytelling to show how it’s used, both by its customers and employees. It also shows how Salesforce is used to solve problems/issues. For instance: “Salesforce helps Cisco create a more productive and collaborative sales environment for its employees globally.”
Example #4: Customer Success Story – Cyfe
Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience and inspire them to take action. Customer success stories are a powerful way to tell your story and connect with customers on a personal level. They can also be used as a way to showcase how your product or service helped a customer achieve their goals, which can lead people who are struggling in similar ways to consider working with you.
In this post, we’re going to look at some examples of how Cyfe has put customer success stories into practice for their marketing campaigns and why they have been so successful.
Example #5: Small Business Storytelling – The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication
Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to communicate. When you combine storytelling with your marketing strategy, you can achieve a deeper connection with customers and prospects.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication and see how it can help you create an internal communication plan that uses storytelling as its foundation.
Example #6: Small Business Storytelling – The Art of the Follow Up After A Networking Event
Follow up with a thank you note. It is always a good idea to send a follow up note after an event, even if you are not expecting anything in return. This can be a handwritten thank you note or an email.
Follow up with a phone call. If you do not hear back from the business owner within 7 days, give them a call and ask them how things are going for them lately. Make sure that it’s not too soon after your initial meeting and that they have time on their schedule before calling them again!
Follow up with a meeting request: After sending out information about yourself and what you do (your value proposition), ask if there is any way that they could use any of the services or products offered by your company or organization in order to help grow their business as well
Find Your Way
When it comes to storytelling, there are a lot of ways you can get your message across. You can tell stories through advertising, social media posts, and even in-person at events like conferences or meetups.
The most optimal way to tell your story depends on the audience you’re trying to reach. If you are trying to get a message across in a very short period of time (like when your ad is playing before an audience gets bored), then video might be the best format for you.
On the other hand, if you have more time or are trying to make an emotional connection with people who already know who they are and what they do (like potential employees or customers), then pictures will likely be better since they allow for more detail than just words onscreen would allow!
In conclusion…
We hope you’ve found some interesting examples of storytelling in marketing and been inspired to think about how you can use storytelling to connect with your customers. The key takeaway here is that it’s not just about telling stories — it’s about being authentic, connecting with your audience and sharing the story of who you are as a brand or company.