How do you decide to purchase a product or service? You chose to do so because you were moved by the marketing of that product or service, right? And I bet that through that marketing you were told a story.
In fact, as marketers, we see ourselves as storytellers. Here’s where storytelling gets interesting. As business owners and marketers, we’re no longer selling products or services, instead, we are building a community around our brand. And the best way to sell your brand is to move people through storytelling. Not just that, but when people trust an idea or message, they believe in it, are loyal to it, share it, and invite others to join them.
So, how do you go about telling your story so that people will believe and invest in it? What kinds of messages are people most likely to trust?
VIDEO
Scientists have found cave drawings in Siberia that are 30,000 years old. More than half of the earth’s surface was covered in ice at that time. Imagine what life must have been like yet someone took the time to tell their story through cave drawings on a cave wall. That’s how important storytelling is.
A neuroscientist at Princeton, Uri Hasson, carried out a study in which he measured electrical response in the brains of his subjects when they watched two videos. He played a modern televised music concert and the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Bang, You’re Dead.’ He measured 5% electrical response in the brain to the concert and 65% to the Hitchcock movie. The only difference being that Hitchcock told a story.
So, imagine how effective storytelling is in marketing? And think about the influence that has on purchasing power.
What’s your story? And how will you tell it?