“The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.”
– Mary Catherine Bateson
Have you ever wondered what makes some companies more successful than others? It’s the story about their brands that they share with their existing and potential consumers! After all, successful marketing is all about creating a community, a purpose, and a culture that consumers can resonate with, and a compelling story-driven by value and purpose can do it better.
Humans are hardwired for storytelling and have a natural tendency to make up stories for every conversation, incident, and action. We all have a story to tell – be it related to school life, love life, or business. Whenever anyone tells us a story, we start relating it to one of our previous experiences. Marketers can unleash this power of storytelling in their marketing presentations and campaigns to engage and connect with their audience.
Let’s explore in detail how you can leverage the benefits of storytelling for your business growth. Keep reading!
Know the Science of Storytelling
The science also supports the positive impact of storytelling on the listener’s brain. When anyone tells us facts, the data processing centers of our brain get activated. On the other hand, if anyone narrates a story, the sensory centers of our brain get activated. An effective story syncs the audience’s neurons to the storyteller’s brain, thereby helping the presenter convey the message in a more meaningful and deeper way.
Watch this video to learn the neuroscience behind storytelling.
Tips to Effectively Incorporate Storytelling into Your Presentations
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Deliver an Emotional Experience through Story
Storytelling has an emotional impact on the audience. By delivering a purposeful story, you can reach the audience’s minds and hearts and encourage them to take action. Further, you can strengthen emotional associations with your audience and turn them into active participants by including analogy and metaphor in your stories.
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Make Your Story Fit Within Your Presentation’s Context
The story must not look as if it has been inserted into the presentation forcibly; rather, it must give an impression that it is an indispensable part of the slideshow. Forced stories disengage your audience, confusing them where exactly your presentation is going. To sum up, keep stories short, crisp, and relevant to support the information and data in your presentation and appeal to the audience’s interests and experience.
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Pay Heed to the Visualization of the Story
The brain processes information and ideas presented through visuals 90% faster than the textual data. Further, visuals communicate your message instantly and create an entirely different impression than the written words. Thus, by supplementing your story with relevant videos, props, images, and other high-quality visuals, you can make it stand out and memorable.
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Try to Include Personal Story
If your presentation allows, incorporate your personal and real-life stories to garner the audience’s trust and strike a chord with them. Your audience will judge you as deceptive if your story is not authentic and genuine. To make your story more friendly and natural, deliver it in a conversational tone.
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Keep Your Story Focused on the Outcome; Instead of the Product
Sales are no more dependent on services and products. Instead, it depends on how efficiently you create buying experience and how you make prospects feel about your brand after they become customers. Here the role of storytelling comes in. Craft a story having contrast, conflict, or action and focused on how your product will resolve the problems of the consumers.
The Essence
Don’t overlook the importance of storytelling in humanizing your brand and pulling at the heartstrings of the consumers. An authentic and relevant story helps you foster relationships with customers who will further become brand advocates in the upcoming time. So, be thoughtful while weaving together the emotions and facts in the story, and be sure to share the same story across all communication channels.
What’s your brand story? Do let us know in the “Comments” section. And if you find the blog post insightful, don’t forget to share it on your social media handles.