How to Tell Great Digital Stories

80% of customers do research online before they will engage with you and your business.

Therefore you should have a library of content for your researchers and readers to read and satisfy themselves to their heart’s content. Stories are a great way to do this.

Start developing your story with the end in mind. Think about what you want your Buyer to do. You will ultimately want them to convert and buy. So start by giving them information (to help them with their research) and bring them along with you on the journey. You will want to create content for each part of the Buyer Funnel.

• Brand Personality – Thought Leadership
• A solution for Buyers – Webinars – Explainer Demos
• Testimonials – Customer Stories
• Keep Customers Informed – Product Training – Keep Educating

Stories create an emotional attachment, they increase loyalty. The more loyal your customers the more likely you are to get referrals and repeat business (and therefore you need to spend less time and money on new business).

Vlogging

Don’t forget 70% of communication is non-verbal – so you also need to be prepared to communicate using visuals. This will usually mean pictures and videos. Depending on your brand personality (and target audience) you might use quick and in the now visuals. Alternatively, you might use slick and considered visuals.

Vlogging is a creative method of business story-telling.  It is fairly simple to get set up and you can do it with your iPhone (you just need to get yourself a tripod, some apps, editing software, and microphone).

The lifespan of video content on youtube is approx 1 month (which is much longer than most other platforms). However, a video is not just about youtube you can live broadcast on most of the other social media platforms – therefore you still need to be asking yourself “where is my customer?” and targeting them.

Videos don’t have to be long – just keep them short and sweet (and don’t forget to add subtitles).

Stories to Tell

Whether you are using video (or writing your content) there are many stories that you can tell and it is important that you tell them.

Stories might be based on point of view:

• Founders Story
• Employee Story
• Customer Story
• Cultural Story

You should also bear in mind the 7 types of stories (and weave these into your content):

1. Overcoming the Monster
2. Rags to Riches
3. The Quest
4. Voyage and Return
5. Comedy
6. Tragedy
7. Rebirth

If you are not familiar with there you can read more about them here.

Story Framework

If you are still stuck with getting started – write a simple story in the following format:

• Hero
• Status Quo
• Until….
• Because of that…
• Because of that…
• Until finally…
• Ever since then…

Once you have your final story,  you want it to catch on with your customer/audience. For example, the story might evoke a strong emotional response.