Make Your Audience the Heroes in Your Marketing Stories
Make Your Audience the Heroes in Your Marketing Stories
Does your business or brand tell a story?
Who ends up being the hero?
When we tell stories about ourselves it’s simply human nature to make ourselves the hero or protagonist of our story. However, from a business/brand standpoint, it’s a fantastic practice to switch the roles around a bit. When you’re telling a story about your business or brand, it’s important to make your audience/customer the hero and for you to take on the role of the guide.
Making the audience the protagonist of your brand story is an essential tool that will help you connect with your consumers in a more effective way and on a much deeper level.
There Has Been a Paradigm Shift in Brand Storytelling
An article from Forbes highlights a study that suggests a remarkable paradigm shift these days as far as the average consumer is concerned. In today’s market, 83% of consumers feel that how a brand treats them and makes them feel is equally important as the product(s) they sell, while 73% of consumers admit to being willing to pay a little more for a product if they love the brand itself.
Building brand loyalty should be high on your priorities list. Via social media avenues like Instagram and Facebook, you have all the tools necessary to make an amazing connection with your target audience. Right now, 1 billion people use Instagram each month, which gives your business and brand an amazing platform to be seen and heard.
Where and How to Tell Your Marketing Stories
As a business owner or operator, it’s likely that you already have an Instagram and Facebook account for your business, but has your content been on brand, and have you been focused on telling an engaging and effective story?
As human beings, we are constantly telling the story of who we are, whether it’s when we meet someone for the first time and go through that all-too-familiar getting to know each other stage, or even when you’re catching up with a close friend and letting them know what you’ve been up to.
Businesses and brands basically go through the same thing when they’re trying to connect with a brand new customer as the evaluation and decision-making process gets underway.
Gaining Traction with Your Target Audience
The process of landing a prospect might go a little something like this: A prospective customer/client discovers your website (or even one of your business’s social accounts) and becomes intrigued about who you are, what you do, and how you can make their life easier and better.
Messaging is extremely important to connect with a potential consumer. If your brand storytelling is on point, a prospect will take a look at your business and your offering (whether it’s products and/or services). Each consumer has their own set of most pressing needs.
Consumers will learn more about your brand as you illustrate your promise, value, and benefits.
Boosting Your Storytelling Skills
Consumers tend to put considerable effort into attempting to unearth the real story about a business or brand, and many people prefer to do business with companies, brands, and organizations that share similar values, concerns, and even beliefs. Brands and businesses can easily see what people are saying on social media about their products and offerings -- even a company’s employees.
Prospects can easily read reviews from your prior and current customers, and they will. There's an unprecedented amount of information ready at everyone's fingertips. It's important to make sure that you're not only telling your own story on your own terms but that you're incorporating your audience's story into your marketing efforts.
Content is King
Educated audiences will look at a brand’s blog posts -- blogs are amazing tools to exhibit case studies, to educate your audience about executives and current events, and to publish articles that posture you as a thought leader in your industry.
Video content can do the same thing. A successful piece of visual content from a brand might come in the form of:
Product Videos
Explainer Videos
Company Culture Videos
Testimonials
Promotions
Statistics show that audiences are connecting with video content in a major way, suggesting that audiences watch nearly 20 hours of online video content each week, which is up over 50% from 2019. With an effective piece of video content, you will be able to tell your story and make your audience the hero of that story.
Make Them the Hero of Your Story, Not You
One simple way to show that you respect and honor your audience’s own journeys is by not only incorporating your customers into your story -- but making them the focal point!
From a business standpoint, if you’re only focused on talking about how awesome you are and how successful you are, that might come off more like a rap song than a call to action. Let’s avoid this.
First, take a look at the visual content on your site or the image you’re considering using for an Instagram or Facebook post. If your organization is a gym, you might want to avoid posting pictures about your clean and pristine building or your cutting-edge equipment.
Sure, there is a time and place to do this, but the way to incorporate your audience into your story is by posting a picture of a person with wants and needs. Then address how your organization can meet and exceed those needs.
Utilizing Effective Storytelling
When a writer tells a fictional story, one of the first things they think about is who their hero is going to be and what they want. You will need to put the same amount of thought into who your audience is and what their deeper desires are. As you become more adept at defining what your audience wants, you will be able to connect with them on a deeper level.
Taking on the Role of the Guide to Make the Customer the Hero
In the movies, generally, our heroes have a guide. For instance, Frodo and Sam had Gandalf. King Arthur had Merlin. Sarah Connor had the Terminator.
By taking on the role of the guide you effectively achieve two things: 1.) You’ve positioned your customer/audience as the hero, and 2.) You’ve positioned your business and brand as an invaluable resource to help them achieve the life they’ve always wanted. When it comes down to it, most human beings seek out guidance or mentorship to achieve those big desires in life.
The mission is fairly simple. Position your brand as a guiding light for your customer. Show your audience how you can help them conquer problems big and small. Show your customers and clients how you can help them live a better and more prosperous life.
Defining the Problem
So, if your audience is now the hero, what are the problems that they face? What obstacles can you help your audience overcome?
Let’s go back to that gym example. You’re not just providing a clean and well-equipped facility for people to exercise in, you’re helping people lose weight, build strength, and incorporate an essential foundational element into their daily life.
As a gym owner/operator, you’re literally helping people look better and feel better on a daily basis. That’s the sort of thing you should be focused on from a storytelling standpoint. Again, maybe don’t focus on your trainers and how in shape they are. Focus on your members and show how successful they are by having your guidance.
Use Your (and Their) Imagination
Focus more on crafting engaging stories that really present to your customers what’s possible for them and their lives when they make the decision to use your product or service.
When it comes down to it, how you spend your vital marketing space is up to you. If you decide to spend a healthy amount of time in the seduction phase, boasting about your supreme rankings, your successes, where you’ve been, and/or where you’re going, it's going to be harder to make a great connection with your target audience.
With more information at our fingertips about consumers and what they look for, your business or brand should have enough knowledge to start focusing on your audience’s goals and how you can help them achieve success. Don’t talk about where you’ve been, talk about where you can take your audience.
Down the road, you might even make it a point to tell a story where you’re showing off one of your customers and clients, which will also show the world just one prime example of what you can do for everyone else. If you are going to talk about your own strengths in your storytelling, make sure to put whatever your message is in terms of how you can put those strengths to work for your audience and how that experience will benefit them.
Make the Audience the Hero to Focus on What’s in it for Them
This might sound a bit brutal, but, when it comes down to it, customers don’t exactly care about your business all that much beyond how your products and/or services can help them solve their own problems and make their own lives better. But, the sooner you realize this harsh fact, the sooner you can start pivoting your storytelling so that it gets you the results you’re looking for. And you’ll get the results you’re looking for by giving your audience the results they’re looking for. What a concept!
Amplify Your Mission with Argonaut Productions
When you’re ready to amp up your video storytelling efforts and connect with your audience on a much deeper level, Argonaut Productions can help. Your brand needs video messaging that resonates and inspires action. We’ll help your business raise awareness, show your level of impact, and ultimately help bring the positive change you’ve been looking for.