Storytelling is not just a skill for writers or entertainers. It’s a powerful marketing tool that can help you connect with your audience, build trust, and inspire action. In fact, according to a study by Headstream, 79% of consumers prefer brands that tell stories as part of their marketing.
In this blog post, we’ll share with you seven tips on how to use storytelling to create shareable content for your brand. Whether you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, or boost sales, these tips will help you craft stories that captivate your audience and inspire them to take action.
How to Use Storytelling to Create Shareable Content – Tip #1: Know Your Audience
The first step to creating shareable content is to know who you’re creating it for. You need to understand your target audience’s needs, wants, challenges, goals, and preferences. This will help you tailor your stories to their interests and pain points, and make them feel understood and valued.
One way to get to know your audience better is to create buyer personas, which are fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research. Buyer personas can help you segment your audience and personalize your content for each group.
Another way to learn more about your audience is to conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups with your existing or potential customers. You can ask them questions about their demographics, behaviors, motivations, and expectations. You can also use tools like Google Analytics or Facebook Insights to track and analyze your audience’s online activities and preferences.
Tip #2: Define Your Objective
The next step to creating shareable content is to define what you want to achieve with your story. What is the main message you want to convey? What is the action you want your audience to take after reading or watching your story? How will you measure the success of your story?
Having a clear objective will help you focus your story on the most important and relevant aspects of your brand, product, or service. It will also help you craft a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that guides your audience to the next step in their journey.
Some common objectives for storytelling in marketing are:
- To raise awareness of your brand, product, or service
- To educate your audience about a problem or solution
- To entertain your audience and make them laugh or smile
- To inspire your audience and motivate them to change
- To persuade your audience and convince them to buy or sign up
Tip #3: Choose Your Story Type
The third step to creating shareable content is to choose the type of story you want to tell. There are many types of stories you can use in marketing, but here are some of the most popular ones:
- The origin story: This is the story of how your brand, product, or service came to be. It can include the challenges you faced, the solutions you found, and the values you stand for. The origin story can help you establish credibility, authenticity, and trust with your audience.
- The customer story: This is the story of how your brand, product, or service helped a customer solve a problem or achieve a goal. It can include the customer’s background, pain points, journey, results, and testimonials. The customer story can help you showcase the benefits and features of your offer, as well as social proof and word-of-mouth.
- The behind-the-scenes story: This is the story of what goes on behind the scenes of your brand, product, or service. It can include the people who work for you, the processes you follow, the tools you use, and the culture you foster. The behind-the-scenes story can help you humanize your brand, build rapport with your audience, and show transparency and accountability.
- The educational story: This is the story that teaches your audience something new or useful about your industry, niche, or topic. It can include facts, statistics, tips, tricks, hacks, or best practices. The educational story can help you position yourself as an expert, provide value to your audience, and increase your authority and credibility.
- The inspirational story: This is the story that motivates your audience to take action or change their behavior. It can include stories of success, failure, transformation, or innovation. The inspirational story can help you appeal to your audience’s emotions, aspirations, and values, and create a positive association with your brand.
Tip #4: Follow the Story Structure
The fourth step to creating shareable content is to follow the basic story structure that consists of three main parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end.
- The beginning: This is where you introduce your characters, setting, and conflict. You need to hook your audience’s attention and curiosity from the start, and make them care about what happens next. You can use techniques like asking a question, making a statement, telling a joke, or sharing a fact to grab your audience’s interest.
- The middle: This is where you develop your plot, build tension, and show how your characters overcome obstacles and challenges. You need to keep your audience engaged and invested in the outcome of your story. You can use techniques like adding twists, surprises, or cliffhangers to keep your audience on the edge of their seats.
- The end: This is where you resolve your conflict, show the results, and deliver your message. You need to satisfy your audience’s expectations and leave them with a lasting impression. You can use techniques like summarizing the main points, restating the benefits, or providing a call-to-action to guide your audience to the next step.
Tip #5: Use Visuals and Emotions
The fifth step to creating shareable content is to use visuals and emotions to enhance your story. Visuals and emotions can help you capture your audience’s attention, stimulate their senses, and evoke their feelings. They can also help you simplify complex ideas, illustrate abstract concepts, and reinforce key messages.
Some ways to use visuals and emotions in your storytelling are:
- Use images, videos, infographics, or animations to show rather than tell your story. For example, you can use a video testimonial to show how happy your customer is with your product, rather than just writing about it.
- Use colors, fonts, shapes, or icons to create contrast, harmony, or emphasis in your story. For example, you can use red to highlight an urgent problem or green to indicate a positive result.
- Use metaphors, analogies, or examples to make your story more relatable, memorable, or understandable. For example, you can compare your product to a familiar object or situation that your audience can easily recognize or relate to.
- Use humor, sarcasm, or irony to make your story more entertaining, engaging, or surprising. For example, you can use a funny anecdote or a witty remark to lighten up a serious topic or catch your audience off guard.
- Use emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, or surprise to make your story more impactful, persuasive, or inspiring. For example, you can use a happy emotion to create a positive association with your brand, a sad emotion to elicit sympathy or empathy from your audience, an angry emotion to provoke action or change, a fearful emotion to create urgency or scarcity, or a surprising emotion to spark curiosity or interest.
Tip #6: Optimize Your Content for SEO
The sixth step to creating shareable content is to optimize it for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of your content on search engines like Google or Bing. SEO can help you attract more organic traffic, leads, and customers to your website or blog.
Some ways to optimize your content for SEO are:
- Use keywords that are relevant to your topic, audience, and objective. Keywords are the words or phrases that people use to search for information online. You should use keywords in your title, headings, subheadings, introduction, body, conclusion, and meta tags of your content. You should also use synonyms or variations of your keywords to avoid keyword stuffing or repetition. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to research and analyze keywords for your content.
- Use links that are credible and authoritative. Links are the hyperlinks that connect one web page to another web page. You should use links to provide additional information, evidence, or resources for your content. You should also use links to direct your audience to other relevant pages on your website or blog. You can use internal links to link to pages within your own website or blog, and external links to link to pages on other websites or blogs. You should use links from reputable sources that have high domain authority, trustworthiness, and relevance to your topic. You can use tools like Moz Link Explorer or SEMrush to check and monitor the domain authority of your links.
- Use meta tags that are descriptive and relevant. Meta tags are snippets of text that describe the content of your web page. They are not visible on the page itself, but they appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and browser tabs. The most important meta tags for SEO are the title tag and the meta description tag. The title tag is the clickable headline of your web page, and the meta description tag is the brief summary of your web page. You should use your keywords in both tags, but avoid keyword stuffing or duplication. You should also make them catchy and compelling to entice users to click on your page.
Tip #7: Promote Your Content on Social Media
The final step to creating shareable content is to promote it on social media platforms where your audience hangs out. Social media can help you amplify your reach, drive more traffic, and generate more engagement for your content. It can also help you build relationships with your audience, influencers, and other brands in your niche.
Some ways to promote your content on social media are:
- Use hashtags that are relevant and popular. Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by a hash sign (#) that categorize and organize content on social media. They can help you increase your visibility, reach new audiences, and join trending conversations. You should use hashtags that are related to your topic, industry, or niche, and that have a high volume of posts and followers. You can use tools like Hashtagify or RiteTag to research and analyze hashtags for your content.
- Use images, videos, or GIFs that are eye-catching and appealing. Images, videos, and GIFs are visual elements that can help you attract attention, convey emotions, and illustrate your message. They can also help you increase your engagement, shares, and clicks on social media. You should use images, videos, or GIFs that are relevant to your content, high-quality, and optimized for each platform. You can use tools like Canva or Lumen5 to create and edit images, videos, or GIFs for your content.
- Use captions that are catchy and engaging. Captions are the text that accompanies your images, videos, or GIFs on social media. They can help you provide context, add value, and encourage action for your content. You should use captions that are relevant to your content, concise, and clear. You should also use emojis, questions, or CTAs to spice up your captions and increase your engagement.
But how do you craft stories that are engaging, relevant, and shareable? How do you use storytelling to create content that stands out from the noise and resonates with your audience?
That’s where Viralify comes in. We are a viral marketing growth partner that helps you create and execute viral marketing campaigns that drive exponential growth for your business. We use storytelling as a core strategy to create content that sparks emotions, triggers curiosity, and encourages social sharing.
Conclusion
Storytelling is a powerful way to create shareable content for your brand. It can help you connect with your audience, build trust, and inspire action.
But storytelling is not easy. It requires creativity, skill, and practice.
That’s why you need Viralify.
We are a viral marketing growth partner that helps you create and execute viral marketing campaigns that drive exponential growth for your business.
We use storytelling as a core strategy to create content that sparks emotions, triggers curiosity, and encourages social sharing.
We also use data-driven insights, cutting-edge tools, and proven tactics to optimize your content for SEO, conversions, and social media.
Whether you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, or boost sales, we can help you craft stories that captivate your audience and inspire them to take action.
Ready to take your content marketing to the next level?
Contact us today and let’s get started!
FAQs
Q: What is storytelling in marketing?
A: Storytelling in marketing is the process of using stories to communicate a message to your audience via the combination of fact and narrative.
Q: Why is storytelling important in marketing?
A: Storytelling is important in marketing because it can help you:
- Resonate with your audience
- Build trust and loyalty
- Showcase the benefits and features of your offer
- Provide social proof and word-of-mouth
- Appeal to emotions and values
- Create a positive association with your brand
- Drive action and conversions
Q: How do you use storytelling to create shareable content?
A: To use storytelling to create shareable content, you need to:
- Know your audience
- Define your objective
- Choose your story type
- Follow the story structure
- Use visuals and emotions
- Optimize your content for SEO
- Promote your content on social media
Q: What are some examples of storytelling in marketing?
A: Some examples of storytelling in marketing are:
- The origin story of how Airbnb was founded by two broke roommates who rented out air mattresses to strangers
- The customer story of how Dove helped women embrace their natural beauty and celebrate their diversity
- The behind-the-scenes story of how Spotify creates personalized playlists for millions of users based on their listening habits
- The educational story of how Neil Patel teaches his audience how to grow their traffic and revenue through his blog and videos
- The inspirational story of how Nike empowers athletes of all levels and abilities to achieve their goals
Q: How can Viralify help you with storytelling in marketing?
A: Viralify is a viral marketing growth partner that helps you create and execute viral marketing campaigns that drive exponential growth for your business. We use storytelling as a core strategy to create content that sparks emotions, triggers curiosity, and encourages social sharing. We also use data-driven insights, cutting-edge tools, and proven tactics to optimize your content for SEO, conversions, and social media.
