People love stories. Stories inspire us, fuel our imagination and invoke emotions. But what does that have to do with marketing? 

Storytelling is the most powerful tool a business can use to make a connection with their audience. I recently watched a documentary on Tiger Wood’s life(I love watching documentaries). I am a big golf fan, and still a Tiger fan, the movie was good, but pretty one sided in how it portrayed Tiger. But that’s not the point, what I found most interesting was, the doc showed the original meetings Tiger and his Dad had with Nike, and how they crafted a plan to market Tiger to the world. They came up with the “Hello World” campaign. Making Tiger this young black kid that was going to come in and flip the traditional old white golf world on its head. Nike has been a master of using athletes to tell these stories. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Serena Williams, and Lebron James all have been marketed to the world as these cultural icons that transcend social barriers. They are our hero’s, and if you buy Nike products you are that much closer to “Being like Mike” or whomever they are selling. The aspirational “Just Do it” campaign along with the hundreds of other inspiring Nike ads, have created Nike into a billion dollar empire that has been the leader of brand storytelling for the last 40 plus years.

Stories have the ability to create a connection between you and your customer. With a connection comes trust. Write an authentic story and your customers will want to keep coming back to you. Storytelling helps you to stand out from the competition. 

Let’s go through some key elements that a great story needs. 

Be relatable
The “main character” of your story needs to be somebody your customer can relate to. If you’re talking about yourself in the story, make sure your customers can relate to you. Know your audience so that your story specifically resonates with them.

Identify the problem 
What problem or obstacle does the protagonist of your story face? Is this a problem your customers can identify with? Make sure your story includes their journey through the problem as they searched for the solution.

How was the problem solved?
How did your main character overcome the problem? What was the resolution? Does it match or reflect the solution your customer is looking for?

To tell your story make sure to identify with your audience, make the reader your hero, express emotion, give them something to dream or aspire to, create a human connection, and lastly create a conversation with your audience. I look forward to hearing your stories!

To your success,

Sean Rundle