Telling a compelling story can do magic with your brand. Companies like Pixar, Disney, Blizzard Entertainment, Netflix, and Amazon have already realized this fact, and they have built their entire business models around storytelling.

If done right, this tool can help you discover an explosive expansion of possibilities and growth, and as a result – increasing the bottom line of the organization. Storytelling has always been important in business, but with today’s information overload and narrowing our attention span to a minimum, stories tend to be crucial for brands’ existence.

Businesses should tell stories that impact people, simplify business information, and provoke a human response.

Reaching out to new audiences, communicating your brand vision, making the old PR practices fresh again, connecting with your customers the right way, and even making internal communication feel unique. All these aspects rely on your ability to tell a story the right way.

How can storytelling benefit your business?

Imagine you need to motivate a big crowd of people at an event, or communicate an innovative idea to your team, or pitch a new project to your investors. Incorporating the right Storytelling techniques in all these tasks significantly improves the rate of success. Even more so – it creates a good impression, a sense of completeness to any desired effect.

A simple but important message (about your company or brand, or a new service that is coming up) can be conveyed much more meaningful and impactful if told through a story.

What is great about storytelling is the fact that stories help solidify abstract concepts and simplify complex messages. Taking a complicated and non-tangible concept and incorporating it in a story through the lens of the audience whose life is impacted, is one of the biggest strengths of business storytelling.

Connect this story to a feeling, make it alive, convert your listeners to believers, not just consumers. A really great story can become a gift that keeps on giving.

Every human has a unique story, and the same goes for brands. If they are open and authentic, this will help them connect with their customers in a much deeper and more meaningful way.

The unique stories can help you position your product as well. A great example of a storyteller in the business world is Steve Jobs. His storytelling skills helped build not only the Apple empire but Pixar as well. One of the largest corporations in the world – Disney, started its existence as a storytelling business, making its stories alive through comics, memorable characters, and later on – animation and the art of cinema.

Let’s dive into the 5 storytelling trends that are a valuable tool for every business:

Data-driven storytelling

In the world we live in, data is king. Data plays a key role in developing great stories that resonate with different audiences that are essential for your brand.

Data-driven storytelling is the practice of building a narrative around a set of data to help convey the meaning of that data in a more powerful and compelling way.

A study from 2019 shows that content with a mix of words and data visuals drives 34% more engagement than articles, blog posts, and other materials that are only text-based.

According to Gartner, the audience of the data story is essential to getting value when it comes to decisions based on the presented findings. It is important to find ways to actively engage them and not leave them as passive receptors of information.

Immersive storytelling

With the technology of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality developing at a rapid pace, immersive digital spaces are becoming the hottest trend in many fields. With these tools, storytellers can increase the effectiveness of their messages and find new original ways to the hearts and minds of their customers. Pokemon Go was the trendsetter, and this year’s VR game – Half-Life: Alyx, provided a way to teaching in a complete virtual reality classroom.

Immersive storytelling would see increased usage of the latest cutting edge technology and make no mistake – the tech giants will use this kind of storytelling to their best advantage.

Customer-driven storytelling

As we live in a digital era, more and more people around the globe are interconnected, sharing stories. And what a better way to up your storytelling game than getting your customers in on the action? The best example here is the excellent AirBnB platform, called “Stories from the Airbnb community”.

This particular trend is rather genius in its simplicity – your business has a community build around it, then why give this community a chance to tell its own stories? Perhaps the strongest of the trends, in the future – the customer-driven Storytelling will develop in many interesting aspects.

Mini-ads

The mini-ads has become a necessity – the attention span of digital users is ever more shortening, thus the video ads need to be condensed. That’s why Facebook introduced the 6-seconds ads – and this became popular across other platforms as well – Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, and more. The key here is to be able to tell a meaningful mini-story within those 6 seconds, which is extremely difficult. Only a Storyteller of great magnitude would be able to achieve this.

Animated storytelling

Initially born as a storytelling technique for cartoons, animated storytelling, animation has become a dominating trend in marketing campaigns. Promoting a brand, a service, or a product all together through an animated video is perceived as rather fun, entertaining, and attractive, rather than promotional. With animation, you can spice up your story, turn it into a visual beauty, easily engaging both young and old. An example is provided below:

The age of storytelling is upon us

Storytelling is evolving continuously, and its benefits as a marketing tool will be realized by more and more brands in the coming years. The purposes that it serves go well beyond entertainment and leisure. Whether it be a good presentation or a TED talk about the newest corporative discovery that will impact the world, telling a compelling story sets you apart, makes you memorable, and most importantly – builds an unbreakable bond between you and your audience. It is of great importance for every marketing expert to master this skill in order to position its brand at the forefront of customer minds.

Are you using storytelling effectively in your organization? We are here to help.