The Importance Of Storytelling In Marketing
Stories make it easier to understand the world. Stories are the only way we know to spread an idea. Marketers didn’t invent storytelling. They just perfected it. - Seth Godin
Storytelling in marketing is important, okay? To create stories that convert, you need to learn from the best! And who better than Agatha Christie?
Did you know that the murder mystery play, The Mousetrap, premiered in London on Nov 25, 1952? Today it holds the record as the longest running show in the world!
Agatha Christie’s stories remain as popular today as they always were! Fans are loyal and fully invested in and hooked on the twists and turns of her gripping plots.
With more than 2 billion copies of her books sold, the Guinness World Record lists her as the bestselling novelist of all time! The only works that have sold more copies than Christie's are Shakespeare’s and The Holy Bible.
So, clearly, this legend of a bestseller knew a thing or two about telling exceptional stories. And turns out, storytelling in marketing is as important as it is anywhere else!
Why Is Storytelling In Marketing So Important?
Powerful stories create an emotional bond with your audience. Telling a great story helps people connect with your brand, can expand your brand reach and distinguishes your company from the competition.
Stories connect us to each other. Connecting to the stories around us shapes who we are, who we aspire to be, and how we relate to the world! So, it's safe to say, people love a good story!
What better way to learn about storytelling than from the late, great Agatha Christie herself? Here are some tips for making your storytelling game strong!
✨Get to the point.
Agatha Christie is known for her succinct, tight plots that get straight to the point. Edit the fluff and only leave room for the details and the emotional core of what your audience needs to know.
Rambling is a no, unless it serves a purpose! That’s when people hit unsubscribe and unfollow.
Ask yourself: is this informing, persuading or inspiring? If not, kill your darlings, the writing tip originally coined by the English writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
Make sure everything you put out there is relevant to your customer’s ultimate goals and desires. And don’t forget to follow the structure of a beginning, middle and end of a story as you touch base with each relevant point.
❤️🔥Real life is the best inspo.
Have you ever been sitting at your desk trying to think of ideas or solutions, feeling stressed because you have deadlines and not all the time in the world to be staring blankly at the screen?
Turns out, maybe the desk isn’t always the best place to spark creativity.
Sure, some days the ideas flow naturally at the desk and you even amaze yourself, but often, your best ideas arrive when you step away and do something else.
Christie said, “The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes. The most everyday events and casual observations could trigger the idea for a new plot.” Her second book, The Secret Adversary, stemmed from a conversation overheard in a tea shop.
She also found inspiration in pursuits other than doing the dishes and her work in writing, including from her travel adventures, her work on poisons in the pharmacy, and her experience of archaeological digs.
We can find inspiration by nurturing our curiosity in the world around us.
And as marketers, it's more important than ever to stay on the pulse of what's happening out there in a world of rapid change, and as consumer habits and behaviours change along with it.
🧘♀️Give yourself the gift of space.
The next time you’ve hit a block, listen to your mind and body and do something else. Take a tea break and you might find the idea you need shows up whilst you’re waiting for the kettle to boil.
Another underrated practice in this modern age is taking a walk, or any movement of any kind! This idea is nothing new though. The Ancient Greeks knew this already, but researchers today have found that movement helps us to think more creatively.
Researchers from The University of Würzburg suggest, “The freedom to make self-determined movements may be key to flexible thinking and creativity.”
Most people sit at least 8 hours of the day, if not 12! Forget creativity for a second; longevity, health and quality of life are important too.
🪝Keep them hooked.
With mystery being Christie’s speciality, she obviously nailed the suspense factor, a key ingredient for epic storytelling in marketing!
Suspense and surprise can be potent ingredients in a recipe for marketing success. In fact, Suspense Marketing is considered an extended wing of Guerrilla Marketing technique.
Marketing ideas to build suspense include giveaways, competitions, behind the scenes, release countdowns, social media scavenger hunts and social media hooks.
Know how to build suspense by revealing information in the clear, well-organised manner Christie used. The trick is not to rush or reveal too much at once.
Keep your audience engaged, with the main goal of satisfying the customer at the end, ideally with a juicy call to action your customer can’t wait to act on!
That’s when you can do your big reveal. Think abrupt. Shocking. And most importantly, it has left a mark on your customers’ minds.
💡Have a place to write notes.
Ideas are often spontaneous; their time of arrival isn’t always predictable, meaning they may not even arrive within the traditional 9-5 hours. To nail the most effective storytelling in marketing, you need the best ideas.
The thing with ideas is that they can disappear from your brain as soon as they arrive, especially if you have multiple deadlines and life obligations looming!
The key here? Be ready to capture the ideas when they arrive, so you can return to them later, even if, when you return, you’re not really feeling the idea anymore.
This is why people might save a post on Instagram instead of liking it, and why this shouldn’t be ignored as a metric to measure. People save informative or inspiring posts they can either engage with again in the future, or because they’re short on time but want to return to the post later.
Treat your ideas the same way, whether that’s using a notebook away from another screen, or a digital place.
The Google Keep app is quite handy with its colour coding, and you can easily share your ideas with others from there. Other options include Notion, Asana and Evernote, but you can search for apps on your phone and choose what works for you.
Prefer a notebook? Keep a notebook specifically for ideas handy for whenever you need to quickly jot down a strike of inspiration. This is especially useful when ideas arrive at the most inconvenient times, like when you’re lying awake in bed and really want to sleep!
Christie made endless notes in dozens of notebooks in order to pull out the very best ideas to act on. And you don’t have to act on every idea you have. You can only seek out the best ones by coming up with a few. Keep or discard details as you see fit.
Find the diamonds ideas that excite you the most, and always be authentic!
That’s how you’ll tell the bestseller-worthy stories!
Looking for more inspiration? Head on over to our blog, Does Marketing Have To Be Complicated?
And if you want to create some impactful storytelling for your brand, let’s chat about how my team and I can help you tell your story in a way that your customers will remember!
