How to use Storytelling for your advertising material?
What is Storytelling?
Storytelling is simply telling a story. It’s about using stories to engage your audience or to clarify a point. Photos, images and movies of course also help to tell a good story. Stories have always been a way to communicate. Before people learned to write, they told stories to each other. Stories are much easier to remember than simple facts. Plus, stories are fun; they stimulate your imagination. That’s why parents tell stories to their children. That’s why we like to watch movies and read books. People like stories, they are even addicted to them.
Our 6 Storytelling Tips
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For effective storytelling, adapt the story to your audience
Before creating your story, decide what elements will be latent and what will be obvious. Few things are as compelling as a personal story, especially those of triumph over extreme adversity. The people listening to you must relate to your story. For example, facts and figures can support the content of your story. The last thing you want to do is tell an unlikely story or a story that is out of reality. How can you share a sense of belonging by conveying a message of inaccessibility. But if you see someone who has had the same story as you, it’s immediately much easier to do storytelling. The important thing is to convey information that you care about and information that your audience has already experienced.
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Create a problem and unveil the solution slowly
When starting a story, try to bring in a situation or a question that will make the listener want to know the final reasoning. By bringing a problem to the table at the beginning of a personal experience, you will slowly come full circle. Simply by gradually telling a story with bad guys and good guys to better sell. Going back to the previous storytelling technique, having solved the problem on a common story with the listener will bring you much more attention in their eyes.
For example, you can use personal experiences to create a catalog of metaphors and illustrations and add more color to your stories. The time you spent prospecting for new customers and ended up missing the return of one of them can then highlight the importance of checking email notifications or, for your investor, how your new app will save your customer relationship. -
Create suspense in your storytelling
Those who like to watch movies or read books know that a good story should always have a conflict and a plot. There are several ways that can increase the suspense level of your story. One way is to tell a story chronologically and build a climactic conclusion. Another way is to plunge the listener into the middle of the action, then backward in time to reveal how it all happened. The third way is to start by telling a predictable story, then surprise the audience by taking a completely different turn than expected.
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Give your story a rhythm
A well-told story is something that will stay in the mind of your audience for years. Not everyone can tell their story well, not everyone can do real storytelling. One piece of advice we can give you would be to start your story slowly, then pick up the pace of your story to bring action to your story, but also to create some emotion through the listener. Pacing your story will really help you capture the people around you.
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The power of silence in your storytelling
Very few people know how to master it. It is simply the fact of marking blanks at certain strategic moments. But also knowing when to resume your speech. Silence allows on the one hand to capture the attention of the listeners, and on the other hand to give them time to digest all the information you have just transmitted. For example, when you shoot an advertisement with a paradisaical setting, you can give the viewers time to enjoy the view. Set the scene for your visuals. A moment of silence is worth more than a speech that just fills your video.
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Have your own expressions
Your advertising content does not have to be all the same. With the exception of certain details that will remind the listener that it is you and not another brand. Details that can be a recurring expression that takes the form of a slogan for example. These expressions will, by dint of being seen or heard, be memorized by the listeners. That’s why it will be easier to create a link with the brand. We can also take the example of characters that appear in different advertising media. These frequently used characters become familiar and, like the expressions, represent the brand through their image.
Our communication agency Habefast accompanies you in the elaboration of your marketing strategy by taking into consideration the different levers and tools of storytelling, in order to propose you an impactful and efficient strategy.
