As a business, you’re always looking for new and improved ways to market to your customers. Today, this means being innovative, creative, and entertaining.

One way brands are pulling this off is with storytelling.

Through storytelling, brands are able to captivate their audience, gain their trust, and even boost their business. This is why 45% of marketers are now implementing this into their content strategies.

Already, 55% of business professionals agree that great stories capture their focus and engage them with the content. But it’s not just the B2B companies that can benefit from storytelling – B2C companies can too.

After all, businesses are run by people (aka consumers).  

But how can you use storytelling to turn your content marketing strategy into a high-converting machine?

Let’s take a look at three secrets that can help you do just that.

1. Create a Protagonist that Resonates with Your Audience

Every great story has a protagonist that the audience can relate to. Then by the end of the story, the audience is in love with the character and wishes nothing but the best for them.

In marketing, however, the protagonist becomes a person the audience wants to see succeed. And in many cases, they play a part in ensuring this happens.

So businesses that have a face and a personality that people like will have an easier time converting visitors into customers and loyal fans. Keep in mind that loyal fans are also brand advocates.

In other words, this will earn you free and effective word-of-mouth advertising for your business.

You can even go as far as to use customer-led storytelling, where you have customers as the protagonists. These individuals can tell their story and how your product or service helped them achieve goals.

About 92% of people admit that they trust peers over traditional ads. So stop wasting your dollars on PPC campaigns and start investing in content that sells via powerful stories.

Consumers are looking for social proof in whatever form it comes in – online reviews, video testimonials, or branded storytelling. So take advantage by leveraging your satisfied customers and creating engaging case studies.

Take for example Airbnb and the stories from its community. It shows both individuals who rent homes and hosts that rent them out. It’s a genius way to get people from both sides to use the platform.

GoPro also did a great job of customer-led storytelling back in 2014 (and to this day). Not only did its users create tons of content – but it also helped them to generate a $24.6 million income because of it.

2. Implement Storytelling that’s “Anti-Branding”

Let’s face it – consumers Hate advertising with a capital “H.” So to continuously drum up ideas for your advertising campaigns is a moot decision.

About 42% of US consumers say that brands are less truthful today than they were two decades ago. This means they’re losing trust for companies and their messaging.

If this is the case, then how can brands push out their content without rubbing consumers the wrong way? With storytelling that’s anti-branding, you can easily pull this off.

In this strategy, you’re creating content that could almost be a regular blog, video, or podcast hosted by individuals.

The idea is to make the content feel authentic and genuine – not like just another branding gimmick. Take for example Zendesk.

They created a fictional rock band that was frustrated because some company stole their name. In the video, they do admit to needing the services offered by Zendesk and in the end write a song about how essential customer support is.

If you’re going to go with fictional characters, make them realistic and likable. And if you can trigger emotions and thoughts in the process, then you have a winner!

3. Hire Content Storytelling Masters

Now, let’s say you want your brand to master content storytelling, yet you don’t have a marketing department, bid budget, or the time to accomplish this.

No worries. There’s another way. In fact, many businesses are outsourcing their content marketing to storytelling gurus at digital marketing firms.

Why?

Well, there are several reasons for doing so. For one, it can help reduce your overhead costs. Without outsourcing, this means you have to hire a team of full-time marketers, which will cost you a pretty penny.

Then in all reality, this team will have more on their plate than just managing your content storytelling. They also have to juggle with overall digital marketing, including SEO, website development, email marketing, and paid advertising campaigns.

However, when you’re outsourcing to a marketing agency, you get experts who are solely focused on your content strategy and getting satisfactory results from it.

And by them being 100% focused on your content storytelling, they’re able to be more creative. They have the time to brainstorm and conjure up ideas that your marketing department would be too gridlocked to do.

In the end, you get content storytelling that’s masterful, engaging, emotionally-driven, and customer-oriented. Your ROI potential soars from here, especially since you’re only paying for what’s put out – not an hourly wage for mediocre results.

Turn Your Brand into a Masterful Storyteller

It’s not too late to turn things around for your content marketing strategy. If your results are lacking and you’d like to amplify them, then these tips can help.

There’s no excuse for why you can’t make this happen in 2019 and beyond. You can research like crazy, experiment with your campaigns, and continue learning all you can about your target customer.

Remember, if you can’t do it yourself, you can always enlist the help of content marketing professionals.

Whatever you decide, be sure to come back and let us know in the comments how your storytelling campaign is coming along!