We all love a good story that keeps us engaged from the beginning until the end. Storytelling is a great technique in the business landscape that can help you connect with your audience. But, with today’s overcrowded Internet, how can you avoid getting lost in a sea of forgettable bloggers? Read on to find out how to make your business blog storytelling stand out from the rest.
Define your buyer persona
First thing first, before starting to write your stories, you need to make sure that you understand who you are writing for. In order to write a compelling and engaging story, you need to fully understand your readers.
If you don’t want to be just one more forgettable blogger that won’t succeed to engage with their audience, then you must know who you are writing for and what your readers would like you to tell them.
Start by doing a little bit of research on your target audience to understand what type of buying persona will be reading or listening to your stories.
Use visuals
Images have the power to tell a thousand words and this can certainly help you with making your story more compelling and engaging. Starting your story with an image or a video can help your readers get a mental image of the things you are going to talk about.
Medical experts have shown that visuals can make the human brain understand and retain information 60.000x times faster than written text. Thus, even if you are telling your story through a written blog, incorporating an image or two can certainly work in your favor and engage your audience much faster.
Depending on what your story will be about, you can add an image of an object, a person, or a place. Visuals incorporated into your story will make your readers deeply immerse with your words and will even start to feel like they are part of your story.
Be your story’s main character
There is no one else who can tell your stories better than yourself. You know exactly what you have seen, felt, and experienced during the stories you are sharing. And, if you are the one who puts these emotions in words, your stories will connect with your audience a thousand times better.
No matter what product or type of service you want to promote to your target audience, do it by sharing your own experiences with it. For example, if you are aiming to get your readers to feel empathy, you can share your story about how much you have struggled with your business at the beginning. For example, you can tell your readers how difficult it was at the beginning to gain more readers but how you have managed to overcome this challenge and from about 20 readers a month, you now have thousands that follow your blog.
If you manage to transfer your emotions onto your blog post, your readers are more likely to start feeling empathy and connect with you instantly. Also, keep in mind that one of the main benefits of storytelling is the fact that it adds credibility, so a genuine story about your experiences will help you win the hearts of your audience.
Focus more on describing the human experience
One of the most powerful storytelling techniques is to focus more on describing the human experience before the topic you are talking about. This is the best way to hook your readers and get them to stay connected with your story from the beginning until the end.
When a story focuses too much on the topic it describes, it is very likely to transform into an informative or descriptive blog. Making the human the centerpiece of your story will lead to an instant connection with your readers because it may make the audience think about how they would react or feel if they were the main characters of your story.
Estelle Liotard, a senior writer at GrabMyEssay and content editor at Studicus, explains that “Focusing on the human experience means describing the actions of the characters and what motivated them, as well as their feelings, emotions, and thoughts, something that any reader can relate to.”
There are three elements that can make a good story and all three of them revolve around the human experience:
- Character- every story must have a character that the audience can relate with;
- Challenge- sharing how you have managed to overcome challenges can trigger empathy in your audience;
- Resolution- the ending of the story shouldn’t only wrap up your previous words but also leave your readers with a call-to-action.
Incorporate what makes a good story
Think about the time someone shared a story with you? Was it fun or boring? Was it too long or too short? Did you memorize it because you really liked it? Consider your answers to these questions to get an idea of what makes a good story.
If you need some hints, a good story must have a few elements that make it good for your audience. First of all, the golden rule of a good storytelling strategy is to capture your audience’s interest with fun stories. If reading your blog doesn’t bring entertainment to your audience, they are very unlikely to return to your blog in the future.
Secondly, a good story is an educational one. If there is no idea or lesson to be drawn out of your story, that it is just another promotional content that your audience won’t memorize for too long.
Last but definitely not least, a good story must be easy to read and organized. Making an easily readable story comes down to knowing your audience by heart in order to be able to address them with a language they will surely understand. To make sure that your story is comprehensive and won’t leave your readers in confusion, read it yourself after you finish writing it or ask for one or two opinions before posting it on your blog.
Choose a catchy title
One crucial thing that can help your business blog storytelling stand out from the rest is choosing titles that grab their attention. You need to be aware of the fact that you have only a few seconds to grab the attention of the internet users before they scroll down to other Google Search results. And, there is no better way to raise interest in them than to have a title that will make them think that your story post is worth reading.
One of the best ways to grab attention is to make them wonder about something while telling them that the answer to their question is going to be in your story. Make your title start with curiosity words or a question that will make them feel like they are missing out on something important if they don’t read your story. Thanks to technological innovations, you don’t have to spend too much time on choosing a title for your story. You can use an AI-powered writing system that will give you several suggestions on catchy titles.
Ask your readers for their stories
Now that your readers have been captivated by your story and read it from the beginning until the end, it is time that you engage them a little bit more with your post. Now, it is the time that you offer them a chance to share their stories with you too.
At the end of each of your posts, get used to asking your readers to share their opinions or stories either in the comments section or via email. This will be proof of an authentic interest in interaction with your audience.
There’s nothing better than storytelling when it comes to creating a genuine connection with other human beings. No matter what you are promoting, be it a product or a service, using storytelling is a great way to win both the hearts and minds of your audience and engage them with your brand.
Dorian Martin is a frequent blogger and an article contributor to a number of websites related to digital marketing, AI/ML, blockchain, data science and all things digital. He is a senior writer at WoWGrade and content editor at Supreme Dissertations, runs a personal blog NotBusinessAsUsusal and provides training to other content writers.