Storytelling is the essence of advertising. It shapes how an audience views your company, which is extremely important in all markets.
Businesses have been using compelling stories to promote their products and connect with their consumers for years. While some, such as John Lewis, have mastered business storytelling, others have not been as successful.
Here at All Good Tales, we know how difficult and time consuming it can be to produce an effective, engaging and memorable business story. So, we’re here to help. Here are the 5 C’s of successful business storytelling.
Circumstance
When crafting a story, one must first introduce the circumstance. This is the context of the story. It establishes your scene and provides the audience with critical information that they need to understand the story – the where, when and why your story is being told. This needs to be interesting, engaging and capable of grabbing the audience’s attention.
Curiosity
While having a killer introduction is vital to a story’s success, it does not mean that your work is done. Once you have the audience’s attention, your aim is to compel the reader to keep reading and ensure that you maintain the audience’s interest throughout the rest of the story. An easy way to do this is to create suspense, making them curious about what will happen next. Leave the audience wanting more.
Characters
The human element of brand storytelling is huge. Therefore, brands need to be strategic in choosing the characters who feature in the story. Often, companies such as VHI Healthcare and Dove use real customers and their experiences in order to increase authenticity and to make the story more relatable to the audience. Connecting to your audience is key.
Conversations
Conversation can refer to the dialogue (or lack thereof) in your business story. Nowadays, bragging about your business achievements and success doesn’t drive any real engagement. Instead, people are more likely to respond and pay attention to a conversation between characters. A lack of dialogue can make the audience lose interest pretty quickly.
There is another way of looking at conversation. It is essentially concerned with the scalability and share-ability of your business story. Will your story get people talking? Will it evoke emotions in the audience? Will they discuss it with their peers?
Conflict
Without conflict, there is no story. Simply put, conflict in a business story is the presentation of a problem followed by a solution. Embracing conflict is key to keeping your audience’s attention, as they become invested in how it will unfold. Successful business stories deeply connect with your target audiences by leveraging the conflicts that have relevance and value to them. When crafting your business story, consider the problems, challenges, or fears your customers face, and how your business can help solve them.
