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Cathal McCabe

How to use storytelling to increase your sales

Spreadsheets, graphs and charts can be very useful, but they tend not to grasp the customer’s attention the same way storytelling can.

Every day, more and more businesses utilise sales stories to reel in customers. The growing popularity of this method means that just telling a story is no longer enough to stand out; you must tell it in an effective and captivating way.

With this in mind, here are five tips from us at All Good Tales to help you tell a better sales story.

Make your product the sidekick, not the hero

This is a flaw of the ad campaigns of even the biggest and most powerful brands in the world. Too many sales reps make the mistake of positioning their own product or brand as the hero that swoops in to save the day. This brushes past your target, the customer. The customer does not want your brand to dominate their life. The customer wants you to help them achieve their goals. By presenting your product as something which will aid people in their daily lives, they will have more of an incentive to buy it

Keep it relevant

Your story needs a clear sense of purpose. If you don’t have a concise, quick and easy-to-remember answer to that question, the audience will not have a clear understanding of your proposal at the end. Don’t add in unnecessary details about your product or your company as it will only prevent your message from effectively reaching your intended audience.

Facts, facts, facts

Analogies, metaphors and emotional appeals can be useful tools for advertising, especially when exercised through the medium of storytelling. However, even when trying to get customers to make emotional decisions, they require real data to back up those choices. Throwing these facts into your stories at regular intervals will validate any judgments the customer initially makes due to your less factual and more emotional story elements.

Delivery is key

There is nothing more frustrating than a poorly told story. When presenting your story publicly, it is crucial that you are extremely prepared. Outline your structure, practice your entire presentation until you can do it in your sleep. Try to use bullet points to keep you on track, as opposed to reading from a fully fleshed-out script. Sounding too scripted will cause your story to lose any feeling of authenticity.

Tailor it to your audience

People resonate most with stories in which they can see themselves. When telling your story in an ad, try to tailor it to your target demographic. Similarly, when telling your story to people in person, try to gather as much information about your potential customer, and craft a unique version of your story, that they will want to become their story. Because if the customer resonates with your story, they will more than likely resonate with your product.

Here at All Good Tales, our CEO delivers inspirational keynote addresses to audiences, teaching them how to tell powerful stories. To find out more or to arrange a consultation you can call us on (01) 454 0090. For more information click here.

Brand Story Hero: Lidl: Empowering Women’s GAA

Ever since 2016, Lidl have been the biggest corporate supporter of women’s sport in Ireland, investing €4 million into Ladies’ Gaelic Football. From 2011 to 2015 Tesco held the sponsorship for four years, an endorsement which largely went unnoticed. Lidl wanted to avoid their rival’s fate and put this sponsorship to good use by using it to build their brand story.

Within a year of this campaign, they had generated an awareness of their sponsorship that was higher than that of AIB with Gaelic Football and Heineken with Irish rugby. We at All Good Tales, have compiled a list of three reasons why Lidl’s campaign with Ladies Gaelic Football was a success.

They weren’t condescending to women

Many marketing campaigns aimed at women have been incredibly condescending, cosmetic and simplistic. For example, in 2012, BIC (the pen company) launched a “For Her” pen. Costing twice as much as their regular products, the only change was that they came in pink. Ridiculed by comedians such as Ellen DeGeneres, it became the benchmark for terrible marketing campaigns aimed at women. Seeking to remind their customers of these campaigns, Lidl created a spoof product called “Ladyball”. It was advertised as being built for “a woman’s grip”, a woman’s ability and fashion-driven for a woman’s style. To top it off, it was painted a bright, blinding pink. The product’s launch video generated huge amounts of negative feedback online, which was exactly Lidl’s intention. After the dust of outrage had settled, they revealed that it was a marketing stunt, and revealed their brand new campaign working alongside the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA).

It completely changed their brand perception

When Lidl opened their first store in Ireland in 2000, they were seen as a multi-national megacorporation who offered discount shopping with no frills. It was a stark contrast to the neighbourly supermarket culture which had been so successfully cultivated by Superquinn’s Feargal Quinn in the 80s and 90s. After the 2008 financial crisis, Lidl’s market share grew significantly, but they failed to shake that image of the “German food warehouse”. One of Lidl’s goals with this campaign was to get more people to associate their brand with local activity, by using the links that local LGFA clubs have with their communities. Their aim was to double people’s perception of Lidl as a local supermarket, and according to Spark Research, they tripled their original number. This was done by focusing much of their funding on local institutions. For example, they bought €250,000 worth of equipment for 147 schools, rejuvenating the sport amongst young girls.

Not only did it help Lidl, it helped the sport

Often with PR campaigns, they only have soundbites and vague statements to back up the impact that their marketing campaigns have had. However, when it comes to Lidl’s partnership with the LGFA, there is one set of statistics which seem to back up the success of their campaign. In 2016, the year Lidl’s partnership began, attendance at the LGFA All-Ireland final was 34,445. Two years later, attendance was 50,141. With the 2019 final coming up on September 15, we in the PR industry are anxious to see how much more Lidl’s campaign with the LGFA can help that sport grow.

Here at All Good Tales, our CEO delivers inspirational keynote addresses to audiences, teaching them how to tell powerful stories. To find out more or to arrange a consultation you can call us on (01) 454 0090. For more information click here.

 

 

 

 

 

5 ways to tell a great brand story

Stories develop a connection between the reader and the writer. If it’s a good story, this connection can develop trust, admiration and excitement.

These are three qualities which any brand would love to feature in their interactions with consumers. This is why so many successful companies are starting to use storytelling in their content. Instead of producing boring, product-centric content, brands are trying to create advertisements which will spark an emotional response within their customers. A response which will make those customers remember the advertisement.

However, because more companies are beginning to utilise storytelling in their advertising, it is no longer sufficient to just tell a story. It must be a good brand story, one that your customers will enjoy listening to. At All Good Tales, we help all our customers find the key to telling a good brand story: their “magic slice”. With that in mind, here are our top five tips for telling a great brand story.

Don’t try to be something you’re not

If your business has ever produced an advertisement, people will already have an image of your values and corporate culture in their head. If your brand story diverts too much from that image, your customers will notice your shift and view you as being inauthentic. Try to take the positive aspects of your current branding along with you when crafting your brand story.

This will give your customers a comfortable sense of familiarity. As for any negative aspects, a gradual change as you create your brand story will erase these associations in your customer’s minds while allowing you to continue to be viewed as authentic.

Tell your audience what you can provide them

Many brand stories set up situations where their brand is treated as a character. It can be the hero, such as a toy company’s 24-hour delivery service saving Christmas or it can be a sidekick, such as an online video chat company allowing someone to ace an interview.

After seeing these stories, people will reflect upon their own experience and think that they might be better off if they had that same character in their lives.

Find your unique angle 

With brand storytelling becoming more popular, it’s natural to assume that your competitors will be trying it too. Therefore, it’s important that you find a unique angle of storytelling that will differentiate you from your competition in the public eye.

Perfect examples of this are the John Lewis Christmas ads. Every year since 2007, they have had everyone anticipating their usually anthropomorphic, feel-good ads that tell a heart-warming story for the holiday season. No other department store has managed to compete with their Christmas marketing as these ads are so unique, and are therefore permanently associated with the John Lewis brand.

Make it relevant

A great way to avoid being seen as out-of-touch is by connecting your brand story to current events. A famous example of this is the Apple 1984 Super Bowl ad. Due to the year that was in it, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four had experienced a second wind of popularity and using this as a backdrop, Apple’s marketing team introduced the world to Macintosh. However, it is important to tread carefully when attempting this, as it can also lead to PR blunders (e.g. Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad).

Make it simple

Above all else, remember to keep your story a simple one. A customer will only pay attention to one brand for so long without reward. Your story must be simple enough to instantly understand and engaging enough to make your customer want to stick around. If you achieve these two things, then you have the core elements of a great brand story.

Here at All Good Tales, our CEO delivers inspirational keynote addresses to audiences, teaching them how to tell powerful stories. To find out more or to arrange a consultation you can call us on (01) 454 0090. For more information click here.