Why Marketing Stories Engage

Stories are what we tell ourselves to make sense of the world around us. We've been told them for years, and we've been telling our own since we could talk. Stories are what we tell ourselves subconsciously. They're how we justify and defend our decisions, our beliefs and our attitudes.

You don't believe me? Tell me why you bought those designer sunglasses or that new Jet Ski or that first class ticket to London? Why'd you rent a luxury car during your last trip, instead of the economy car with the manual window cranks?

See. You had a story for each of those, didn't you? Well, so do your potential buyers.

Stories are valuable because they are based on movement. They're not static like facts and statistics. Stories naturally progress from beginning to middle to end. They paint a visual in your mind that allows you to ingest them in whatever manner works for you. And, as you do so, you gain context that helps position you for a conversation. Stories help you talk about concepts.

Given that b2b buying groups for complex sales include upwards of 7 people, on average, leveraging story principles in your marketing content can yield excellent results, and drive much higher engagement than that data sheet you've got a link to on your website. Sure, you need product details and specifications, but not until you've got engagement.

Products are a commodity. Chances are, the prospect can go to another vendor to buy a similar product. So what's going to keep them interested in your company? The way you involve them in the story of how they solve their problems, tackle their issues and harness new opportunities that grow their companies.

Consider the following structural format for a marketing story:

You can see that Catch Factors figure in the immediate hook for catching attention. But you can also see that the meat of the story - the middle - is about your expertise and their options. And the end is a satisfying rendering of what the future will be with the successful project outcome.

This is only one version of a marketing story structure, but it can be used to develop a variety of compelling content pieces your potential buyers and existing customers will find engaging and worthy of their mindshare. Used in lead generation and for nurturing, you'll find stories will deliver a high return for your marketing programs.

And, this same format can be used to provide sales stories for your sales force. Remember that salespeople meet in person and stories play a big part in engagement. They build report and escalate relationships. Stories offer a common ground, if you will, for the discussion of important concepts, giving a context that's applicable to each individual situation by virtue of how they're applied.