5 tips to make sure your story gets heard in 2020

We’re going to let you in on a little secret: At the end of the day, marketing is a form of storytelling. No matter what you’re trying to “sell” – a concept, a service, a product – your audience needs to buy into your story first.

Ideally, your storytelling efforts should take your audience on a journey that follows the AIDA model – awareness, interest, desire and action. Basically, you can’t expect new audience members to instantly answer your call to action; you’ve got to lure them in and build an emotional connection with them first. To help you do this, we’re listing five ways to tell a story so epic, your audience won’t be able to turn away.

1. Define your key messages

Every organization has something they’re trying to achieve through their digital strategy. So before you start telling your story, break down your objectives into the key messages. All of your digital content, including social media posts, videos and email marketing campaigns, should align with these key messages. After all, those key messages are the heart of your story.

2. Get to know your target audience

With storytelling, understanding your audience is essential. Who are you trying to connect with? Creating target audience personas will help you figure it out. These in-depth profiles will help you determine your audience’s wants, needs, concerns and interests. Armed with this information, you can start telling a story that will truly resonate with them.

3. Get creative with your content

Humans are visual creatures; nothing gets their attention like a cool photo or a beautiful video.  Including a visual element with every piece of content is a major power move. Luckily there are lots of free visual content creation options like Canva and stock photo/video sites. You could also build up your organization’s photo supply by tracking down an affordable photographer, or even take your own photos with your smartphone.

4. Use the hub-and-spoke model

While there are lots of reasons to create a content marketing strategy, drawing audiences to your website is one of the big benefits – after all, that’s where the real magic happens. Once audience members arrive at your site, you get a chance to convert their interest into action – and that’s the whole idea behind the hub-and-spoke model.

By creating a wide variety of storytelling content – social media posts, podcast episodes, infographics, YouTube videos, you name it – your chances of attracting traffic to your website will increase greatly. If your site is easy to navigate and filled with clear, relevant and engaging information, your story will come across loud and clear – and your audience will be that much closer to converting.

5. Keep an eye on your story’s analytics

Don’t waste time creating content your audience isn’t interested in. Instead, assemble monthly analytics reports – you’ll be able to see exactly which storytelling tactics work and which ones don’t. Over time, you’ll get a sense of what kind of content and calls to action perform the best so you can continue to create similar content in the future.

Storytelling is the key behind the AIDA model – you can’t transform awareness into action without a compelling story. Get in touch with us if you’d like to continue improving your digital storytelling skills!