Why You Need to Tell a Story

I like good stories, I really do. A very profound part of growing up in Nigeria entails listening to stories from grown ups, either true or false; we connected with these stories and learnt vital lessons from them.

In my late teenage years it dawned on me that most of these stories were just a vehicle to teach us moral and religious lessons that we ordinarily might not have listened to. The stories capture our minds that we think of the possibilities of these scenarios and learn the lessons intended. Beautiful!

As adults, we try to shy away from telling stories and we do the same in marketing. We think all we have to do is state the facts and figures and people will listen because these are FACTS! Story for the gods (lol).

Stories have a persuasive power, people can relate with stories but not everyone can relate with facts. In fact, studies have shown that leaders who can create stories have a powerful advantage over others.

Recently, I started following a very successful vendor on Instagram and tried to understand why she is more successful than her peers. I have heard bad reviews about her business and that even her products are not as good as advertised but her followers don’t seem to care or maybe she just get new ones daily that it’s hard to notice a drop in loyalty. This woman knows how to tell stories! For every new product she is dropping or advertising she always has a story to tell and she carries her followers along so well, In fact some of the reactions on her page make you think these people have equity in her business(lol). She is not the average tech based start up founder or an eCommerce co founder but the point is her story telling technique can be applied in almost any business.

I see so many brands struggle to create engagement online because they are busy creating the best style guides and curating facts that they think consumers will find informative, while this might not apply to all businesses, the average consumer could care less about your “facts” . If you must, present these facts in a compelling way, draw you audience in before you start dropping figures.

So the next time you are introducing a product or selling anything to anyone, remember how you are captivated by good stories, then tell one.

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Remi Martins Areola

Digital Strategist.

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