The Importance of Storytelling in Ecommerce

Humans love stories.

From an early age, we’re told stories to entertain and inspire us. It’s no surprise the marketing world has embraced storytelling; it’s one of the most effective ways to connect on a deeper level with consumers and humanize a brand.

In ecommerce, storytelling is vital, because brands need to cut through the barrier of the computer screen to connect with strangers. But when it’s done right, any brand can stand out online.

What is Storytelling in Ecommerce?

Storytelling is simply building a narrative around your company and its products. Everything you tell readers about you, your company, your products, and your services is part of the story.

You can use storytelling on your homepage, about page, product pages, and across your social media accounts. It all helps to create a context in which potential customers can understand who you really are.

For example, if you’re selling a brand of coffee, you don’t just say it tastes good; you talk in detail about how your company founders traveled the world, looking for the perfect blend of coffee beans. It can add a sense of adventure, credibility, and exclusivity to your brand.

Why Storytelling is Important for Ecommerce Brands

Stories add authenticity to your content. They grab the attention of readers and help you communicate on a more emotional level. They’re a crucial part of developing a memorable brand, attracting new customers, improving your credibility, building customer loyalty, and driving sales.

Storytelling can give your brand depth. It shows that you offer more than just a product or service; you have values that people can relate to and be a part of.

Information overload

It’s no wonder most “tune out” of traditional advertising methods. The volume of data consumers is exposed to is overwhelming:

Every minute, more than 2 million Google searches are performed

Every day, consumers process around 100,000 digital words, and see approximately 5,000 marketing messages

Every year, 3 trillion ads are sold online

Ignoring marketing messages has become almost automatic; around 79 percent of people scan content, rather than read every word. But storytelling has the potential power to stop people from tuning out.

Develop stronger relationships

To make your marketing messages more effective and to strengthen the bond you have with customers, you need to make your audience feel like you understand them.

The most successful brands build relationships with their audience by defining their brand with a core set of beliefs. This adds a perceived value to the products and services, makes consumers feel a part of something great and can create brand ambassadors.

The most obvious example of this is Coca-Cola. People don’t mind paying a higher price for the product because they feel an emotional attachment to the brand. In the same way, Nike uses storytelling by associating its brand with star athletes — it’s not just selling the shoe’s features, it’s selling the feeling you get by wearing the shoes.

The trick is to select stories that potential customers can relate to and speaking the language of your target audience to connect with them on a more personal level.

Stories are motivational

The best stories motivate people to take action more than a standard sales pitch. Before you share a story, think about what you want your audience to feel and what you want them to do next. When you weave into your story a call-to-action, people that relate to the story are more likely to take the desired action.

So how do you harness the power of storytelling? Here are 10 ways to make your stories more captivating and hopefully give you the competitive edge.

10 Ecommerce Storytelling Strategies That Work

1. Focus on emotions. What do customers experience when using your products? Explain how customers accomplished a task before they had your product and how they felt. Then describe them using your products and how they will feel. Use words and phrases that focus on positive emotions.

Casper, the mattress company, does a good job of reinforcing positive emotions on their website.

2. Talk about how your product makes the customer’s life better. In other words, sell the benefits, not the product. What makes your products and services unique, and what do they help customers achieve? Perhaps your product allows people to spend more time with their family. Use images and videos alongside your copy to bring the ideas to life.

3. Explain how your company solves customer problems. State the problem, show that you understand the problem, and then explain how you developed a solution to make customers’ lives easier.

4. Make the story shareable. What is the core value of your brand? Build your messaging and imagery around this, and create a catchy hashtag that summarizes your core message.

Encourage customers to tell their story using the hashtag, and use social media polls to promote your campaign.

Have a look at this print ad from 1990 by Nike. This is copywriting and storytelling at it’s finest.

Read the full article here: https://www.constant-content.com/content-writing-service/2018/08/the-importance-of-storytelling-in-ecommerce/