Storytelling is huge in marketing – and for good reason. Research suggests that it helps connect with people emotionally, improves ad recall, and builds positive associations with your brand. But the problem is: How do you tell stories? What storytelling elements can you use in your content strategy? And how can you get the most of it in email? Here are five tips:

Know Who Your Readers Are

The top rule in marketing these days is: Know your customer. And this applies in storytelling too. Why? Because understanding who your subscribers are will help you to understand what kind of stories interest them, what their problems are, and what outcomes they’re interested in achieving. It defines the kind of stories you should tell in your content strategy.

The best way to get to know your audience is by collecting their data. Our drag-and-drop subscription form builder makes it easy.

Make Your Customer the Hero

According to Donald Miller’s book, Building a Story Brand, most stories have a hero (the main character). We follow their struggle and see them grow and develop into better people. In most cases, your clients should be the hero in your story. This means using more ‘you’ and ‘your’ language in your messages, personalising your content wherever possible, and focusing on solving the customer’s problems.

Your business’s role in their story, on the other hand, is as a guide – their Yoda in their quest to defeat their own version of the Death Star. Use your content to position yourself as a business that can teach them, guide them, and give them the tools to become the heroes that they are in their own worlds.

Share Insider Information

There’s a lot about your business that the rest of the world doesn’t know. Use it to share information about your culture, your history, and your people. Business of Story suggests doing this by sharing your origin story, your future plans, a personal experience of someone on your team, or even the case studies and testimonials of your clients.

Don’t Sell – Give Real Value

People are inundated with advertising – everywhere they look, someone’s trying to sell them something. This has resulted in people being desensitised to messaging that doesn’t connect with them personally.

That’s why Relevance.com recommends being authentic and giving your readers something valuable to read. This kind of customer-centric content encourages them to keep reading (and buying) more.

Find Clever Ways to Share

Storytelling in email isn’t limited to a single mailer. Brainstorm clever ways to turn your stories into journeys.

Target Marketing suggests doing this by sending a series of emails (with a beginning, middle, and an end), extending the story across different channels (like SMS and voice broadcasting), or by segmenting your database and sending each audience on a personalised lead nurturing journey.

Sending your clients on a customised journey doesn’t have to be complicated. With our marketing automation workflows, the possibilities are extensive and the sending convenient. Here are some examples of how you can use them.

Storytelling doesn’t have to be daunting. It’s just about being yourself, caring about your customers, and getting creative. And thanks to Everlytic, that’s pretty much all you need to do as our platform gives you the tools to do the rest easily and conveniently.

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