It’s long been said that content is king and the natural evolution of the royal marketing family is that quality was crowned queen. So where to from here?

You’ve likely read many prediction lists by now for the new year, but I have just one. 2014 will be the year of story marketing.

What’s story marketing then? Put simply, story marketing is about creating a meaningful, engaging narrative for your brand that your target market can connect with. Story marketing isn’t just a social marketing concept, but social by nature is a brilliant channel for executing it.

If you need convincing of the benefit of story marketing, think of the last time you read a fantastic book that you just couldn’t put down. Or watched a TV show or film you couldn’t wait for the next installment of. Great stories are addictive.

The disparity in scale of stories is perhaps the best part – it’s a suitable strategy for businesses with both small and large budgets. From short behind-the-scenes type images or videos allowing customers an insight into the passion and effort that goes into creating your product, to a big campaign featuring a custom cartoon and special track by Lily Allen. Both versions are equally workable.

Stories created for marketing purposes can also be fiction or non-fiction. Testimonials from customers that provide in-situ insight as to how your product or service benefited them capture story-based benefits. Conversely, fictional customers like those shown in Nest’s smoke detector promotional video make for a strong story too. 

Both real-life examples I’ve given so far are video based – one is a TV campaign and the other is a promotional video. Story marketing can of course be executed socially – the very nature of the social environment is ripe for stories after all.

Compare The Market has brought their extremely popular Compare The Meerkat campaign to Australia, and maintains the meerkat story and primary characters on a day-to-day basis via social media.

At the time of writing, the Facebook Page for Aleksandr Orlov, “Founder” of Compare The Meerkat has almost 100,000 fans. The last post on this Page alone garnered 37 shares, 850+ Likes and a modest 78 comments.

On a much smaller scale, popular online store Think Geek uses story marketing in every product description that is then shared socially. Rather than simply listing product features, Think Geek tells their customers a story which takes on an almost ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style narrative, where the reader is the hero. Their most recent product-based Facebook Post received 1,357 shares, 3,886 Likes and 153 comments.

The bottom line is that people relate to brands that exhibit human qualities. They’re more interesting, more engaging and customers are more loyal to them. Whilst it’s unlikely someone would ever say they’ve developed a “relationship” with a brand, that’s exactly what happens.

And don’t forget; sometimes, great story marketing opportunities just land in your lap.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Hibberd has over 15 years digital marketing experience and is currently Co-founder & CEO of Tiger Pistol. Steve has a passion for Social Marketing, and works closely with key industry stakeholders in both Australia and the U.S. on developing product to make success on social easier to achieve for small business owners and marketers across the world.

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