The era of digitisation has had a direct impact on business decisions. Marketers are constantly in search of new and improved ways to incorporate the digital maturity into businesses for better outcomes.
With the requirement of businesses to spread awareness, digital storytelling has turned out to be an effective buzzword. Stories have the power to drive change by engaging customers.
Why?
Stories inspire us. They help us remember concepts and ideas in a way that data and graphs don’t. Therefore, storytelling with the help of digital channels provides just the opportunity for businesses to stand out.
However, there’s a huge difference between telling stories and telling stories that work. This is what many marketers struggle with. Here are a few strategies recommended by a pro experiential marketing agency in collaboration with a web design company that can help to stimulate an immersive and effective digital storytelling experience to engage customers.
- Use Real Experiences
The most interesting stories are not the ones that you craft, but the ones of real people. This is because these stories include authenticity which drives engagement. Brand campaigns that build an emotional connection are highly effective in engaging customers.
Using real people and their stories work as catalysts for engagement by humanising your brand. This encourages others to share their stories as well. Such scope for interaction makes the message stronger. True stories resonate much better with the audience than a staged production.
This strategy also facilitates the participation of customers in improving the brand’s appeal. This can build brand loyalty and form a solid foundation for storytelling.
- Add Personal Values to your ad campaign
An advertising campaign isn’t solely about promotion. It needs to be able to build a connection with customers on a personal level. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by fulfilling their requirements. Customers need solutions. Your storytelling strategy should include how the product or service that your business provides solve their problems and make their lives easier.
For example, Reebok’s ‘#HonorYourDays’ campaign capitalises on this concept. An average human lives for 25,915 days. The video follows a middle-aged woman running in reverse to the day she was born. This video communicates Reebok’s mission to change how people experience and perceive fitness at every age. It also lets its customers know that Reebok will fulfil their requirements for athletic gear throughout their lives.
- Utilise Technology
Technology is a major part of our lives. Therefore, this can be an effective vehicle for the story you plan on telling. There are various platforms that you can experiment with. Be it gamification, social media, augmented reality etc., you can choose the platform that suits your requirements the most.
Another innovation in technology that has created quite a buzz in the business world is virtual reality. Immersive journalism has been gaining traction recently with its ability to enable consumers ‘experience’ the news. Nonny de la Peña, journalist and godmother of immersive journalism recreated the massive issue of hunger in Los Angeles through a virtual reality content that allows viewers to feel like they are present there.
At a TED conference, she asked, “What if I could present you a story that you remember with your entire body and not just with your mind?”
To leverage this technology, you would need the right tools to create content that is compatible with virtual reality. A competent experiential marketing agency can help you make the most of this technology.
- Keep it Simple
A complex story may have all the elements you want to include, but it may fall flat to the external eye. This is because not many customers may be able to grasp the purpose of the storytelling effort since a complicated story may confuse them and set them on a different path.
The goal of digital storytelling isn’t to equip your customers with the knowledge of every business process, but to help them understand the purpose of your company and make the products and the services that you provide unique and helpful for them. Your stories should motivate them enough to take the next step.
The message you convey should be crisp and clear. It should encourage them to engage with your brand.
In the era of information, what matters is getting your voice heard. Digital storytelling provides the best method to accomplish this. The basic idea is to provide meaningful experiences that your customers can relate to. Simplicity and honesty can get you there.
