The interactions a customer has with a brand is now made up of multiple touchpoints, both offline and online. As a result, customers now have heightened expectations of the brand exposure they are receiving. They expect any advertising, marketing, and branding to match their unique needs and interests. Without this component, brands may fail to get their attention and business.
To live up to the challenge, marketers must leverage this need for unique messaging to create compelling creative campaigns that tell a cohesive story throughout the marketing and sales funnel. They must be able to connect with customers.
The best storytellers create fluid messaging that meets customers wherever they interact with a brand. Whether it鈥檚 in-store, through social media, or via content, a good story helps customers learn more about the company鈥檚 products and services in the places they prefer. This leads to an increase in brand awareness, sentiment, and trust.
The customer journey from awareness to conversion is usually the same across multiple industries (with what constitutes a conversion usually changing). According to Altimeter as , the customer journey consists of the following steps:
As a customer moves through these steps, they will likely interact with a brand through multiple channels and platforms, thus creating a need for an omnichannel marketing strategy. Authentic storytelling has a unique opportunity to be a part of each step in the customer journey. But in order to be effective, it needs to reflect what a customer is looking for at each step. It must meet customer expectations.
In order for today鈥檚 modern customer to move through the journey cycle, they have expectations on what to see and receive from a brand. These areas include:
If a brand doesn鈥檛 meet these expectations, then customers will lose interest. The good news is advertising and marketing are predicted to become more and more personalized, just like From dynamic CRM to ad targeting based on past behavior, customers are beginning to rely on personalized marketing to make purchasing decisions.
Amazon is a good example of this. Their recommendation section that users see throughout the site has increased sales significantly. Rejoiner reports that of Amazon鈥檚 income is from its product recommendations based on a user鈥檚 browsing and shopping history.
The bottom line is this: the more specific a brand can be to a user鈥檚 interests and needs, the more likely they will end up getting a sale.
We know storytelling is important so how can we use authentic storytelling in omnichannel campaigns? Storytelling is simply illustrating points about a brand鈥檚 history, offerings, customers, or experience in its industry through a narrative tale instead of outlining the black and white points. This can create a more meaningful and impactful experience with a brand.
For instance, take about where food comes from:
The video resonated with many of Chipotle鈥檚 customers because they care about eating 鈥渃lean鈥� ingredients from reputable sources. This story-focused asset was shared millions of times more than a standard page with a list of the ingredients Chipotle offers ever would.
While the animated short did get a (due to agriculture in America being such a controversial topic), it is still a great example of using storytelling to convey what your company is about. In this instance, Chipotle was promoting their stance on
This type of storytelling ties into all steps of the customer journey:
Besides showing what it stands for, brings to its customers. This is usually best done for many brands through customer case studies and testimonials. Testimonials provide a unique opportunity to help potential customers see themselves in a company鈥檚 current customers.
Take this example for a :
A potential customer can see how this couple鈥檚 injuries have improved with the studio and might consider trying it for their own aches and pains.
Testimonials also build brand value by establishing credibility and social proof. Potential customers see that others are using a product or service (and enjoying it) and it motivates them to do the same.
Telling stories about brand experiences and values will always resonate, but brand messaging through storytelling can also shift depending on what a target audience is really looking for.
Using the pilates studio example above, someone who is looking to lose weight isn鈥檛 going to be interested in Pilates for injury recovery. In that instance, the studio should create another testimonial video focused on how they have helped their clients with weight loss.
When deciding what types of stories matter to a brand鈥檚 audience, they should consider:
Answering these questions can help brands begin to outline the types of stories they want to tell. When adapting to current marketing trends and shifting strategy to accommodate the changing values customers have about the brands they buy from, marketers can use storytelling to sell to customers in a meaningful way.
Efforts like storytelling in marketing would be useless if they aren鈥檛 measured properly. Without the correct measurement, there is no way to gauge their effectiveness and if their intended message was received properly by the target audience. The customer journey should be matched with accompanying data points that help track each person鈥檚 path through each step.
Unified marketing measurement should be implemented to not only track data from customers on multiple platforms, but to also show better ROI that encompasses all marketing efforts.
When creating stories, whether it鈥檚 through actual customer case studies or personifying a company as Chipotle did, brands can better shape the customer journey. By meeting customer expectations through more relevant content, brands will see a stronger conversion rate through the marketing funnel. This leads to more engaged customers that are passionate about who they are buying from.