5 Storytelling Steps to Generate Qualified Organic Leads
If marketing is storytelling, powerful storytelling can lead to qualified leads. Find out how to spin stories effectively.
Some of the most effective marketing strategies centre around telling a story. Some businesses use this technique. But they may do it incorrectly.
Other businesses may ignore the storytelling technique completely. However, you may find that successful brands have all mastered the art of storytelling.
This art isn’t easy to master. But taking the time to learn this powerful technique can help you with your marketing efforts. And generate genuine leads in the long run.
The Steps
Ready to transform your marketing campaigns? Follow the steps below to start your storytelling training:
Step 1 – Identify Your Audience
You know the message you want to deliver. So, it’s time to identify and understand who your audience is. There are a few ways to find out about your audience, such as:
- Target demographic facts – income, population
- Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) profile – audience thinking styles
- Surveys and interviews – direct insights from your target audience
- Social media information – trends, hashtags, likes and dislikes from FB profiles
- Competitor’s websites and social channel – content that receives the most traction
- Hypothetical customer personas – diagram journey from information to purchase stage
- User comments – solve problems in the following posts
- Conferences and seminars – direct interaction with the desired audience group
Use a combination of methods to gain a better understanding of your audience.
Step 2 – Understand the Purpose of Your Story and Create a Character
The purpose of your story should not be production or sales. So what is your purpose?
If you want people to connect with you, try to solve a problem that your target audience experiences.
Don’t forget to create a character to link to your brand. Creating memorable characters helps your audience remember your business. Or you can use the audience themselves as characters in your story.
Step 3 – Hone the Message
Next, it’s time to polish your message. There are a few ways to do this depending on your message purpose and audience. Some examples include:
- Emotional hook – can catch your audience’s attention
- Video storytelling – polish music and narrative, licensing for music
- Pity, pain, catharsis – the power of 3 critical components for good storytelling
- Content for each phase of the customer journey – critical for lead generation marketing
- Tell your story in a strong, confident voice – make sure the stories resonate with your philosophies
You may also apply the hero’s journey technique. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a 12-step storytelling formula. It is a step-by-step template to tell the classic hero’s tale.
The technique looks like this:
- Hero in the ordinary world
- The hero hears the call to adventure
- Hero refuses the call
- Hero meets the mentor of the story
- The hero crosses the threshold into action
- The hero encounters tests, allies, and enemies
- Hero continues journey
- The hero encounters a revelation or ordeal
- Hero experiences transformation
- Hero atones for actions
- Hero is reborn
- Hero returns with a gift from god/goddess (resolution)
Of course, your narrative may not follow the Hero’s Journey exactly. But there may be certain elements of your story that can follow along with these guidelines.
For example, a financial/investment business can start with the average person. They may want to start investing.
But they have many excuses not to. That is until they meet the mentor. The next step is crossing into the world of investments.
In that world, they experience many tests. And meet allies and enemies alike. The journey may cause them to lose everything.
However, they receive a revelation and go through a transformation. This transformation may lead them back onto the road of rebuilding or atonement.
Soon, the person is back in the world of investing. And they finally receive the returns they were looking for.
So, your marketing campaign doesn’t necessarily need to tell an epic journey every time. You can divide the content into different segments like a series.
However, telling the entire journey may grab your audience’s attention and help them connect with your business.
Step 4 – Tools to Craft Your Story
Not only do you have to come up with your story, but you also need the proper tools. Regular storytellers may only need a computer or paper and pen.
But if you want to use your stories for marketing purposes, you may need something more advanced.
In this case, having the right tools can help make this task easier. And you can scale it to suit your needs.
Here are a few tools that can make creation and distribution a little easier:
- Instagram Stories – a good option is to create tutorial stories for Instagram
- Canva – image creation for your stories
- Facebook Live – share stories with your audience in real time
- Visage – create infographics and survey graphics
Don’t forget to use your favourite lead generation tool to get your stories to your audience.
Step 5 – Motivate the Audience to Take Action
Lastly, it’s time to motivate your audience. If someone feels motivated by your story, they’ll react. Take a look at a few ways to get your audience to take action:
- Tell people things they don’t know
- A CTA works for most people
- Use storytelling in webinars to show them how your product/services can help
- Focus on positive changes in your story
- Craft stories that make your audience empathetic
A simple CTA doesn’t work by itself. Weave a story first to hook your audience. And then motivate them to take positive action.
Wrapping Up
Storytelling is an underappreciated art. But the ability to craft a story is invaluable for your marketing strategy.
Knowing and understanding your audience is the first step. You also need to understand the purpose of your story and craft a character. Remember that for many marketing strategies, using real people is more powerful to your audience.
Also, using the right tools can help with your storytelling. You may not get instant stories. However, they can help save time.
Lastly, don’t forget to motivate your audience into action. At the end of the story, you want them to do something. Use a few of the listed techniques to inspire them into action.
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