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6 minute read
Today, it’s not enough to have a product or service that just solves a problem.
Your organisation needs to resonate and be relatable to your audience or user.
But how do you do this?
Well, one effective way is to use what humans do as part of their daily communication - tell stories.
What is Storytelling in Business?
We don't mean sitting down with your clients, target customers or key stakeholders and reading them a bedtime story. Storytelling in business is the act of utilising human connection in order to engage an audience to take a desired action, such as buying a product or service.
Stories bring people together and they're a great way to build trust for an organisation. The ability to strike an emotional connection with your audience is a powerful tool that you should be using today.
7 Reasons Why Storytelling is Important in Business
- Stories Engage Your Audience
- Create a Human Connection
- Stories Are More Memorable Than Numbers
- Emotionally Connect People to Create Loyalty
- Humanising a Business = Increased Profits
- Storytelling Offers a Competitive Advantage
- Create Compelling Marketing Campaigns
1. Stories Engage Your Audience
Numbers do matter, but they mean a lot more when built on the basis of a story. Put yourself in the audience’s shoes - would you want to sit there while someone throws numbers and data at you?
A Nielsen study revealed that our brains are far more engaged by storytelling than facts alone. The brain processes images 60 times faster compared to words and when we read data, only the language parts of our brains work to decode the meaning. But when we read stories, every part of the brain we’d use if we experienced the story becomes activated as well.
So what does this mean? It suggests we’re likely to remember a compelling story rather than hard facts. There’s a clear beginning and end which can keep the audience hooked throughout, rather than risking them zoning out and losing interest when drowning in analytics.
2. Create a Human Connection
If your organisation has come up with a new idea, it’s likely there’s a story behind it. Whatever the motivation is, use that to provide some context to listeners. If the idea has been created to solve a problem, tell the story of how it helped you and make sure the story is relatable to the audience using real-life situations.
Using storytelling like this helps audiences connect with you so they trust you. When you come across as human and not force numbers their way, you’ll seem more trustworthy - especially if the storytelling is relatable as it becomes more memorable. If the audience can see themselves as the ‘character’ in your story or realise it relates to them, they won’t forget your business easily.
Steve Jobs was a great storyteller. Just look at his keynote when he introduced the iPhone back in 2007. After running down the timeline of Apple products to show the brand's story, he touched on one crucial aspect of the audience’s pain points.
One device to listen to music on, a mobile device and another to browse the internet. He told the story of how irritating it can be to carry three of these around - but the iPhone has it all. It’s a real-life situation that people faced and Apple had the answer.
3. Stories Are More Memorable Than Numbers
Research by Forbes has demonstrated that telling stories when public speaking can be 22 times more memorable than relying on facts. That’s because with stories, you have something to tell. There’s a narrative arc, emotional moments, suspense and climax that your organisation can benefit from.
Let’s say you’re delivering a presentation for your organisation or speaking at a conference. People pay attention to a great story, it's the perfect way to engage your audience and also provide a nice break with something they’ll remember - even if they forget everything else.
Just look at Bill Gates’ Ted Talk in 2009. The Founder of Microsoft delivered a speech on the issues of malaria filled with statistics. That’s fine - it delivered the message and the severity of the problem.
But when you consider that he opened a jar of swarming mosquitoes in the presentation room to deliver his point, what do you think the audience remembered when they left? Would it be the numbers or the memorable demonstration and story he told?
4. Emotionally Connect People to Create Loyalty
As engaging as stories can be for organisations, the best ones are those that evoke emotional reactions. If you tell a story that people genuinely connect with and relate to, it’s more likely they’ll believe in you. Some of the best storytelling in business comes from mistakes made, failures and past business struggles.
Highlighting these makes organisations come across as normal. Audiences can relate to the protagonist as they too might understand what it feels like to fail and understand what went into turning the situation around. Some of the world’s biggest businesses have founders that tell emotional stories, such as Jack Ma - the founder of Alibaba.
In an interview in 2015, he told his personal story about applying for a job at KFC with 23 other people. The KFC store hired 23 of the 24, with Ma being the only person that wasn’t brought on. He went on to tell the story of how dozens of schools rejected him, how Harvard rejected him 10 times and how he was also rejected from becoming a police officer.
Discussing one failure after another makes the audience empathise with him, even if he is a business owner worth upwards of $51.5 billion today. His story is relatable, it evokes emotion, keeps the audience engaged and has the power to turn them into potential customers.
5. Humanising an Organisation = Increased Profits
Obviously, this isn’t a guaranteed formula that always works for every organisation but it has proven so in the past. You’ll notice that the most successful organisations have thoughtful and deep stories behind them with a bigger purpose and meaning to what they do.
If your organisation has a vision that audiences believe in and buy into, it’s more likely that you’ll be successful. It’s no secret that people want to buy from empathetic organisations. The Global Empathy Index highlighted that the organisations near the top (meaning they were the most empathetic) were also the fastest-growing and most profitable in the world.
The top 10 organisations also generated 50% more income. It shows how valuable storytelling can be for building your brand. Show your personality and humanity and avoid being faceless and disconnected from your audience.
You can even use body language to convey a powerful message. Discover why body language is important in communication.
6. Storytelling Offers a Competitive Advantage
For small businesses and organisations, it’s too easy to get lost in all of the noise. Every organisation shares content with their audiences, but that can get a little overwhelming. The fact is, decision-making is more emotional than it is logical so the ability to tell a good story is essential if you want to stand out and create a strong brand image.
Tell a remarkable story and you can win over your audience. It applies to organisations of any size, including the public and third sector. Researchers Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker proved this theory by showcasing the true power of storytelling.
They listed insignificant objects on eBay with a twist. The objects featured heartfelt, well-written and purposeful short stories in the descriptions. After buying these items in a garage sale for around $1.50 each, they resold them for nearly $8,000. That’s how powerful smart storytelling can be.
Find out how you can use storytelling within business to emotionally connect with your audience.
7. Create Compelling Marketing Campaigns
Whether they’re heart-wrenching or hilarious, lots of organisations are now using the power of sharing stories to build relationships with their audience. This relates to the emotional connection aspect with studies showing that making an emotional connection is more important than customer satisfaction.
Today, marketing campaigns need to move away from cheap tactics and focus on storytelling. Honey Bunches of Oats pulled on the heartstrings by inviting real employees to participate in the campaign and share their endearing qualities. You can sense the passion in their stories and it makes the business more memorable.
Airbnb also selected an emotional story to tell in relation to the 25th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall with the narrative of a father reuniting with one of the guards at the opposing border.
These are some of the many compelling marketing campaigns organisations have run with storytelling at their heart, which has helped them yield long-term benefits and profits.
Public sector leaders have bigger challenges than just selling products. They must obtain resources by gaining support from politicians, public opinion and other invested institutions. Leaders need to tell the story of the public value they intend to create to gain buy-in from stakeholders.
Now you know how many people invest in a good story, book your place on our Storytelling to Influence: Speaking and Presenting course to learn powerful techniques that will hook your audience in no time.
Improve Your Confidence With the Communication Skills Handbook
Whether you want to improve your storytelling skills for a presentation or you want your team to become more efficient, our guide covers the essentials. It features plenty of tactics you can refer to when needed to improve your confidence from conferences to team-wide communication.
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