Why Your Business Needs a Content Creation Strategy
Storytelling is an art. It’s powerful, captivating and has enough hooks, theatrics and twists to keep people enthralled until the end. It sets apart vibrant brands from simple businesses and loyal consumers from one-time shoppers. Storytelling conveys purpose and businesses with purpose are the ones that ultimately stand out and capture consumer hearts (and wallets).
Here are a few reasons why storytelling should be a fundamental part of your company’s content creation strategy:
Clearly Communicate Your Story
What makes your company unique and why should people care? Answering these questions will help define your messaging and allow you to start crafting your story. Once you’ve developed your story, every piece of content produced should ideally have an intention and value proposition that supports the company’s overall vision.
While every business has a story to tell, many fail at doing so as they lack clear, captivating and effective messaging. Keeping the company vision at the center of your content strategy will ensure that your story is clear, defined and consistent across all channels of communication.
Honest Storytelling is Human
People would rather invest in a human than a company. This is why many companies have turned to brand ambassadors or influencers to share their story. It’s both an ethical and strategic move for businesses to do the best they can to humanize themselves through their messaging.
Take Apple, for example. If I asked you to tell me Apple’s origin story, I bet you could. You’d say something along the lines of two college dropouts started out in a garage with the vision of changing the way that people viewed computers. This story is human and represents “The American Dream,” something extremely relatable to consumers. It makes Apple more than the world’s largest technology company by revenue — it’s a legacy brand created by visionaries who aspired to change the world. By tapping into people’s emotions and genuinely connecting with them, this multi-billion dollar company has persuaded people to believe in the business and what it stands for.
Create a Competitive Advantage
Your business may genuinely have a better product or service than a competitor, but with the oversaturation of information online, it’s all too easy to blend into the noise. Decision-making is much more emotional than it is logical, so the ability to tell a good story is essential to differentiating your business in the market.
Your story should not tell the consumer that your product or service is the best. It should help them discover for themselves that you provide the best and most advantageous product or service for them. Their ultimate decision is based on self-interest, “I want this, this is good for me, this will make my life better in some way.” By creating a story that leads the consumer to this thought process, you’re creating a competitive advantage that is unmatched in the market.
Connections Build Brand Loyalty
Storytelling builds a connection between your brand and your audience, helping to communicate your values and mission. The strongest stories tap into people’s emotions, genuinely connect with them and help them believe in your business and what it stands for. The most successful businesses are transparent, honest and real. They tell the full story–the struggles, conflicts, setbacks, successes–to help people understand the passion and heart that went into creating and building the brand.
The solution to creating a seemingly unending list of top quality content is storytelling. The ability to tell a good story is essential and can make or break how profitable a business is by how well it differentiates itself in the market. A business with a remarkable story can win over its audience and raise the perceived value of its brand.