Storytelling As A Tool To Communicate Effectively To The Target Audience

Storytelling is a tool that has been used since man came into existence for passing down tales of the legends, noteworthy events, cultures and traditions. The art of Storytelling was often used by the King’s advisers and the men of wisdom in various parts of the world to properly paint an issue that needs to be addressed and reinforce the possible consequences without seeming condescending or attract the wrath of the

king. Kings in the time past had the power to order for the head of their subjects on a

spike if it pleases them. A wrong comment could lead to one’s last breath.

 “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day, a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest” 

On hearing this story King David was furious and vowed that the heartless rich man deserved to die. When he was told that the story was to paint the picture of his recent actions he was highly devastated and understood the gravity of his actions.

 

The importance of story telling can never be over emphasized. This can be seen in the above scenario. The king in this scenario was the prophet’s target audience and he was able to communicate effectively with him without any hassle or argument because a good story telling  technique was adopted. This is very similar to how brands attract their target audience with this tool. They get the target audience emotionally attached to their story and influence them into taking action.

Brands and business all over the world have to come to terms with the fact that there is a lot of competition in the market space and without a unique form of content marketing, it would be very difficult not to get lost in the crowd. 

Moreover, it is important to note that the attention span of the target audience is usually short so if the content of a brand is always formal, void of emotions, boring and unrelatable then it would not achieve the desired goal.

Storytelling marketing is a strategy that can be used to effectively capture and retain the attention of the target audience and also paint the picture of how beneficial the products or services of a brand is to the target audience in a relatable and interesting way.

Another added advantage of brand storytelling and  storytelling marketing  is that it helps to get rid of traditional marketing which sometimes repels prospective customers. People naturally do not like to be sold to or made to spend their money. That’s why we see marketers being turned down or their flyers and proposals being made to kiss the ground after being handed over to prospective customers. Storytelling on the other hand helps brands to market their products and services without seeming too obvious, pushy or desperate. 

To properly take advantage of storytelling, brands have to ensure that their stories are interesting, relatable, unpredictable, exciting and emotional. People love when there is an interesting twist,  which would show that a lot of creativity was put into the storytelling content and definitely worth their time.

A storytelling script either for a written content or visual storytelling content must also be organized. It must flow naturally from  the exposition, to the rising action, climax, falling action and finally to the exposition just as adopted in novels.

Lastly a Storytelling content intended to communicate effectively with the target audience must sell the brand. Certain storytelling  script writers get distracted from the main essence of the story which is to sell and end up creating a script that would leave a weird look of confusion on the faces of prospective customers because they created a story that does not effectively communicate and resonate with the brand 

Conclusively, it is highly important to be flexible while using  storytelling as a tool to communicate with the target audience and content writers and script writers should ensure that their story can be perceived by all five senses by the target audience so as leave a lasting impression.

Before you go,you would absolutely love this article on content marketing too.

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