Storytelling is one of the best ways you can humanize your brand, making it more relatable for consumers. If your brand is only focused on selling and making a profit, people will catch on quickly.
Now more than ever, people want to hear the story behind the brand. It’s not always enough to make a good quality product. Here's how you can use storytelling in marketing to boost your ecommerce sales.
Storytelling Boosts Your Brand Image
52% of millennial shoppers want brands to mirror their values and beliefs. Stories, inspiration, and standing up for causes get modern consumers to engage with your brand.
Sure, having a stellar, top-of-the-line product helps. But getting customers to care about that product is much more complex. If you want people to become brand advocates, you need storytelling. A purpose. A reason why people can resonate with your brand and not your competitor.
Having a strong story behind your brand will help consumers remember your brand, products, and mission. It can help you relate to your target market in ways that pure selling simply can’t.
Check out how easy Adam Enfroy makes it look in his blog post about choosing a website builder:
Providing some relevant facts or backstory makes it easier for your audience to relate to what you’re saying. Storytelling can be as elaborate (or not) as you want to make it.
Here are a few ways you can utilize storytelling right now.
Beef Up Your About / Story Page
When customers land on your website for the first time, they aren’t very familiar with your brand. Chances are, they haven’t ever heard of you, what you do, or what your brand stands for.
Most ecommerce stores make the same mistake of simply going for the coupon-incentive sale, but many shoppers aren't sold on that. You may get a 1-2% conversion rate, but it doesn't build customer loyalty. Shoppers aren’t ready to buy from you just because you offer a product that dozens of other competitors also offer. What separates you from them? What is your story?
The process of converting new customers begins with sharing your company, your brand, and what you're all about. There's no better spot to do that than your About Us / Story page.
Check out how Novel Coworking integrates their story:
This page is your chance to shine and show new visitors why your ecommerce store is something they should support. You can get creative and showcase stories about how your brand formed, the products you make (and what makes them special), and which local communities or charities you support through your business.
Consider including the following details as part of your company story:
- The materials you use and why they're important
- Your brand mission and goals
- Any local community or charity you support
- How your brand uplifts its customers and employees
- Compelling or inspiring background about the brand formation
You can also push this content to your social pages with a social media tool for maximum exposure and connection.
Using Storytelling in Your Blog Content
Blog content does not have to be boring, generic, and a pain to read. The fact is, most people won’t read more than 15 seconds of your content. Why? Because it’s dry; it doesn’t grip them, focus them, and make them want to keep reading. Instead, they skim.
This is why storytelling is an essential part of blog content. While you don’t need to write a short story with a full-blown plot, climax, and character development, try to weave in tidbits about you or your company when writing.
Check out how Eterneva uses storytelling to connect with their audience by sharing stories of what to do with a loved one’s cremation ashes:
For another example, check out how travel bloggers Adventure For Less weave in tidbits of storytelling within their visiting Hawaii content:
This subtle inclusion of storytelling helps readers relate to you without going off on tangents unrelated to the content you're presenting.
By weaving storytelling into your blog posts and even your email marketing strategy, you'll be connecting with your customers rather than just selling to them.
Run Campaigns With a Purpose
86% of consumers want companies to take a stand on an issue they care about. Another 64% will switch to a competitor if their current brand does not.
Cause marketing is here to stay. Consumers are looking to connect with brands that mirror their personality and goals, not just faceless companies looking to drive profits.
The coming generations are hyper-aware of causes and are beginning to support brands that take stands, ditching those that don’t.
TOMS is a great example of a company that uses cause marketing:
When you land on their website, TOMS immediately engages you by asking you what your biggest "stand" is. Rather than telling the consumer which charity their purchase supports, they let the consumer decide between a list of options they care about most.
Conclusion
Storytelling is more important than ever when it comes to creating a relationship with customers. People want to invest in brands that fit their lifestyle, their culture, and their own story.
Whether you’re dropshipping, selling on Amazon, or bootstrapping your ecommerce business, now is the time to start utilizing more storytelling.