Who doesn’t like to hear a great story? We all do, isn’t it? All the tales have something in common that hooks the readers. Stories unite everyone, enhancing the ability to empathize and communicate. Before books, information was passed on verbally. However, 21st century is all about evolution, and our expert digital marketers have switched to digital storytelling mechanisms, leaving behind the age-old storytelling tradition.
Digitization has twisted the way we convey stories these days. It’s up to your digital storyteller to weave a story that captivates your audience and spreads your brand message across relevant channels. Doing it the right way will help you gain genuine followers and succeed in your marketing campaigns. You will build healthy and long-lasting relationships with your customers via your effective storytelling techniques.
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Introduction to Digital Storytelling
Let’s start from the beginning. So, what is digital storytelling? In simple terms, digital storytelling refers to using a combination of digital channels and creative content to bring a great story to life. Digital stories can be created by blending pictures, text, voice, and music creatively to convey the message that captures the target audience.
Forbes has listed 3 commonly used digital storytelling strategies, such as:
User-generated content (UGC): This includes word-of-mouth marketing. UGC gives your current customers a platform to share their experiences with your brand, establishing relationships and educating prospective customers.
Teasers: Showcasing a full movie doesn’t mean it will become a hit. At times, it leaves no room for curiosity. Hence, releasing short teasers can capture and engage your audience even better.
Data-centric campaigns: You can attract more eyes by using adequate data and stats to display your brand’s goodwill and success ratio.
Steps to Master Digital Storytelling
1. Generate an Idea
A great story has a great idea behind it, and digital stories are no exception. Your digital story can be fictional or based on a real-life scenario. But it should make sense; otherwise, your audience will lose interest in your tale.
2. Explore
Whether framing a fictional or real digital narrative, you need to research the topic to create a solid foundation. You can take notes of your findings to help you in the later stages of storytelling.
3. Writing
After brainstorming a unique idea and performing extensive research, you can start with writing your narrative. Write your script in a rough draft, and revise it repeatedly until you feel it’s good to go.
4. Mapping
Create a plan of what you want to include in your storytelling, such as eye-catchy images, great music, and solid after-effects for your video. All this together will set a tone for your digital story.
5. Execution
Twirl your magic wand and make this happen! (just kidding) But this is where you put up a magical experience for your audience. Make sure your digital team uses the blend of high-resolution images, relevant sound effects, and the latest technology to deliver an exceptional digital story.
6. Share
Once you are done with the story creation, Share! Share! Share! Spread it across relevant digital marketing platforms to ensure it reaches the right audience.
Digital Storytelling: A Few Good Examples
Now that we know about digital storytelling and ways to master it, let’s look at some real-life examples of unique digital storytelling strategies.
Dove & the Real People
We all know Dove - the soap-selling brand that has no story behind it because it’s the stuff we use every day. Dove has focused on real-life individuals (not supermodels) and their stories for years now. However, the company decided to do something unusual by curating an incredible story for its target users. Dove has excellently curated stories about the purity of a mother-daughter relationship or the beauty of a face & body based on real-life people. This is one of the reasons why women all over the world have loved Dove since they feel cared for and recognized as being beautiful.
Dove spreads a powerful message by conveying that it understands human emotions, connecting with its soap brand. This campaign tells an authentic and convincing story about a dad wishing to see his kid. So, there is an emotional story here involving a father-son relationship.
Heinz - Get Well Soon
Well known for its soup products, Heinz also jumped into the bandwagon of emotionally vibing with the target audience. Recently, Heinz created a massive campaign that encouraged fans to purchase a jar of “Get well Soon” soup. This soup truly taps into the emotions by conveying a gesture of care and concern to someone who we love isn’t well.
Later, Heinz even added a few more stories ensuring that fans buy a soup tin resulting in a donation for kids who are ill. Storytelling is one thing, but doing it while establishing a personal touch with your customers makes the difference.
Advantages of a Good Digital Storytelling
People are exposed to tons of ads each day; if you want your digital marketing strategy to succeed, you need to stop running behind the bush and capture your audience’s attention, which will be possible with a compelling and witty story.
Besides captivating your audience, the digital narrative offers you other benefits as well:
Authentic messaging: Consumers are overflooded with hardcore advertising and selling techniques thrown by marketers all the time. Hence, using genuine storytelling techniques can help your brand stand out from the crowd.
Relevant branding: Use a digital storytelling technique to illustrate how your business is committed to your mission because today’s audience believes in what they see rather than mere beliefs.
Spreading awareness: Once you have created your digital narrative, all your digital marketer must do is use the proper social media channels to spread the message across to the right audience at the right time to get a word out there.
The Bottom Line
Now that you know what good digital storytelling looks like, gain extra brownie points by avoiding things such as - over-telling your story, going longer than a minute, and being inconsistent with the flow. Follow up on your storytelling from start to finish to succeed in your digital marketing campaigns.
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