This activity changes the perspective of how a company relates to its customers: it is no longer a company-centric, self-centred communication but an openness to the values, needs, and expectations of those on the other side, with a wallet in hand.
Everyone talks about storytelling, but few do it, and even fewer do it well.
Many companies, especially in B2B, are also convinced that their stories need to be more exciting or that their customers are less interested. That shouldn’t be the case. A narrative, even if aimed at a specific audience, can be a moment of reflection, in-depth analysis or distraction, even in a niche market. On the other hand, we talk to people, don’t forget it!
It is a narrative technique that has always existed in different forms (verbal and visual) and which companies have adopted today to effectively communicate their institutional or product messages. In reality, that’s all it is. There aren’t many other words to describe what storytelling is. Storytelling means exactly what it sounds like the ability to tell stories.
Corporate storytelling is the adoption of this narrative technique in communication models linked to a company’s business. It is how companies tell themselves and their products through their values and the stories that arise from them.
What is interesting is not the definition of storytelling but everything that storytelling entails for a company and its customers.
It would help if you leveraged different topics to reach out to your customers or prospects. This is how storytelling comes into play: simply by looking outside the company and listening to its customers (and there is nothing simple about this).
Therefore, storytelling results from what customers look for in a company. The new generations have very different values and objectives from those my generation had at their age: we grew up with the model of the salary and the second house by the sea, and they grow up with the idea that the critical values are different and not only attributable to the economic aspect. For them, success is not (just) having an adequate salary but, for example, finding a way to manage work-life balance or working in a company that respects the environment or in an ethical working environment.
People change their minds, they change their goals, and they are always someone’s customer. Storytelling helps companies get closer to their customers by formulating and adopting similar values. And we’re not talking about words; we’re talking about facts.
Since storytelling is a narrative technique that cannot be limited to a particular area, it is better to specify. When we talk about storytelling, we mean corporate storytelling. Let’s start by saying that, for me, storytelling has no commercial intent whatsoever—not directly, at least, and within the limits of a company’s creation to generate turnover.
We are focusing on corporate storytelling, but, as mentioned, storytelling is a very ancient narrative technique, and companies are not the only ones to use it.
Those who use storytelling can do so for several reasons:
It is, therefore, a communication tactic that complements what companies and agencies have long considered the only way to talk to customers: advertising.
Like everything that concerns the world of communication today, storytelling also becomes part of the customer experience. As mentioned, corporate storytelling means managing a long-distance relationship with your customers:
All of this is a superstructure that supports the customer journey and helps build a solid customer experience.
Nothing could be more accurate than this statement, which was made, among other things, in a historical moment in which social media, apps, and smartphones did not yet exist.
Placing a conversation at the centre of business helps us better understand the concept of storytelling. Information communication (for example, promotional communication) makes sense if contextualized at a specific moment in the life of a product or company.
When we talk about storytelling, we’re talking about telling stories. However, not all stories can be told by a company. Therefore, corporate storytelling must have its own rules and six principles that cannot be generalized to any storytelling technique.
To carry out an effective storytelling activity, you must at least be able to answer the following questions:
Compelling storytelling means finding the correct stories but leaving something to chance when generating your content. Generally, here are the rules to follow to produce compelling storytelling:
Anticipating your customers’ responses helps you build content aligning with your impact goal.
What should stick in your customers’ minds after they read it?
What is the primary purpose of your content? Do you have to explain something? Must help do something step by step? Does it give a solution to your problems?
Always remember the problem
you are facing, which does not have to be your problem but the one you can solve for your customers.
Write down the takeaways from the content you are producing. Ultimately, what are the three things you want your customers to remember?
Please describe the problem from the customer’s point of view, making him understand that you know his world and customers’ issues.
At a certain point, interrupt the narration to launch the challenge. How can we solve your problem?
The hook is a narrative technique that keeps the user hooked on your content. Hooks in marketing are usually a question of numbers (7 tips for), curiosity (did you know that), fear (no one will read your content if they don’t), secret (the trick that few know for), superlative (the best advice), news (how the digital world changes after)
Remember to inspire your customers; always explain why they should adopt your solution. Remember to leverage the aspiration: show what their world could be like if they used your solution. Bring some data if there is any.
Corporate storytelling, nowadays, is mainly digital. Social media has allowed us to have a stage to speak from; it’s up to us to say interesting things. So, there are different ways to do digital storytelling, for example:
What is essential, however, differs from the medium we use and what we say about the medium.
This activity changes the perspective of how a company relates to its customers: it is no longer a company-centric, self-centred communication but an openness to the values, needs, and expectations of those on the other side, with a wallet in hand.
Everyone talks about storytelling, but few do it, and even fewer do it well.
Many companies, especially in B2B, are also convinced that their stories need to be more exciting or that their customers are less interested. That shouldn’t be the case. A narrative, even if aimed at a specific audience, can be a moment of reflection, in-depth analysis or distraction, even in a niche market. On the other hand, we talk to people, don’t forget it!
It is a narrative technique that has always existed in different forms (verbal and visual) and which companies have adopted today to effectively communicate their institutional or product messages. In reality, that’s all it is. There aren’t many other words to describe what storytelling is. Storytelling means exactly what it sounds like the ability to tell stories.
Corporate storytelling is the adoption of this narrative technique in communication models linked to a company’s business. It is how companies tell themselves and their products through their values and the stories that arise from them.
What is interesting is not the definition of storytelling but everything that storytelling entails for a company and its customers.
It would help if you leveraged different topics to reach out to your customers or prospects. This is how storytelling comes into play: simply by looking outside the company and listening to its customers (and there is nothing simple about this).
Therefore, storytelling results from what customers look for in a company. The new generations have very different values and objectives from those my generation had at their age: we grew up with the model of the salary and the second house by the sea, and they grow up with the idea that the critical values are different and not only attributable to the economic aspect. For them, success is not (just) having an adequate salary but, for example, finding a way to manage work-life balance or working in a company that respects the environment or in an ethical working environment.
People change their minds, they change their goals, and they are always someone’s customer. Storytelling helps companies get closer to their customers by formulating and adopting similar values. And we’re not talking about words; we’re talking about facts.
Since storytelling is a narrative technique that cannot be limited to a particular area, it is better to specify. When we talk about storytelling, we mean corporate storytelling. Let’s start by saying that, for me, storytelling has no commercial intent whatsoever—not directly, at least, and within the limits of a company’s creation to generate turnover.
We are focusing on corporate storytelling, but, as mentioned, storytelling is a very ancient narrative technique, and companies are not the only ones to use it.
Those who use storytelling can do so for several reasons:
It is, therefore, a communication tactic that complements what companies and agencies have long considered the only way to talk to customers: advertising.
Like everything that concerns the world of communication today, storytelling also becomes part of the customer experience. As mentioned, corporate storytelling means managing a long-distance relationship with your customers:
All of this is a superstructure that supports the customer journey and helps build a solid customer experience.
Nothing could be more accurate than this statement, which was made, among other things, in a historical moment in which social media, apps, and smartphones did not yet exist.
Placing a conversation at the centre of business helps us better understand the concept of storytelling. Information communication (for example, promotional communication) makes sense if contextualized at a specific moment in the life of a product or company.
When we talk about storytelling, we’re talking about telling stories. However, not all stories can be told by a company. Therefore, corporate storytelling must have its own rules and six principles that cannot be generalized to any storytelling technique.
To carry out an effective storytelling activity, you must at least be able to answer the following questions:
Compelling storytelling means finding the correct stories but leaving something to chance when generating your content. Generally, here are the rules to follow to produce compelling storytelling:
Anticipating your customers’ responses helps you build content aligning with your impact goal.
What should stick in your customers’ minds after they read it?
What is the primary purpose of your content? Do you have to explain something? Must help do something step by step? Does it give a solution to your problems?
Always remember the problem
you are facing, which does not have to be your problem but the one you can solve for your customers.
Write down the takeaways from the content you are producing. Ultimately, what are the three things you want your customers to remember?
Please describe the problem from the customer’s point of view, making him understand that you know his world and customers’ issues.
At a certain point, interrupt the narration to launch the challenge. How can we solve your problem?
The hook is a narrative technique that keeps the user hooked on your content. Hooks in marketing are usually a question of numbers (7 tips for), curiosity (did you know that), fear (no one will read your content if they don’t), secret (the trick that few know for), superlative (the best advice), news (how the digital world changes after)
Remember to inspire your customers; always explain why they should adopt your solution. Remember to leverage the aspiration: show what their world could be like if they used your solution. Bring some data if there is any.
Corporate storytelling, nowadays, is mainly digital. Social media has allowed us to have a stage to speak from; it’s up to us to say interesting things. So, there are different ways to do digital storytelling, for example:
What is essential, however, differs from the medium we use and what we say about the medium.
