7 Types of Stories You Need in Your Business
Unlock the Power of Storytelling to Connect, Engage and Inspire Your Audience
Do you want to learn how to tell your business story in a way that engages and inspires your audience? Whether you are a marketing professional aiming to elevate your brand’s presence or a business owner looking to connect with your audience, storytelling is a powerful tool that can transform your business communication.
This article will teach you 7 different types of stories you can tell in your business. Every kind of story has its unique characteristics, and it is essential to understand which one best suits your business message. If you're wondering about the significance of storytelling in today's digital age, especially in video marketing, you can read more about The Power of Brand Storytelling in Video Marketing. We will also show you the effects a well-told story can have on your marketing and business objectives.
So, let's break down the storytelling process!
Like most things in life, storytelling needs structure; it requires a sound framework to build on. This is why we have seven types of stories, so you can understand which one best fits your business message.
The seven types of stories are:
- The Why Story
- The Teaching Story
- The Values Story
- The Impact Story
- The Vision Story
- The Origin Story
- The Objections Story
We’ll go into each story type below.
1. The Why Story – A Story of Purpose
This story reveals the core values and driving forces behind your business. It answers the fundamental question: Why does your business exist?
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To connect with your audience on a deeper level by sharing the core purpose that drives your business.
- To build trust and credibility by showing the authentic motivations behind your brand.
Crafting Your Why Story:
- Start with the origin story of how the brand or idea got started. Through this experience, have your character share what motivates or drives them to continue to grow or do this work.
- Have your character share the most personally memorable, specific story of how their work has impacted others. Then have them reflect on how their impact made them feel and how their impact drives their work.
Example: Imagine you run a sustainable fashion brand. Your Why Story could revolve around your personal awakening to the environmental damage caused by fast fashion, and your resolve to create a change.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Feature it prominently on your website’s “About Us” page.
- Share it on social media platforms to engage with your followers.
- Use it as an introduction in webinars or presentations.
2. The Teaching Story – A Story that Educates
This story is designed to impart knowledge and insights. It positions your business as an expert, teaching your audience something valuable.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
- To educate your customers about a complex product or service in an engaging way.
Crafting Your Teaching Story:
- Identify the Concept: Start by defining the idea you’d like to teach with this story.
- Find the Story: Find a character who has a moment in time when they or somebody they know learned this concept.
- Define the Conflict: The goal of the conflict in a Teaching Story is to set up what’s at stake and why this information is essential.
Example: If you’re a digital marketing agency, your Teaching Story could be about a small business owner who learned the importance of SEO and how it transformed their online presence.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Create a series of educational blog posts or videos.
- Share it on LinkedIn and other professional networks.
- Use it in workshops or training sessions.
3. The Values Story – The Story of Principles
This story showcases the core values that guide your business. It illustrates how these values are embodied in actions and decisions.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To attract customers who share similar values.
- To differentiate your brand in a crowded market.
Crafting Your Values Story:
- Define the Value: Find a person who has experienced this value in action. Help them hone in on one specific experience by asking questions.
- Find the Character with a Specific Experience: Break down the experience into a clear beginning, middle, and ending.
Example: For a company that values sustainability, a Values Story could focus on the journey of a single product from ethically sourced material to a satisfied customer.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Showcase it in your company’s recruitment materials.
- Feature it in your annual report.
- Share it on social media during relevant awareness months or days.
4. The Impact Story – A Story of Change
This story highlights the positive changes that your product or service has brought about. It’s a powerful way to showcase real-world results and benefits.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To illustrate the tangible benefits of your product or service.
- To inspire potential customers with real-life success stories.
Crafting Your Impact Story:
A New Take on Testimonials: An impact story, often likened to a testimonial, goes beyond a simple endorsement. Here, we highlight real individuals and the transformations they experienced through our product or service.
Example: Consider a solar panel company sharing the journey of a homeowner who significantly reduced their energy bills and carbon footprint through their installation.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Use it as a case study on your website.
- Share it in email marketing campaigns.
- Feature it in your booth at trade shows.
5. The Vision Story – A Story of the Future
This story paints a vivid picture of the future that your business is striving to create. It’s about inspiring your audience with your long-term vision.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To inspire and align your team around a shared future goal.
- To attract investors, partners and customers who want to be part of that future.
Crafting Your Vision Story:
- Lead with Desire: Personify the brand, or choose a character who is helping to lead the charge in the business. Highlight the more important goal or desired impact of their work.
Example: If you’re a tech startup focused on clean energy, your Vision Story could paint a picture of a world made better through your innovation.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Use it in investor pitches.
- Feature it in a prominent section of your website.
- Share it at company-wide meetings to inspire and align your team.
6. The Origin Story – A Story of Beginnings
This story narrates the genesis of your business. It takes your audience back to where it all began, making your brand more relatable and authentic.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To humanise your brand and make it more relatable.
- To build trust by showing the roots and authenticity of your business.
Crafting Your Origin Story:
- Choose Your Character: Your character should be somebody involved in building the business from the beginning.
Example: The story of how the founders met and the challenges they overcame to start a renewable energy business.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Use it as the foundation of your “About Us” page on your website.
- Share your Origin Story video as part of a crowdfunding campaign.
7. The Objections Story – A Story that Overcomes Doubts
This story tactfully addresses the reservations or objections that potential customers might have. It’s about turning scepticism into trust.
Why Your Business Needs It:
- To proactively address and overcome potential objections or concerns from customers.
- To build trust by showing that you understand your customers’ concerns and have solutions.
Crafting Your Objections Story:
- Clarify the Objection & Choose Your Character: Identify the most common objection received from clients, customers, etc.
Example: Consider an engineering company looking to transition to a more sustainable energy source for its operations. The Objections Story could focus on the initial hesitations of the company's board about the upfront costs and potential disruptions to their operations. However, after realising the long-term cost savings, increased energy efficiency and positive environmental impact, they fully embraced the transition, positioning themselves as industry leaders in sustainability.
How to Use and Distribute:
- Use it in sales presentations to address objections upfront.
- Feature it in a FAQ section on your website.
Summary
In this guide, we’ve broken down 7 types of stories that can supercharge your business marketing. These stories are more than just narratives; they are strategic tools that can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level, humanise your brand and drive meaningful engagement.
Remember, storytelling is not just about telling tales; it’s about crafting narratives that resonate with your audience's values and aspirations. It’s about painting a vivid picture that can inspire, educate, and move people to action.
So, start crafting your stories today and watch your business grow!
Acknowledgements
This framework for storytelling is inspired by the Muse storytelling process, which has been a significant influence on our work at Reach Video. Muse has developed a powerful approach to crafting impactful, purpose-driven stories, and we highly recommend checking out their process for a deeper dive into the art of storytelling.
Ready to Take Your Storytelling to the Next Level?
Storytelling is a craft, and like any craft, it requires expertise and finesse. At Reach Video, we specialise in helping businesses like yours tell their stories in the most compelling and impactful way possible. Whether you are just starting with video marketing or looking to elevate your existing strategy, our storytelling experts are here to guide you every step of the way.
Ready to transform your marketing with the power of storytelling? Contact us at Reach Video for expert guidance and support. Let’s craft stories that resonate, engage, and inspire action.
Read more about our Brand Story solutions.
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Navigating Video Marketing
A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketing Professionals
It’s no secret that video can be one of the most effective ways for marketers to engage their audiences and boost brand awareness. However, incorporating video content into a marketing strategy can seem daunting for those new to the medium. Statistics show that the biggest barriers to using video are a lack of time, not knowing where to start, concern about the potential cost, worries about the return on investment (ROI), and not being able to convince decision-makers about the value of video. The endless options offered by video marketing, from what type of content to curate to where to post it, can become overwhelming. But, if you do nothing, you could be left behind.
This comprehensive guide aims to provide marketing professionals with a step-by-step approach to navigating video marketing successfully. From planning and production to distribution and analysis, we’ll explore best practices and practical tips to overcome the learning curve and harness the full potential of video marketing.
You begin by identifying your target audience, who you are aiming to reach with video. Then you determine your own goals and those of the business, what you’re trying to achieve through the use of video. These first two critical steps will combine to inform your content, what your message will be and your methods for distribution, the platform(s) you will use for sharing your videos. Optimisation of your content is crucial if you’re to achieve the best results so you will also need to know which metrics to track and analyse. Finally, you can decide on the method and style of production that is the best fit for your strategy.
These individual elements combine to form a robust video marketing strategy.
Let’s take a closer look at each of them:
1. Identify your audience
Your first step is to identify the audience you want to reach using video. Normally, as a marketing professional, you’ll already have a pretty good grasp of who your target market is. You won’t be able to position what you’re offering to meet customers’ (and potential customers’) needs without knowing who they are.
To be successful, it is important to consider your audience with every piece of content that you create. When you understand your audience, you understand what they care about and therefore what content you can create that’s going to cut through and mean something to them. You’ll know what videos to make, where those videos need to be distributed and how to create a cohesive video marketing strategy that resonates with your ideal customer throughout their journey as they become aware of, consider and then decide to buy your product or service.
2. Set your goals
- What do you need your video content to achieve?
- Where along your ideal customer’s journey could you use video content most effectively?
- What areas of your marketing and customer engagement funnel need improvement and where are the gaps that could potentially be filled by online video content?
Having the answers to these questions is important when developing a video marketing strategy for your company or organisation. Video marketing can be used to raise brand awareness, build customer relationships, grow your mailing list, or promote products and services. You can use it to answer questions, educate, share testimonials, tell your brand story, stream live events or deliver entertaining content.
Combined with an understanding of what your audience needs, your goals will help you pinpoint the kind of video(s) that you need to produce.
3. Define your video’s key message
Now you are clear on your goals and the audience you want to reach, you can begin shaping the key message of the planned video(s).
- What is it that you want to say?
- What is the main thing that you want people to take away and remember after watching the video?
As with all successful marketing, the key is to make your message clear and concise.
The video needs to speak to its audience in a way that rings true and with a message they can’t ignore. Without something useful and interesting to say to the target audience, you risk seeing your video sink without a trace.
If there is a lot you want to say about a particular topic, you could always create a video series covering bite-sized elements of the same subject. This is an effective way to build anticipation in potential customers who see one video and want to view more from you.
4. Decide your primary distribution platform
An advantage of knowing your audience is that you’ll understand how they like to spend their time and how they like to consume video.
- Where do they watch video?
- How do they watch video?
- What devices do they prefer?
The answers to these questions will help you plan what will be your primary distribution platform and how you might use other platforms to promote your content.
- Are you going to publish the video on your website?
- Will you start a YouTube channel?
- Which social media channels do your customers love?
It’s critical that you produce your video content according to the optimum specifications for each particular platform. This includes such things as screen ratio, the size of the video frame, how to use captions or titles on the screen, and even the overall duration of your video.
It’s not just technical specifications you need to think about; the way that the video is actually structured should be considered too.
All of those decisions need to be made in a way that recognises the nuances of the individual platforms that you’re going to be publishing on. The reality is that YouTube is a different platform to Facebook. And LinkedIn video is different from Instagram video. Every social media platform is a video platform these days and you need to create content with production considerations aligned to your chosen distribution platforms.
5. Determine your optimisation techniques
In brief, you’ll need to optimise your video for your audience and also for the algorithms of the various video platforms. If you don’t, your videos might not even be seen by your intended audience.
[This can get a little technical if you’d like to know more about video optimisation then please leave a comment below or contact me directly.]
Optimising for an audience means enticing them to actually press play. To stop their thumb scrolling and attract their attention. Not only that, but you’ll also need to retain their interest long enough to get your message across.
Optimising for the algorithms is similar to search engine optimisation and makes use of some common digital marketing techniques. There are many optimisation strategies to give your videos a higher chance of ranking. In general though, if your videos are getting watched and maintaining the interest of your audience then the algorithms will also look favourably upon your content.
6. Analyse your video’s performance
What gets measured gets improved and no online marketing campaign can be successful without measuring and analysing performance.
There is a lot of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of the video in achieving your desired goal. In fact, this is one of the real strengths of digital video marketing as opposed to traditional video advertising.
Pay attention to the metrics that matter so that you can refine your video marketing strategy moving forward. No matter what your chosen distribution platform is, think about what data you have access to and how that data can inform your future strategy.
If you’ve never created marketing videos before then your first opportunity for analysis will come after your first video is released. If, however, you already have a back catalogue of videos then I would advise that you do this immediately. You can use the analytics already at your disposal to inform many of your future video production decisions. So, make this the starting point for your ongoing video marketing strategy.
7. Decide what kind of videos you will make
Production considerations are the last element in an effective video marketing strategy. When you make strategic decisions about audience, goals, content, distribution, optimisation and metrics BEFORE you plan for production, the power of a video marketing strategy becomes clear.
By completing the various steps above, you should have a much stronger sense of who you want to reach and why, your key message, and the kind of video that will have the biggest impact on your audience.
As we’ve seen, different types of video are likely to be appropriate for different segments of your audience.
- Do you want a product demonstration video for people interested in a particular product range?
- Do you want to share a customer success story to promote a service?
- Or do you want to film a behind-the-scenes video about your employees?
These are just a few of your options.
Summary
Developing an effective video marketing strategy for your business can take some time and effort but it’s essential if you’re to achieve the desired results with video. With each and every video within your marketing strategy, you need to understand what it is that you want the video to do. What action do you want your audience to take? How do you want them to feel? What do you want them to think? Content that does not have a clear idea of what the intended goal is for the video is simply noise. Your mission is to cut through the noise.
A carefully designed strategy is your roadmap for success with your video content.
And, by taking time to reflect and track the results each time a new video is launched, you can strengthen your video marketing strategy. In turn, this will boost your visibility, develop your voice, build your audience and improve conversions. By following this step-by-step guide, marketing professionals can confidently navigate the world of video marketing and harness its immense potential.
Do you need help in creating an effective video strategy for your business? At Reach Video we provide the strategy, content and ability to connect to your target audience, drive them to action and deliver tangible, profitable results.
For further guidance on how to use video to grow your business, download our free guide “Achieve Success with Video”.