Storytelling for businesses

As appointed, our brain can remember a story more easily. Stories can evoke emotions, be relatable and convey knowledge. Storytelling is therefore suitable for any business and any business purpose. Whether it is to inform or inspire. Reach your target audience with storytelling and tap into the emotions of your target audience to create a better connection.

Perhaps you would like to start storytelling for your business, but are not sure where to start. We always start by asking "what exactly do you stand for? Think carefully about your company's value, vision, why your company was founded and what promise you want to convey to your target audience.

The answers to the questions asked may not be entirely clear, or perhaps your answers do not exactly match those of your colleagues? To come up with a strong story, it is important to go through several steps. With these steps, we come up with a strong, unique and recognizable story for your company.

Step 1. Gather information

What do your colleagues think? What is your common dream? We gather information and look at different views. An important step in gathering information is to scrap information. From all the information we gather, we need to arrive at a short and clear message. We can then incorporate this message into the story.

Step 2. Choose one brand value

Storytelling for your business hinges on a strong brand value. Think, for example, of Interpolis with "glass clear" or Apple with "think different." A brand value is literally the value of your company. Examples of brand values are; 

• health, 
• security, 
• happiness, 
• love, 
• environment, etc. 

It is important that brand value is something that everyone values. To determine which brand value best suits your company, we look at your company from the customer's perspective. How do they see your company and how do you want them to see your company? The chosen brand value will be the guiding principle in all communication (all storytelling) towards your target group. 

Step 3. Brainstorm with your colleagues

To finally come up with a strong story and actively use storytelling for your company, brainstorming with colleagues is very helpful. Go back in time and think about what the company and/or its employees have experienced. Together we always discover a nice story in this. 

All the information has been gathered and we are ready to really get to work on storytelling for your business. Every good story always befalls certain elements. These elements are the message, the conflict, the players and the plot of the story. In other words, always consider what you want to convey (the message), what is going on in your story (conflict), who resolves the conflict in your story (players) and how the conflict is resolved (plot).

Every company and every target audience is different. Yet in good storytelling there are similarities. With these tips, every story will be a success!

• True stories work best, yet it doesn't always have to be true, as long as it could have been true.
• A simple and original story sticks best with any audience.
• Devise a lasting story; good storytelling takes a long time and eventually becomes very relatable.
• Make sure your target audience can empathize with the "players" of the story.

Coming up with a really strong story and using storytelling in marketing strategy takes time. At BTTR we can help. Together we will work to come up with a story that fits your company, that excites your colleagues and that reaches your target group. Want to know more? Feel free to contact us.