Telling a story to connect with our target audience is no longer enough for brands. Today organizations go further, seeking to involve the audience and offering them an experience through their product. This is what defines a story doing marketing. A marketing strategy that is responsible for bringing consumers closer, through experiences, to the products and services of a brand.
According to different studies, story-doing allows companies to increase profits more quickly in exchange for less advertising investment. In addition, thanks to the impulse of social networks, story doing allows connecting with users simultaneously, making them protagonists.
Managing turbulence leads us to consider new demands such as empathic listening, resilience, diversity management, and adaptation to more agile and light environments. You have to communicate behaviors. Not just say what you do but how you do it. Develop Storydoing by giving criteria”.
Story doing in marketing: how to develop a strategy
Now, what are the steps to follow to implement a good strategy? How does the story work, and how can it be applied to the company? Everything will depend on what you want to promote and how you want to connect with the public. Although, there are a series of steps to consider that will help achieve this objective.
Step 1: Take a deep dive into your audience
When starting any marketing strategy, the first thing will be to know who we are addressing. Know their likes and interests to create an experience that captures their attention. In short, develop a buyer persona to meet the target audience.
For this, organizations can rely on different audience analysis tools, where the key questions and parameters to determine the creation of the audience are determined from the beginning. A good analysis will be the basis to guide the strategy.
Step 2: study the context
Just as it is necessary to define the public to which the organization is directed, it is also essential to know the environment in which the brand is located. Knowing who the competitors are, what external elements are facing, or the limits that can be assumed will be relevant.
At this point, carrying out a SWOT analysis (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths, and Opportunities) will help the company to establish its place on the map of competitors. We will know what weaknesses and strengths are necessary to guide the strategy correctly.
Step 3: Define your goals
What do we want to achieve with the campaign? Once the audience has been analyzed, and the context in which the brand is located is known, it is time to set the objectives to be achieved. Determine what will be the values that you want to transmit and that are associated with them. The goal of the story is to create a bond with customers. Something that can only be achieved with transparency.
If what is sought is to use this tool, the stories that are told must be directly linked to the identity and culture of the brand.
Step 4 – Determine Channels
As a last step, organizations must establish channels for reaching the audience. It will not be the same to interact with one age range than another or with a profile with some interests or others. Depending on the buyer persona that has been determined in step 1, the channels of communication with the audience will be established.
The important thing is that, through these channels, emotions can be transmitted. That is the main objective of the story and action.
The advantages of the story in marketing
What benefits does story doing bring? Why can implementing this type of strategy add differential value to the brand? Social networks are a tool that serves as a great support to promote a story-doing strategy. Taking advantage of all these advantages, which are detailed below, will be vital to ensuring the maximum return.
Increase credibility: Users are the ones who generate the content, so people will trust more than what the brand projects. They will share opinions and experiences, but the brand will not condition them.
Improve reputation: A satisfied customer will recommend the product to other users. This will increase
Loyalty customers: Users who have tried the product will reaffirm its benefits and support others who have done the same. This can give rise to a community of fans who defend and remain loyal to the brand.
Increases perceived quality: Perceived quality is the quality a consumer believes a product has. This may or may not coincide with the objective quality. Measuring perceived quality is complex since it depends on subjective criteria such as personal perception or attitude. Storydoing helps this perceived quality to increase, thanks to the involvement of users.
It differentiates you from the competition: The user becomes the brand’s protagonist, allowing it to have direct contact with its public. This direct and constant contact can be positive, as it will also transfer those aspects that can be improved or reinforced to the brand.
Higher ROI: As the engagement levels are very high, brands do not need to invest much money in paid ads, and actions can quickly go viral. This means that the investment by the brand is less, but the return is higher.
Storydoing is an evolution of storytelling. As has been seen, part of the need for customers to not only listen to stories but to be part of them. Brands have to make an effort to involve the customer in these stories, to know his wishes, and for him to become the protagonist with his experiences in a real story. That is why organizations are beginning to take this tool as part of their inbound marketing strategy to improve customer loyalty.