One of the biggest mistakes many businesses make when creating their videos is trying to use facts and figures to influence viewers. Steve Jobs understood the power of emotional branding – his iconic branding strategy at Apple focused on emotion. While we’d all like to think we are logical beings, creative visionary Steve Jobs knew we buy products when we are moved emotionally then we back up our decisions with logic.
Stories influence beliefs
Storytelling is a powerful way to create an emotional connection with your audience. Stories get to the heart of your audiences’ pain points or desires and present an actionable solution in an entertaining way. In his book All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World, Seth Godin says the most powerful thing a brand can do is to tell a powerful story.
Story is what inspires audiences to consider, feel, and remember what we have shared. According to Muse Storytelling, “When people are transported into your story, they are far more likely to adopt beliefs that are consistent with that story.”
Why do stories work so well? Stories transport us to characters and scenes beyond ourselves. Stories seem magical because they allow us to see into the minds of others and provide a window into experiences we might not have known before.
Stories have what Muse Storytelling calls “emotional gravity”. Psychologists refer to the experience of movie watching as narrative transportation, a phenomenon whereby audience members feel so involved in a storyline that it can influence their attitudes and behavior in reality, even after they have finished watching a film or reading a story.
Being a witness
With so many things competing for what’s in our brain and in our wallets, story is structure that lets us cut through the noise. Story allows us to take our audience on a journey – one that swallows them up, sends them spinning, and leaves them altogether changed.
Copywriting expert, Ray Edwards, says,”The most powerful, effective marketing is telling good stories…I believe that more than I ever had. This is the way we learn. This is the way profound knowledge has been transmitted down through the ages.”
He continues, “Stories are a way for us to see ourselves from the outside to understand what we do and why we do what we do. That’s what marketing is.”
Stories are irresistible because they are the hook us into a pattern of thinking we have been using since the beginning of human civilization. When you truly understand the power of storytelling, why would you try to put emphasis on anything else for your marketing?
It’s not hard to see how stories can actually change the world. The challenge many marketers see with storytelling is that it is hard to get right. Some stories are certainly better than others, but storytelling cannot be done wrong. Stories leave a lasting impression that no fact, figure, or infographic could ever do.
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