A World of Storytellers

Who doesn’t love to listen to stories? There are all sorts of stories that we love to listen to, and some of them happen to be marketing communication. When it comes to B2C communication, we have seen time and again various FMCG brands employing this trick while creating advertisements. Some of the prominent names that come up are Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and more recently, Double mint from Wrigley, have successfully used this method to get much higher audience and convey the message in a way that is hard to ignore.

The question we are facing today is, whether or not this process of storytelling will work when B2B communication is on mind.

Even though the communication is said to be B2B, it is in fact between two people. As a human being, we all love to hear stories. Some will actually say that the B2B communication is the best form of P2P communication (person to person communication). And, when another person is involved, how can storytelling fail?

Let us analyze our daily activities. We go about our business for sure, but then, we also catch up with friends and family, share our day, gossip, chat, watch movies and plays. If you think closely, you will see that we all enjoy the old form of storytelling and engage in it in one way or another.

Does storytelling benefit your business communication? 

Storytelling has its own charm – a fact attested by any content marketing agency. It is proven fact that a story has greater capacity of holding the attention of the target audience than any other form of advertisement or communication. Integrating storytelling into B2B communication will definitely help in capturing the interest of the person reading it and make it possible to present the data and ideas in a much more efficient manner.

B2B communication is a lot about data. However, no one likes to go through pages of data. There are very few people out there who will actually take time to pour over the sheets of data if you present one. But, if you integrate the same data into a small narration that feels like storytelling, there is a much higher probability that you will get your message across nice and strong. 

How to be a better storyteller? 

According to the 2016 report of the Content Marketing Institute, 41% of B2B marketers wish to be a better storyteller and that is one skill they all want to develop. So, how can your content marketing agency be a better storyteller?

Business communication often becomes quite boring and monotonous with all the data and figure on the sheet. You need to be able to present then in the best possible manner. Storytelling is the key.

•  Be specific and to the point – Let’s face it, none of us remember more than 3 to 5 points we read online in a blog or any type of content. Keep yourself in your audience’s shoes. Be precise and give points that they will remember for long.

•  Keep repeating your message – Don’t be obvious, but keep repeating your message. 

•   Make it conversational and interesting – It is easy to fall into the trap of creating a boring content that is quite business like. Do not fall prey to this. Make your narration interesting and use conversational tone.

A good content marketing agency will agree that there is no one way to use storytelling in B2B communication. But, when we start with “Once upon a time…” that’s a nostalgia none of us can escape from.