In a digital world with steep competition, the importance of storytelling in marketing is greater than ever. Here’s how to tell compelling tales by curating gorgeous, empathetic images and videos.
Knowing your brand inside and out is one thing. Sharing your story and actually being heard is another. Regardless of your business size, storytelling in marketing helps your audience remember your brand’s name, aesthetic, and values.
License this image via bbernard.
We live in a content-driven world. Brands need to produce blog content, articles for digital magazines, social media posts, photos, videos, email campaigns, and more. There is so much noise.
At first, loud colors and flashy ads may seem like the solution to cut through this noise. Brands need to communicate their values, products, and services through storytelling in marketing. Here, we take a look at the benefits of storytelling in marketing, and how you can incorporate it more in your work.
Why is Storytelling Important in Marketing?
To put it simply, storytelling is a tool that signals your brand’s relatability and understanding. Depending on the stories you choose to tell, your customers may identify with your creative choices and feel seen. This, in turn, can help them take an interest in your products.
These days, people care deeply about authenticity, diversity, connections, and emotions. Show off these values through your use of visual content, like images and videos. An easy way to do this is to select stock that prioritizes authentic portrayals of people.
License these images via Natalia Lebedinskaia, Rawpixel.com, and jazzzmonet.
Relate your business to your core audience and their everyday lives. For example, if you are a jewelery company, you can set your ads in settings that your audience find themselves in. If your core audience is millennial moms, for example, you can select images that show these women wearing jewellery in coffee shops, while driving their kids to school, or on vacations with their families. The key here is to tell the story of relatability. The right stock content can do just that.
Storytelling in Marketing Makes for Memorable Brands
One big importance of storytelling in marketing is that it enhances your brand’s “stickiness.” Stickiness determines how well-remembered your brand is. If people remember that your brand exists amongst all the advertising and social media noise, your brand has stickiness. If your customers recall your brand, and visit your site to make a purchase, you also have stickiness.
License these images via Alfield Reeves, bbernard, and German Vazquez.
When algorithms change and your content no longer shows up on people’s feeds, stickiness is a great thing to have developed. If your brand is “sticky,” audiences will notice its absence.
So what’s one way to ensure your brand is remembered? Tell compelling stories. Beyond choosing relatable and authentic visual content, ensure that your content is consistent. Curate photos that all contain similar color palettes, warmth, coolness, sharpness, etc.
License these images via mentatdgt and Maria Evseyeva.
Establish a look and feel for your content that’s similar across all social networks and ad platforms. Just ensure that it’s unique and memorable. You can explore curated collections by clicking the link below to gather inspiration, and even find gorgeous curated content.
Urth is nailing this one. They’re a company that sells camera accessories like lens filters, adapters, and camera bags. They’re also big on sustainability.
One thing that makes Urth exceptional in marketing is that they tell stories about products, events, and people whom their audience would relate to. Their storytelling even goes a step further, sharing narratives that truly ignite creativity in readers. Urth shares in-depth profiles of photographers who use their products. They profile people that bring unique perspectives and experience to the table, and further tell their tales through describing their artistic processes while using Urth’s products.
Tap Into Empathy
Rather than overtly pushing products, create content that speaks to your audience. And by speak, we mean in an empathetic, emotion-driven way. For example, Dove is known for connecting with their customers through body-positive images and language. Nike famously shows empathy for social justice causes by telling the stories of athletes who may have been sidelined in their careers. Take a cue from this big brands and bring empathetic storytelling to the forefront of your brand.
License these images via Anna Kraynova, LightField Studios, theshots.co, Anna Kraynova, and Mbuso Sydwell Nkosi.
For example, let’s say your business is a productivity app. You can either overtly tell your audience that they’ll be more successful when using your app . . . Or you can show them that success. Select images and videos that show off easy mornings, building routines, and free time activities.
This type of empathetic storytelling makes your audience feel as though they want to try your product. As we previously discussed, that is exactly what makes your brand stand out and “sticky.”
Tell Marketing Stories with Beautiful Stock Content
License this image via XIANG LOONG YIP.
It’s easy to elevate your storytelling with the right content. Shutterstock’s library has millions of stock photos and videos that will help customers connect with your brand. In fact, it’s easier than ever to select gorgeous, on-brand content, thanks to Shutterstock’s themed, curated collections and advanced image search features.
Subscriptions make it easier than ever to work with our creative content too. With Shutterstock FLEX, you’ll have all-in-one access to our massive library, plus the FLEXibility you need to select the perfect mix of assets every time.
License this cover image via Denis Kuvaev.
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