There’s something inherently captivating about a good story. It’s for this reason storytelling has evolved to become an excellent way for businesses to connect with the intended audience. While some stories are longer and more involved, equally compelling narratives can be shorter and just as engaging, especially if the goal is to drive conversions.
That brings us to the topic of using storytelling in short-form communications. It’s a tactic that can encourage brand engagement and conversions. Keep reading to discover some of the reasons why storytelling in short-form communications is vital and how it can be beneficial.
Generating Interest
An interesting and meaningful story presented well can capture and hold the interest of the intended audience. With short-form content, stories can generate interest when presented as:
- Short, compelling narratives in social media or blog posts
- Longer stories stretched out over several pieces of content
- Short stories sprinkled throughout your online content
- Short, standalone narratives meant to emphasize product/service benefits
Taking Baby Steps Towards Sales
There’s a place for longer story-based content. However, if your main goal is to drive sales, short-form storytelling will serve you better. Part of the reason for this is because the average attention span today is under 10 seconds.
There’s a long-standing “rule of seven” with marketing, which states it takes an average of seven positive engagements or interactions before a conversion happens. What short-form communication that includes storytelling often does is cut these steps down.
You’ll still be taking baby steps when it comes to the initial point of contact to the conversion in that some effort will be needed to convert. But with short-form storytelling, you’ll be eliminating some of the more tedious steps as you guide your target customers to take the desired action.
Think of it from the point of view of your intended consumer. If you come across a standard sales pitch and one that gets presented in the form of a compelling story, which one would you be more inclined to choose?
Finding the Right ‘Tools’ for Short-Form Storytelling
With short-form storytelling, you’ll have to grab attention right away to have the desired impact. Fortunately, there are some tools you can use to simplify this process.
Whether your plans for the content of this nature involve social media posts, visual ads, paid ads, or brand taglines, get some help from tools that assist with such things as:
- Metaphors and similes
- Analogies
- Famous quotes that fit your needs
Content testing methods like A/B testing can also help you fine-tune your short-form storytelling efforts.
For instance, you can run one briefly told story in a social media post and a tweaked version of the same narrative. Then, compare the results to see which one resonates most with your target audience or results in the most conversions.
Personally Connecting with Your Audience
When short-form storytelling connects with the target audience, the results can be very impressive. That is true even when the story told gets summed up with a compelling tagline that can be internalized and personalized.
Nike’s iconic “Just Do It” tagline fits into this category. It’s just three simple and short words, but shoe buyers of all ages could find something personal in that message. So, it can be considered a type of story in that consumers create their personal story based on what those words mean to them.
From a marketing standpoint, some sources claim Nike’s sales jumped more than 40 percent over ten years primarily because of the power of this iconic slogan. Between 1988 and 1998, when Nike was fully running with the “Just Do It” slogan in their marketing and advertising, sales spiked from nearly $900 million annually in 1988 to more than $9 billion by 1998.
Breaking through the Clutter
Short-form storytelling done right can also help your business or brand cut through the marketing clutter. What’s more, you don’t have to be a big brand to benefit from short-form storytelling in your communications.
A compelling, impact, briefly delivered story also works well for local audiences. It’s ultimately a highly versatile technique that smaller brands or businesses can use just as effectively. That is also true if you have a particularly crowded niche, industry, or field with many competitors.
Inspiring Sales
Lastly, short-form storytelling can be used as an added incentive to convince potential customers to click or call your vanity 800 numbers. You could even customize local vanity 800 numbers in a way that makes them fit the general theme of your short-form story content, especially it relates to your business.
Contact us today to learn more about vanity numbers for sale and the other services available from 800.com.
