As children, we were read bedtime stories by our parents/guardians.
We were able to resonate with these stories, in spite of being imaginary.
What was it that made us feel close to the characters in the stories and want to learn more about them?
In fact, even now, most of us would prefer reading stories rather than going through pages and pages of of dull information and content.
That’s just the thing about storytelling. It attracts a larger number of people and appeals to a greater demographic, which is why storytelling is the future of brand SEO.
Take a look at a few reasons why this statement has come into being. These reasons have been derived through their practical use.
1. Turns Old Content to New
There are times when coming up with new, interesting, and exciting ideas becomes tough, even for the best bloggers. Considering the intense competition that exists in the market, creating content that is brand new, becomes next to impossible. This also happens when you have to post content daily or multiple times a week. How do you come up with so much original information?
To save the day, storytelling comes into the picture, and by accepting it with open arms, you can take your old content and add some spice to it. It’s almost genius because this time around your readers will be far more interested in reading through the entire blog than just glancing through it.
Written uniquely, your blog will become spread in no time.
2. Causes Neuro-Associations
As tough as it may sound, the explanation of the term is as simple. Neuro-association means relating information to things you’ve learned before to the emotions you felt at that time, to now. These associations make us vulnerable to the brand and the products it sells.
Our brain unconsciously merges two events in the present to something similar to the past. Say, you’re taken aback by a commercial on TV as you walk by an electronics store. Your brain will automatically combine the surrounding you are in right now, with the emotions you felt because of the commercial.
Next time you walk by the same place or look at the same commercial, it will be because of the neuro-associations.
This is what every blogger must do with their storytelling blog.
3. Creates a Thirst
We are all a little greedy. No matter how much of a particular thing we’ve been given, we still want more. The same goes for what you give to your viewers and customers from your business. Rather than depending solely on providing great products that they come back for, you need to expand your area of reach and get to them to want to come back for more than just one product or service.
A great method is using the storytelling tool. As they read, the part of their brain associated with language lights up along with the parts that makes us feel excited. Providing statistics wouldn’t do much to light up these parts as much as conveying a story would.
Once you get the hang of it, bring customers back for your content should be easy. This will, of course, lead to increased sales and leads!
4. Builds Relationships
Even a marketing noob would be able to tell you how crucial it is to build relationships in today’s world. When you’ve built a relationship with your customers, they’ll come back to get more from you. By constructing stories that your readers will be able to relate to, you create a space for them to feel like they belong. They would start to feel as though you understand their need and are willing to fulfill their requirements.
You will have to create a detailed map of the customer segments you attend to, to ensure that none of your customer bases feels left out. Putting out a story in their language will lead to the audience reading the whole article, generating responses. You will also need to make sure that the story is such that they start imagining themselves in your story.
Such an easy way to build relations!
5. Generates Shares
The only reason most of us share content we find online, on either our personal pages or as messages, is because we have established a connection to it. The better the quality of content, the higher the chance of it being shared, and the better the chance of your numbers driving upward.
At a subconscious level, the content we read is shared because we want to sound smart, funny, or intriguing by doing so.
So, if and when your target audience starts sharing the storytelling-based content, it should give you an idea as to what they prefer.
6. Is a Motivator
How important do you think a call to action is? Is it okay if you skipped it or maybe didn’t put much thought into it? No, right? Your CTA has to be such that it motivates the reader toward an action, emotion, or toward sharing something.
As a marketer, it is your job to bring people to act on a particular CTA. For this you may share a story, something personal and embarrassing if necessary, to reach the outcome you were expecting in the first place. Your story can surround a primary message you are trying to convey.
Once your content has motivated the consumers to make a move, you will have to maintain the streak to keep them engaged.
7. Show Who You Are
Your customers need to see your brand for as it is. No hidden messages, no loopholes, and no gray areas either. Through storytelling, you can ensure that the name of your business shines bright in the sky. The personality that your brand will portray on the internet will attract customers depending on that. The storytelling tactic should be used to portray the image of your brand, and not the ideas of an individual, team, or management of the business. In the end, your customers will be able to relate to your brand only when they start to get a sense of what your business stands for.
8. Boosts Ranking
Gaining a rank on the first page of search engines is as tough as can be. The algorithms that are used by these search engines are advanced and are accurate enough to determine the rank that a business page deserves. When you publish good content, it compels people to stay on the page, decreasing the bounce rate. With a lower bounce rate and engaging content posted frequently, the search engine algorithms will push your page higher. Once your ranks increase, the engagement will also double. Think about it. How many times do most of us even bother going onto the second page of Google to look for what we want?
9. Gains Backlinks
You know how backlinks work. You provide backlinks when you believe in the website and the content they’ve published. With storytelling, you can create content that is credible enough to get backlinks. When other bloggers read your content, they will relate to it at an emotional level and be willing to add backlinks of your page on their website.
Once your backlinks increase, your ranking on search engine pages will rise gradually as well.
To gain popularity in the online world, businesses are required to create engaging content that has been optimized.
Without following appropriate SEO techniques, there are high possibilities that the marketing strategy fails. It is for this reason that the above-mentioned list was created.
Storytelling is a new SEO tool for brands
The reason behind this is simple. The internet is filled with content from various niches, covering various ideas, and at different capacities. Now, if you look at this content, most of it is cringeworthy.
For you to be creating content that is high quality and resonates with people would mean that people might end up loving it.
In an endless cycle of producing quality content that can be shared and generating leads, we need to ensure that the customers are getting what they want because ultimately it is one of the primary factors that a search engine algorithm will consider.
After reading all this you might want to take up the storytelling strategy at a slow pace. Getting rid of the strategies that already work for you are not obsolete and will never be.
It is only fair that you include another SEO strategy into the existing list. And even then, it is essential that the whole idea behind storytelling has been researched thoroughly.
We hope you’re able to connect with your customers through storytelling SEO!
Max Effect Marketing is a leading Digital Marketing Agency and a programmatic advertising company located in Denver, Colorado. We provide top-notch Web Design, SEO, Online Reputation Management and many other digital marketing services. We are Denver’s #1 SEO Company, and with our results-driven approach, you can grow your business. Contact us for your digital marketing needs today!
