3 content marketing lessons to learn from masterful storytelling

The goal of content marketing is to engage your audience and strongly position your brand in the market. By using storytelling techniques to craft videos, articles and more, you share educational information, customer testimonials and brand stories that result in an increase in sales, an improved relationship with customers and an increase in retention.
Just as you seek to resonate with your audience via the content you publish, authors seek to do the same with their books, fictional or not. Good storytelling hooks the audience with a compelling narrative that creates an emotional connection between the writer and reader.  

1. Choose the right main character

You can tell one story a million different ways, simply by changing who the main character is. Your story should revolve around the hero, the one who is the most important player in the story.
That’s not you. That’s your customer.
Your audience will more closely relate to a fellow customer, making the content more effective than if your brand were at the center.

2. Create an emotional connection through conflict

An emotional connection needs to be developed with your brand as a problem solver. When there is conflict, people want to see someone overcome it, especially if they self-identify with the situation. Create content showing conflicts based on real pain points and customers overcoming hurdles in their business lives, with your products and services as the means. This will not only provide a customer testimonial that will appeal to prospects but also prove your company’s worth to your audience.
One particularly successful book series is the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. This, in large part, is due to the deep emotional connection Rowling invites readers to feel through extensive character development, a moral struggle and relatable scenarios, even though the series is set in a fantastical reality. 

3. Deliver a satisfying conclusion

There’s a delicate balance to strike between leaving the readers wanting more and disappointing readers with an incomplete conclusion.
Resolve the story you are currently telling, and you will leave a lasting impression. Emphasize the points your audience needs to remember and end with a call to action. Give the audience a way to mitigate the risk of trying out or completely switching to your brand.

Conclusion

Storytelling leverages your brand’s narrative to connect with customers, improving your relationship with them and driving sales. There is considerable overlap between storytelling in content marketing and storytelling in literature, and you can use some of the strongest narrative tactics from literature, like ensuring your customer is the main character and forging an emotional connection through conflict based on real pain points, to strengthen your own work.
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