Everyone loves a good story. But it’s hard to say the same about a well-crafted series of key message points or brand attributes.
Those things are important, but give them context in a good story and then you’ve really got a powerful marketing tool.
That was essentially my point in “Once Upon a Time in Healthcare Marketing,” the piece I wrote recently for South Florida Hospital and Healthcare News about the power of storytelling for audience engagement. While the healthcare industry has particularly good potential when it comes to communicating marketing messages through storytelling, it’s far from the only industry where this holds true.
Read these few excerpts from the article and I’ll bet it will spark some ideas on how to engage your audiences through storytelling, no matter what your professional calling may be.
- Great stories evoke emotion. As Maya Angelo once said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Therein lies the power of storytelling in healthcare marketing.
- People relate to other people more easily than they do abstract concepts or ideas. We can say “Brand X stands for quality,” and that’s fine. However, when we can deliver proof of that statement through a personal story, the power of the message is amplified.
- “Shareability” is another benefit that accrues from good storytelling. People who hear a good story like to share it, and digital and social communication channels are all about sharing. Given the rising power of online communications and social media in the marketing mix, the shareability factor becomes more and more important to marketers.
- Remember when you were a kid and story time came around? Weren’t you always more drawn to the books with lots of pictures? That doesn’t change when you grow up. When you can illustrate your human interest stories with compelling images and videos, your engagement will jump among your target audiences.
Got any good stories about weaving storytelling into your business tactics? Share them here – we love a good story!