Stories of what happened in 2020 will be told for years to come. The year 2020 was not the year we anticipated, and who knows what 2021 holds in store for humanity. Hopefully, organizations will find hope somewhere in the clouds of uncertainty, and the stories that we tell will have some happy endings to them.
There are several stories, told of the changes businesses have made in the last year, stories that your customers will relate to on a personal level. Yes, your audience may understand and relate to your stories for years to come. However, how is your story going to be told?
Below are some tips that should aid you in turning your 2020 experiences into stories that are worth telling.
Tell Delicate Stories
Customers are the most crucial elements of a business, and they must be taken as such. Businesses should be responsive and sensitive to the experiences and needs of present and potential customers. This is even more important with what we have faced as a global community. Customers may want to talk about the crippling anxiety or their driven positivity. Let them.
Be sensitive with the way you tell your stories as you do not know how directly COVID-19 has affected their lives. However, your stories do not have to be directly about the pandemic.
Spread Positivity
We have all had a lot of negative things happen to and around us that we could do with some positive stories. an accentuation of the positivity in your stories should be evident. You can talk about how we have seen people genuinely coming together as a global community. We have also seen businesses embracing new work practices. Companies are now more flexible regarding where their staff work. A lot of remote working has been integrated into work structures in recent times.
Character and Conflict
When telling stories that people can relate to, the audience needs to see characters that they can relate to. If a significant percentage of your audience can not relate to the character in your story, then you have not told a compelling story. There should also be an element of conflict in your storytelling. The conflict here does not mean uproar or disagreement between your characters, but an obstacle or hurdle that they need to overcome. The conflict should also be relatable to a larger percentage of your audience. The conflict could be the problems users of your products face and how your products help them tackle the obstacle and overcome it.
In storytelling, we do not always have happy endings, but for the sake of your products, you should focus on happy endings. You should be able to reflect on how much satisfaction is to be derived from the solutions your products and services will provide your potential customers. Your stories should be able to keep the attention of your readers and viewers from the beginning to the end. If you are unable to do this, and you lose them half-way, then they will most probably not purchase your products because they never heard the call to action.
Your storytelling should have elements of educating your audience, entertainment, universal appeal, and specificity. Your story should have the afore-mentioned qualities if you are going to strike a chord with your audience and make them purchase your products and services, which we believe is the purpose of your storytelling.
