1CommunicationStorytelling brings marketing and communications closely together, besides helping companies to stand out with attention-grabbing content that kick-starts discussions. It is however undeniable that creating good stories takes lot of time. Asking, for instance, the following questions could assist you in starting off on the right foot:

• Who are we and why do we do what we do?
• How can we transform our business philosophy into a story?
• What is the target group and what kind of stories attracts them?
• What are the stories of our customers and competitors?

You should use different digital communication tools when developing the stories and of course monitor the media regarding how it is liked and shared as well as check if your story evokes discussions in the desired target group. If there is no response to the story, or the reactions do not meet your expectations, consider editing it or try new ways to publish it.

Follow the discussions and gather feedback

Effective and interesting communication makes the customer listen to the company. Therefore, you should simply ask them what they think about your produced content to find out if you are on the right track. By running e.g. a survey, you can quickly see which themes and topics your customers like or they want to learn more about.

Talk to your colleagues as well and find out what they know about their customers and their interests. Particularly those who work in customer service and sales generally know a lot that can help to find the right targeted and modelled content that leads your story to success.

Follow as well the discussion in your industry and observe the hottest topics that may interest your customers. In social media networks you can quickly identify which subjects are highly topical and entertaining

Create quality content and follow the interests of customers

Engaging content is almost always winning over customers and stakeholders as it gets usually less ignored than irrelevant news and content. The content produced must get the attention of customers immediately and motivate them to get back to read more.

Here are some suggestions you need to keep in mind to create compelling content:

• Make use of pictures as interesting texts are more eye-catching with images.
• Provide solutions for the problems of your customers and stakeholders.
• Present stories taken from real life, for example in the form of an interview.
• Make a video about your company, project, or meeting with a client.

And don’t forget to use different content strategies for your communication. Publishing on social media and videos work extremely well for customer loyalty and short-term relationships. With their help you can then lead the customer slowly to the longer and more detailed content, such as articles, press releases and blogs. To captivate a customer through content requires effort on multiple channels, that’s why you should make use of many tactics.

By monitoring the customers’ interests and activities we learn about their buying habits, what newsletters or blogs they read, which content they like and share in social media, or comment on, which are just a few of the many reasons why you should always observe the activities of your customers and arrange your content strategies accordingly.

By Daniela la Marca