Why storytelling is the best form of marketing

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

To attract the attention of the audience and potential employers, you need to learn how to properly tell about yourself and your work. This is where storytelling can help. Life hacker talks about how to master this art.

Let's say you are a representative of the creative profession. The result of your work should capture the viewer at a glance. Although this result speaks for itself, it does not give the audience a complete picture of your work. We often do not pay attention to one important aspect: the viewer is interested not only in the work of the artist. He wants to know more about who put his signature on this job.

You can help viewers look behind the scenes of your work by telling them about yourself, the intricacies of your craft, the difficulties that arise in the process. All this contains a popular concept from psychology and management - storytelling.

Storytelling is a way to convey information and specific meanings through storytelling.

Using storytelling to promote your work may not give you instant results, but it will definitely give you an edge and set you apart from the competition. Both customers and potential audience will notice you. The audience is not knowledgeable enough to rate your work, but they will be interested in your work if they know more about the process.

People don't care what you do, they care how and why you do it. Storytelling is a wonderful form of marketing that is not perceived as marketing, but gives the corresponding effect.

A good story has a certain structure and content. In this article, you can find tips on how to tell about yourself and your work in such a way that the result of your efforts will bring you success.

1. Basic rules for writing stories

Your site probably has an About Me section. If so far he is not very meaningful, then it's time to give him a new life. Any story consists of three parts: an introduction, a main part and a conclusion. The introduction should intrigue the reader and provide some background information. In the main part, the declared theme develops, it leads the story to the disclosure of the key idea. The conclusion usually tells how the main character managed to achieve his goal. To make your story interesting, you need to dilute it with unexpected plot twists and introduce memorable characters.

Think about what to describe in your creative biography, how to divide it into three semantic parts.

At the beginning of the story, you need to grab the reader's attention. Write a couple of lines about what was special about your creative journey that inspired you to choose it.

Maybe your love for drawing was passed on to you from your mother, and it was she who took you to your first lessons. Perhaps someone doubted your abilities, and this became an incentive for you. Or you have traveled a lot and have been inspired to be creative by learning about other cultures.

It is very important to write an interesting and succinct introduction so that the entire subsequent story can be built around it. In the main part, you can reveal some details. In the final part of the story, it is worth mentioning your most significant achievements. Looking for examples? See how artists Alexander Lukyanov and Noah Bradley told about themselves.

2. Show people how you work

Usually, artists do not like it when someone violates the sacred process of their creation. But it is worth remembering that at the moment when the audience sees only the final result of your work, it is difficult for them to assess how much effort you have put into it.

Therefore, do not be shy. Open the curtain and let people peek into your workshop through videos or photos and your comments on them. It's not as difficult as it sounds. You can easily find a photographer who will take great pictures in your studio and capture the main stages of the creative process.

To do this, sketch out a plan that will reflect exactly what you want to tell the audience, what you want to show them, what photos you need to take for this (or what points to include in the video). Perhaps these will be photographs of your workplace, inventory, your pictures at different stages of work.

Artist Igor Sakharov often posts video tutorials on creating different paintings. In one of the videos, he showed the very process of painting a picture. It's really fun to watch him work.

3. Tell us about the secrets of your work

Can you share the secrets of your creativity, the habits that serve as your personal sources of inspiration? It turns out that a whole book has been written about the daily rituals that creative people follow! It has now been translated into several languages.

People are interested in the habits of creative people because they can be useful and applied to solving common day-to-day problems. In addition, the audience loves to learn about the obstacles that other people overcome on their way.

Analyze how you create your work. Are you using any special techniques? You may have to juggle creativity with other work, so you work at night. Or you have a special place to work where no one distracts you.

Use more detail. If you just say that you paint when inspiration comes to you, you are unlikely to gain fans. But if you describe how you walk into the studio every morning at 7 and work tirelessly for several hours to do something worthwhile, the effect will pleasantly surprise you.

4. Use all possible channels of information

Nowadays, storytelling is not limited to writing a regular story about yourself and posting it on the site. You can easily replace a full story with an Instagram post with a short comment. If you're blogging, take this great opportunity to share the secrets and results of your creativity with your audience. This is how artist Qbic showcases his street art work and the process of creating it.

If you have not yet decided how to promote your work, you can try different information channels and choose the most convenient and attractive one for you. In addition, no one bothers you to use different channels for different tasks. For example, you can post photos of the work process on Instagram, and write about your daily rituals on a blog.

So, storytelling is a great way to connect with a potential audience. Telling about yourself, you will find the response and support of the audience and attract the attention of customers.

It should be noted that storytelling can be used not only by representatives of creative specialties. This technique can be used to promote various products. Therefore, contrary to the well-known truth that silence is golden, we advise you to get out of the shell and tell the world about yourself!