The Importance Of Storytelling In Social Media Marketing

Published on: 03 May 2019 Last Updated on: 21 November 2024

Stories are everywhere; look around you, and wherever you are, there is a story. They are no longer just in the movies and books; stories have gone beyond such confines.

Think about a tale that captivated you last; maybe it was in a blog post and that grabbed your attention and made you emotional.

Despite anything else going around you, it had your full attention. That tells you how powerful a tool it is and why it’s indispensable in your marketing strategies. The best platform to tell stories and win visitors is through social media marketing.

Importance of Storytelling in Social Media Marketing

Continue reading and see how you can revolutionize your marketing approach.

Showcase your Uniqueness

Beyond the headshot and some catchy slogans, people want something that is interesting. Audiences do not want photos and videos that every other company uses to woo visitors. They want something that is captivating.

For instance, on an ordinary day, you could take a few snapshots of your work area and probably share a few tips on what motivates you. Such mini stories will tell people how serious and how dedicated you are to productivity.

Whatever industry you are in, you need to showcase what you have and how skilled and creative you are.

Take Advantage of Visuals

Videos and, generally, visuals are powerful tools that you can rely on for social media success and storytelling. Having such content makes your posts stand out while adding another layer to your narrative.

According to research, visuals could increase visitors’ willingness to read by more than 80%. In fact, big brands believe that visuals are crucial to how the company’s brand story is relayed.

Put Yourself in the Shoes of the Reader

You have your post ready for posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media. Why don’t you spice it up with some story surrounding it? This will resonate with your followers, and many will find a reason to invest in your product.

Look at the issues that your customers have and let your tailored PR team do mini stories that focus on their needs for you. Ensure that the stories are solution-based. Again, you need to look into how you can add some emotion and intrigue to the pedestrian posts.

Most importantly, you must ensure that all your stories have the consumer at the center of it all. Get creative with the story, and this will improve the engagement. If, for instance, you are playing a pitch, the creativity in it will tell whether you are the best fit or not.

Make it Personal

Research shows that personal marketing is on the rise. This is because people are likely to trust another person more than they trust a faceless brand. People want to hear the story from family and friends rather than from a mere advertisement.

A story ensures that you create a personal brand that resonates with your audience. A story is incredibly important in that it shows people the face behind the posts.

In every one of your posts, ensure that you’ve some captivating story that will keep your social media audience glued and yearning for more. Get a good PR company or hire a leading social media agency to help you generate stories that will make a difference in your marketing.

Social Media & Emotional Quotient – How To Increase Engagement

Want to build a stronger connection with your audience on social media? It all starts with understanding the emotional quotient (EQ) and how to tap into it.

People are emotional beings! So, you need to play into someone’s EQ. So, when you can resonate with those emotions, your engagement skyrockets.

Let’s dive into how you can use emotional intelligence to increase engagement on your social platforms.

Start with Empathy

The first step is simple: put yourself in your audience’s shoes.

What are they feeling?

What problems are they facing?

When you show genuine care for their concerns, your audience feels heard.

Create content that speaks to their struggles or desires, offering solutions or inspiration. Whether you’re writing a caption or posting a video, make sure your message connects with them on a human level. It’s not just about selling; it’s about building relationships.

Add a Personal Touch

Secondly, don’t be afraid to get personal!

Share your story, your challenges, or even a behind-the-scenes look at your business. People want to interact with real people, not faceless companies.

When you show vulnerability or authenticity, your audience will relate to you on a deeper level. In fact, they’ll trust you more and are likely to engage with your content because they feel like they know you.

Simple posts like, “Here’s how we overcame this challenge,” can go a long way.

Use Emotion in Your Visuals

Visuals are a powerful tool for stirring emotions. A single image or video can evoke joy, nostalgia, or even empathy. When you create social media content, think about what emotion you want your audience to feel.

Is it exciting about a new product launch?

Or comfort knowing that your service solves a major problem?

You have to carefully choose visuals that align with these emotions. Research even shows that posts with emotional visuals get more likes, comments, and shares.

Create Engaging Stories

People love stories!

Whether you’re posting on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, crafting a narrative keeps your audience hooked. A well-told story pulls at the heartstrings and helps your followers see themselves in the plot.

Use storytelling to make your message more engaging!

For example, if you’re selling a product, tell a success story of someone who used it and saw real results.

Incorporating EQ into your social media strategy is truly a game-changer. When you understand and cater to your audience’s emotions, you’ll see deeper connections and increased engagement.

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Content Rally

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

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Shouldn’t On-Demand Workers Get Workers’ Compensation?

Things have changed significantly for American workers in recent years. More and more Americans are working not as employees, but as independent contractors. Some people call it contracting or freelancing, but the implications are always the same - a worker is hired for a particular service and is paid a rate (hourly or per job) for that service. While working as an independent contractor might be the preferred choice of some workers, it is more often than not an arrangement born out of necessity, facilitated by a growing sea change in the relationship between labor and business. Contractors might have a bit more freedom in the way they do their jobs but, as many freelancers have discovered, there are plenty of drawbacks to working as an independent contractor. They pay their own taxes, lack many of the benefits associated with full-time employment and - perhaps most concerning - they aren’t protected when it comes to injuries suffered on-the-job. It’s this lack of compensation for workplace injuries that brings us to a growing discontentment for a large subset of independent contractors - on-demand workers. What is an On-Demand Worker? On-demand workers are the people who pick us up when we hail a ride with Uber. They are the workers who come clean our house or fix a leaky pipe when we book someone on our Handy app. In short, on-demand workers are those that spring into action when we request a service from a company that relies on freelance labor. The “Ride-Share” Economy’s Impact on Workers Every few weeks or so, you’ll find a news story or press release about another company that wants to become the Uber of something. Handy wanted to become the Uber of household cleaning. Cargo wanted to become the Uber of shipping. The list goes on and on. The financial success and the immense popularity of ride-share services have prompted companies to look for ways to incorporate the ride-share business model into other services, and many of them have been successful in doing so. These “on-demand” services are not just popular in the business community, they are popular with consumers, too. In many cases, the services offered by the new breed of businesses are more affordable and, in some cases, more responsive to a customer’s needs. It might be tempting for consumers to think of these services as a much more direct way to communicate with someone who is providing the service they need. The truth, however, is a little more complicated than that. The driver who picks us up, or the handyman who comes to fix our sink, is working on contract through the business who runs the app we use to summon them. The money that we pay that worker is divided between the worker and the business they work for. Many of these businesses have requirements that their workers must meet before they can do their job. Workers don’t have the level of control over their jobs that one would typically associate with an independent contractor, yet they are provided at the same level of benefits. In other words, they are provided with no benefits. Read also: Making Your Office Safer for Workers No Security for On-Demand Workers On-demand workers can suffer injuries just like any other subset of workers. A high percentage of workplace injuries are transportation-related. Many workers suffer injuries while moving goods or traveling for work. When you consider the fact that on-demand workers spend a good deal of their time in transit from one job to another (or, as is the case with drivers for ride-share services, all of their time in transit), it’s no surprise that these workers face just as many, if not more, hazards while on the job as those who are considered to be employees. To zero in even more on just how dangerous some of these jobs can be, let’s look at taxi drivers and chauffeurs, whose jobs are virtually identical to Uber and Lyft drivers. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs have fatality rates five times those of the average worker. On-demand drivers face the same risks - vehicle accidents, violent attacks - yet they aren’t given the financial security that other workers receive. If an on-demand worker is injured on the job, the company that they work for will not be held accountable for the injuries of their workers. That worker will be left without the security that so many of us enjoy as a fundamental right. They work just as hard. They observe the requirements set out by the company that employs their services, yet they are guaranteed nothing when something goes wrong. Contractors “In-Name Only” Understandably, many on-demand workers are growing increasingly dissatisfied with their classification as independent contractors. This is evidenced in a number of lawsuits in which workers are seeking to be treated with the same rights and benefits as other types of workers. This has been happening in the trucking industry for some time, an industry that has shifted from one heavily reliant on employed drivers (who used to be more likely to be union members) to one of the independent workers, and this industry suffered major labor shortage as a result. In one high-profile lawsuit, an appeals court found that FedEx incorrectly classified their drivers as contractors, despite the fact that FedEx required workers to wear FedEx uniforms, drive FedEx vehicles, and groom themselves according to the standards of FedEx. While on-demand workers face slightly different requirements from their companies, the principle is very much the same. The question is: How much can a company ask of you before they should give you the same rights as their “employees” are afforded? The answer is that you can ask only so much from a worker before they are essentially a contractor "in-name-only.” It’s becoming clear that companies are taking all of the advantages they can out of the “contract” relationship they have with workers while providing none of the benefits that they would give their employees. Unfortunately, this means a lack of workers’ compensation benefits for on-demand workers. The Implications for Consumers On-demand services might seem like a great thing for consumers, for now, but there are many ways in which the relationship between workers and their companies will begin to seep into the quality of the services consumers are currently enjoying. If companies providing on-demand services fail to provide workers with adequate benefits, they will face the same challenges as the transportation industry, which is struggling to keep high-quality workers who will find more benefits and security in other labor markets. In other words, on-demand suppliers will eventually get what they pay for and, by extension, so will consumers. In that respect, the lack of protection for on-demand workers is bad for business, not just for the workers themselves, but for consumers as well.

Your Ultimate Guide To Creating SMS Marketing Campaigns

Every marketer would tell you that there are reasons why text marketing continues to become a mainstay in marketing agencies. In fact, both conventional and modern companies highly rely on their efficacy when it comes to reaching out to their target audience. Because when you think about it, every person checks their text message inbox every time they receive a ping. Leveraging communication strategies like an effective SMS marketing campaign allows you to grow your brand more, target more audiences, and even build closer relationships with prospects. There are a lot of things that SMS marketing can help you with in terms of achieving business goals. But before you partake in this marketing tactic, it’s important to understand the concept behind this marketing practice. Use this guide to make successful SMS marketing campaigns. What Is SMS Marketing? It’s crucial to understand first the concept behind this old but gold marketing strategy. SMS marketing refers to a short message service you send to your customers to build relationships with them. It’s important for text marketers to communicate with their target audiences in a respectful and compliant manner. No matter what your business goals are, SMS marketing puts you one step ahead of achieving them. For instance, you can drive more leads, introduce new products, lead them to check your website, and so on. The ideas that you can do with this marketing method are limitless. Compared to email or push notification marketing, SMS marketing has several advantages. For instance, every person who receives an incoming message in their phone inbox will surely take the time to check and read them one by one. While some people might check their emails at least once a day regarding text message inboxes, people often check them as soon as they receive a message. Your message can be concise and clear with SMS marketing. There’s no need for lengthy advertising messages. With brief sentences that can take up less than 160 characters of the SMS limit, you can already deliver what you want to say to your prospects. Choosing The Right SMS Marketing Tool Now, it’s time to understand the tool to use for this marketing strategy. With the advent of technology, there is now text marketing software at your disposal. For one, you can take advantage of Drop Cowboy Ringless Voicemail service and some other brands that offer reliable text messaging as marketing services. Text message delivery depends on the tools and services you choose. Such software comes with pricing plans that fit your marketing budget and goals. Unlike any other conventional marketing promotions like print ads, TV ads, and billboards, this marketing campaign is priced reasonably better. Also, consider partnering with the best SMS marketing service provider to automate your text messages to your target recipients. How To Maximize On SMS Marketing Campaigns As mentioned, a high percentage of people open text messages every time they receive one. By sending promotional messages via SMS, you ensure your customers will read them because they will arrive directly in their inboxes. Check out these ideas in which you can maximize your SMS marketing campaigns. 1. Limited-Time Promotions You can use an SMS marketing strategy to encourage your customers to avail of coupons and discounts or even redeem incentives or gifts. Offering these incentives for a limited time makes them even more effective. Announcing that the campaign only runs on a promo period is an effective call-to-action strategy so your customers won’t miss out on such opportunities. It’s one effective strategy to get your business to high ranks. Considering SMS marketing's high open rate, it’s the most effective way to communicate time-sensitive offers with customers. As a result, you ensure your customers don't pass up a good deal. This yield win-win situations for both the customers and your brand. They get discounted rates, and you could convert your sales funnel more effectively. 2. Reminding Customers One good purpose for SMS marketing is when you could send notifications regarding the recent actions of your customers. For instance, whether they checked your website, changed passwords, or linked different payment modes, an SMS notification will be sent to inform them that the activity is successful. Sending notification messages is essential for many businesses, and they’ve realized how effective it is in retaining customers. By relaying notifications about their recent purchase or online activities, the customers will grow their trust in your brand. It could lead to continuous patronage. Also, they will feel at ease by getting reminders of how your brand is already dealing with their orders or purchases. Receiving reminders is valuable, especially for customers who are always busy with other things and obligations. Make sure your brand is always at the top of your customer's minds. It’s a job that SMS is best suited for. With SMS marketing, you can remind your customers about everything from their most recently liked products to the purchased ones that are going to arrive soon. 3. Order Updates And Confirmation An SMS is also useful for customers to receive updates regarding their orders. Once they make a purchase, a message will be sent regarding the successful transaction. It ensures peace of mind for the customer. Also, the confirmation messages sent via SMS will allow them to use them as proof or evidence regarding their purchase. If products don’t arrive as planned, they can refer to the SMS notification. 4. New Product Release And Launches SMS advertising is also useful for announcing new product releases. It’s the most cost-effective way for marketers to advertise new product launching. Without paying for the expensive talents of celebrities to promote new products, a large number of users will discover your new product offering through the message they can read in their SMS inbox. Using this method will generate buzz and interest, and you could even entice old customers to come back and check out what's new. You can also use SMS campaigns to drive traffic to your website or storefront. Thus, you can simply include a link they can visit to check your new product or any offers. 5. Send Welcome Messages Send your customer a welcome message once they subscribe to your SMS marketing campaign. Companies must start building relationships with their customers. As a result, you will be able to communicate with them right away, as they will know they have been subscribed. It also alerts them to expect a few messages from your end every now and then. There’s no need for lengthy or complex welcome messages. Sometimes short but sweet thank you message about their subscription are already enough for your customers to remember your business. 6. Customer Service Tool SMS is not limited to being a marketing tool; it’s also a customer support tool. In this era where customer service should be at the forefront of any business, SMS strategy can be used to ensure customer satisfaction. It’s imperative that your work processes are as transparent as possible, and you can achieve this by constantly sending them SMS in case necessary. After all, a text message is the easiest way to communicate with pre-sale customers and post-sale tech support. 7. Collect Customer Feedback It’s essential for businesses to receive customer feedback to determine what they are doing well and what they need to improve. And it’s something that’s being offered with SMS marketing. You can send out surveys through SMS, and customers can answer them timely and convenient. There are many ways to create survey forms for them to easily fill out. The key is to attach the link to your SMS. Another option is to ask customers to rate you using a ranking system that’s easy for them to use. 8. Announce VIP Programs By offering a VIP program, you can encourage loyalty among your subscribers and customers. If you want to make your VIP customers feel special, offer them VIP-only discounts. This sense of exclusivity allows your customers to treat your brand with more respect and value. Also, use this program for customers to gain early access to sales and other promotions. One way for them to qualify for your VIP list is to encourage them to fill out a signup link. However, since it’s VIP, make it seems more challenging for them to enter this list. The harder it feels to qualify, the more special and valued they would feel. Tips To Apply Effective SMS Marketing Strategies Applying SMS marketing strategies require effective implementations. When done right, they can produce the best outcomes for your business. Here are some tips to apply effective SMS marketing strategies for your brand: 1. Ensure That Your Customers Opted In Your customers probably already provide you with their phone numbers. However, one common courtesy is to get their approval to start receiving SMS from your brand. Mass texting them without their consent is ethically wrong and will only lead to adverse effects on the customer. Ensure to get your customer’s clear opt-in before starting to send out text message campaigns. Your website or other online channels can allow customers to opt-in to receive text messages. However, you should get a text confirmation before you send them anything. There are ways to get their opt-in consent. One is to make them reply Yes or No to your single SMS regarding SMS subscription. Another way is through your website. They can press a CTA button regarding their receiving SMS messages from your brand. When the user clicks the link in the offer, they can fill out the subscription form and enter their number so they can start receiving your SMS campaigns. 2. Take Time To Introduce Yourself A good practice is to take the time to introduce your brand in any of your SMS campaigns. Chances are your customers don’t know where the messages are coming from. Failing to include your company name or brand name on the message will only forfeit its purpose. Hence, it’s important to include your company or brand name in that short message that you’re sending. 3. Make Messages Fun And Short It’s common for people to use SMS messages to communicate with friends and family informally. Texting should remain fun in your SMS campaign in the same way as a fun communication tool between people. Be friendly and personal with customers to build trust. Use local trending words that are popular with your target audience for the time being. It ensures to catch their interest and make them read your text message completely. The maximum number of characters in an SMS message is 160. With an opt-out option and the need to identify yourself, that's not much to work with. Don't waste any characters, and go straight to the point of what you want to say. 4. Don’t Forget To Use Target Keywords To encourage users to connect with you, you should select contextually relevant keywords alongside simple messages and shortcodes. Using such keywords will allow them to easily remember anything about your brand or company. If they want to research you online, they can use the same keywords found on your SMS. 5. Give An Option For Customers To Opt Out All marketing communications should follow these standards and rules. Much like getting their buy-in, you should also give them the option to opt out and unsubscribe from your SMS campaigns. You are more likely to lose customers if you constantly text them when they do not want to hear from you. Your messages should come with the unsubscribe option, so your customers can freely opt out anytime they want. There are some viable reasons for them to do this. But it doesn’t entirely mean that they won’t be good prospects for you in the future. It’s just that not everyone prefers to get this kind of information via text. SMS open rates tend to be much higher than those for email, so you should also expect a higher unsubscribe rate. After a message is sent, unsubscribes may spike and treat it as a normal occurrence. 6. Be More Informative Than Promotional You should be extremely considerate of your buyers' inboxes since promotional SMS messages can easily be turned off. Therefore, staying informative and interactive is best, and not focusing too much on sounding sales or promotional. A good rule of thumb is to focus most of your communication on order, whether a status update or a request for feedback. Schedule your promotional messages and send them at least only twice a week at a minimum. No one wants to keep receiving promotional messages that are obvious that they want to make money from you. Conclusion You can increase engagement with your target audience by using SMS marketing. Keeping your customers' attention is easier if you market to them where they are most active. Therefore, if your target audience is always in their phone’s SMS inbox, it’s worth considering SMS marketing as part of your marketing mix. Use this guide and wait for results to reflect your bottom line soon. Read Also: Calling Out – How Telemarketing Allows You to Reach a Wider Audience How To Move Your Career In Social Media Marketing Up A Gear? Best Marketing Strategies For Lawyers In Houston

How we could be able to get benefits from the outdoor marketing

Outdoor advertising, very simple, is marketing that organized outdoor massive places to attract the customers. Various types of outdoor branding can be done to make a brand visibility. Billboards can be comprised about 65% of outdoor marketing. • Sitting benches branding • Schools gates branding • Specific event coverage • Recreational place banners • Shops branding • Shopping malls • Bus branding • Bus stands • Bridge branding Here we also include other populated areas are vital to show all types of flying flags imprinted with logos, images, and promotional messages. There are plenty of ways to attract your customers by seizing the attention and offering them a huge amount of benefits while the competitors are not. To make our brand a significant exposure outside the home where most of the folks are outing, visiting and taking rest of long hours of hectic work burden. Outdoor marketing isn’t a new way to market the products and brands. In the current era people are getting bored with the old stuff of commercialization – now they are demanding some new content as our world has advanced into the digital world of marketing. To make our brand’s promotion different from the competitors’ it would be better to give a strong reason to our customers so that they easily can buy products. Why should we use outdoor Marketing? 1. Target your audiences 2. Positioning at points of sale 3. Brands talking point build 4. Consumer pulls distributor push 5. Target your audiences efficiently 6. Outdoor advertising can’t be turned off 7. Other media cover outdoor promotional activities How we can take the maximum benefits from outdoor marketing through outdoor banners. 1- Outdoor Advertising has High Impact To preparing TV ads and other digital media promotional content, we keep in mind how to be attractive in the 30-second streaming ad. But in outdoor advertising, it would be slightly easy to attract the audience with just simple but reliable graphical that according to the place atmosphere where it has changed. No matter the passengers taking attention or just this outdoor banner going through their eyes. It is not just a 30-second ad that will stream off. This is the main benefit of outdoor marketing to be there for some particular period by attracting the folks. 2- It would be Very Cost Effective Way of Marketing Through a widely accepted survey, it has been reddened that outdoor promotion is very cost-effective form all other advertising phases. It is just given and take the way of marketing how much we invest it would be good enough return profit. 3- It has Widely Reach to the maximum Audiences As outdoor advertising is stand out directly to customers every time, while passengers are walking or passing through. Most of the time some folks are individually read out what is being shown off on the display boards, sometimes its texture, content, images, and graphics. Through all these, our display boards would be the maximum reach to the audiences. 4- Outdoor Marketing is an Engaging Media Unlike most mediums, outdoor is actually liked by consumers. Research from APN Outdoor found that 71% of Australians preferred buses with advertising than those without and that 36% stated outdoor advertising as a welcome distraction. 5- Outdoor Marketing Impacts’ well on Sale It is a good marketing channel and mostly seen by the buyers, so that is the primary concern to enhance the chances of sale on the brands’ outlet or other places it is put on sale out. In outdoor stalls or extra promotional activities, we could be able to get promotional, visibility and sale by investing in this type of marketing. Read More: 5 Marketing Tips To Help Grow Your Business On Instagram Google Maps Marketing: Guides On How To Boost Brand Advantage Social Media Marketing Role In Technology