Does Your Story Win Customers? Here’s How To Combine Data & Creativity To Create a Stronger eCommerce Brand.

Everyone loves a good story – but what happens when you include data? It becomes far more believable. Creativity empowered with real data can change a product of the imagination to reality. The outcome? People start listening to the storyteller and demand more.

Telling stories is as old as mankind. In the past, people had gathered around the fire to share tales meant to teach lessons and move people. The impact of the story was measured by the actions people took, inspired by narratives they had heard during these gatherings. Later on, TV and other mediums introduced a new way to tell stories.

Today, a mobile narrator has arrived.

Technology has drastically affected how we live and what motivates us to take action – for eCommerce brands, this has opened many new opportunities for reaching the customer.

What does storytelling mean for eCommerce brands?

Captivating stories are a powerful way to generate interest and humanize a business, while the mission of content is to provide value and help customers make a purchasing decision. When customers buy a product, much of it has to do with the emotions a brand makes them feel. Combining a good story with the perfect mediums can help differentiate a company and establish a high-converting content journey.

Copywriting

There is no right answer whether copy should be long or short. Customers are different, some are visual and some are auditive but the copy should always have a clear message. The key detail to delivering a successful message is to avoid anecdotal experiences and to instead rely on the fusion of real data and creativity.

For example, if you test your keywords starting with the app listing on Shopify, you can easily discover what type of message/story works for your audience, and once you detect them you can use and scale it on your landing pages, ads, videos etc.

This will also decrease your costs, time and effort. Also, try including some dynamic extensions in your copywriting. Merge copy with web stories and witness the magic of shoppable content.

Social Media

Content is a king, but don’t forget that data is the wise queen. Social metrics and listening are crucial for successful marketing strategy. People are inclined to take more concrete actions on social media as they scroll and interact.

In fact, 75% of people act upon advertisements they see on social media in some form. Knowing that, you can say that social profiles are a perfect place to humanize a brand, to showcase your products in a human environment, and to tell stories in native manner (who doesn’t want to go viral?). The story is the most powerful form of human communication that resonates with us emotionally, and often times ensures that we act towards it.

However, keep in mind that proper tracking of social media content quality and performance can help you optimize revenue growth in addition to branding.

Video

Dynamic visual content, gifs, stories and videos can amaze audiences when carefully designed and optimized. Video was the most effective until 2019, and soon after customer’s habits and wishes were evaluated to the stage of immediate consumption. Brands realized that the shortcut to grabbing customer’s attention is fast, dynamic and interesting content they can absorb at a glance – when they eat, travel, wait in line, and spend free time.

Marketing tools that convert the most are in the form of stories one way or another. Some predict that by the end of 2021, up to 70% of online stores will have stories on their website, and (unlike Instagram and social media) those stories will be in their full control with unlimited space for telling the story. This includes all kinds of possibilities for linking and showcasing products.

With engaging elements in stories, the interaction with your customers will encourage a positive shopping experience and positively impact sales and retention. Also, the idea of posting user-generated stories on your website can be a real game changer in your storytelling strategies. But still, if those stories are not created according to your customers mindsets, you’ll have abandonment and likely less success.

Analysis helps produce great content – see how your story performs and adjust it accordingly.

Why is storytelling now more important than ever?

This year’s massive increase in online traffic means merchants can win big or lose big.

It seems that the market has never been wider and the rules are evolving. The global situation has forced people to turn to e-shopping and increased already huge traffic. The merchants fighting for their attention are completely aware that if they don’t keep the pace they will lose big.

Online content needs to be entertaining, interactive and visually stimulating. It should quickly help your customers make the right decision and guide them to the purchase. Early adopters are those who survive and benefit. In the fast paced competition era, the crucial tactic is to take quick actions and adjustments of content.

This means adopt a storytelling form that people love and share it there where they are not used to (social media). Try sharing a story via SMS, email, or place it on your web store as a highlight.

Customer Journey Revolution

Customers have become bored, blind and frustrated from boring and aggressive ads, desperately persuasive landing pages and artificial promises of brands.

Even if they are scrolling, they have a selective sight – how about a custom designed captivating story? What if your landing page changes its appearance from a massive webpage to a simple but catchy and trust-worthy story?

Proven as the perfect landing pages, web stories become the number one storytelling tool that converts modern customers while also driving loyalty and trust.

Who is making the best use of storytelling right now in eCommerce?

Among other apps for building web stories, Shopify offers a StorifyMe platform that helps merchants create an immersive customer experience. By facilitating influential mobile-first experiences, we bring the familiar tappable format to the open web.

StorifyMe allows merchants and brands to break free from an isolated social media ecosystem and deliver relevant contextual content to their customers, while keeping them firmly in control (and owning) their content.
Crafting quality storytelling content, acquiring more leads and strengthening customer relationships stands as a strong solution for re-energizing customers tired of the same old marketing tactics.

How do I know what captivates my customers?

Increased eCommerce competition has resulted in a transformation of content. Consumers are always looking for better online experiences and shoppable content is making an impact.

Analyzing your shopping experience data helps you determine which kind of story has the greatest impact on your customers, and on the technical side, which part of the funnel has to be adjusted.

Where are the areas that kill attention and the purchase intention? Is your call to action persuasive enough? What about your payment method, is it suitable? What happens with the engagement? Tracking your customers actions, personas and their needs can detect possible risks and revenue opportunities (Checkout Zen makes this easy).

Adopt a great solution for storytelling – be sure that your customers will not only be captivated but even more engaged and amazed than ever before.

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