Marketing Foundations: Storytelling the why, the how, the what with Chloe Thomas (episode 031)

by April Buencamino-dy

In this episode our host Chloe Thomas is taking over to take you through how to work storytelling into your marketing in order to speed up time to purchase, increase likelihood of purchase, and increase repeat purchases and referrals. You’ll learn about how to create your story, the types of stories that work, and how to use your story in your marketing. This episode is packed with examples.

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Why do you need Storytelling in your Marketing?

The need of bringing emotional marketing into eCommerce is what has become mainstream and something that more businesses are doing. Why? It is because it is very powerful.

According to Chloe, Storytelling and Emotional Commerce is hardwired human behavior identified by Neuro-Scientists. There is solid research scientific analysis that has gone into it.  

She points out that emotional commerce drills down to 2 key types of activities:

  1. Tactical Stuff – it is about user-generated content, social proof, urgency, etc.
  2. Building an Emotional Connection with your customer. Storytelling falls in this category.

The latter type elevates trust, whereas the former forces someone to buy stuff. 

What Types of Storytelling are working in eCommerce?

Chloe says that Storytelling now has to be about the customer. It has to be the value they receive from your product. Mary Portas says “consumers are no longer interested in status symbols, but status stories.” 

2 Broad Types of Storytelling that are used, in eCommerce & Retail

Founder Story

It is about the Founder and how you came about with the product. What the pain point that brought the product, into existence.

Mission or Product Story

This is about how awesome the product is.

A couple of Simple Tips to make your Storytelling works

  • It always starts with a why. Why does our business exist? What is our Mission? It has to have an element of why.
  • There are 3 parts to any story for it to work well:
  1. You take people through what the problem is
  2. You take through the solution to the problem. 
  3. You prove to them that it is a successful solution to the problem-Where you can put in customer testimonials.

(thanks to JJ Resnick for this excellent model)

How to add Storytelling to the core eCommerce Marketing Channels

  • About Us Web Page – To Anchor your work on getting your start out there.
  • Email-Marketing – In Your Welcome Campaign. It is the email sent to welcome your subscribers.
  • Post Purchase Campaigns – To create long term, loyal customers
  • Facebook Ads – To hook people into your business – Chloe in this section  also explains where to put it in
  • Google Ads – You have obvious places where to put them in
  • SEO – When you are Guest Posting on other websites
  • Tell about stories to your PR Agency, Influencers, Bloggers, Press, Podcast Guests.
  • Social Media – get your storytelling frequently on Social Media Platforms – through Video, imagery, etc.

Examples:

Insider Tips

If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with eCommerce Marketing Foundations – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?

It is always a tough job to telling your own story and perfect it. It is a whole lot easier telling it for someone else. Chloe’s Advice about Storytelling is instead of doing it yourself, reach out and get people who know your business to do it for you. 

Once you have got started, what is the obvious way to improve your storytelling?

First thing is to get it live. Don’t wait for it to be perfect, and then get started. Get it on your “About Us” Page, and start marketing the same.

Then you need to check how‘s it working. Chloe strongly recommends that you revisit it every 3 to 6 months. Put that date in your diary, because it’s easy to forget it. Once this is done, you would know what needs to be added or changed. Welcome campaigns also need to be revisited once in 3 to 6 months.

If someone wants to learn about storytelling is there a cheap/ free resource that can be used? 

Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in eCommerce Marketing Foundations?

The time is now to add Storytelling to your marketing activity.

Interview links

Chloe on Social media:

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