Summary
Storytelling is an essential lever for your e-commerce brand. If you want to share your brand story, but also differentiate yourself from the competition, it is essential to know how to use storytelling. One of the best ways to convey your storytelling is to use it in your email marketing.
Thanks to it, people will understand your story, your commitments, and will be much more inclined to follow you for the values you carry, and eventually buy your products.
In this guest post, we team up with email marketing expert, Steve Toitot, to explore the power of storytelling in email.
We’ll cover everything from why storytelling is so effective to how you can use it to achieve your e-commerce goals.
So if you want to use storytelling in your email marketing to build a strong brand, this article should help you do just that.
What is storytelling?
Storytelling is the art of telling a story. It is a communication technique that allows you to capture the attention and interest of the public. Storytelling is at the heart of marketing, advertising, design, and product development.
It consists in telling stories about one’s brand and company, in order to promote the sale of a product or service. This can improve the brand image of a store or an e-commerce site, for example. It refers to a well-defined narrative structure that makes it easier to capture the attention of readers.
By using stories related to the e-commerce brand, getting an impactful message across becomes easier, as it arouses emotions. They also make communication memorable, effective and entertaining. Storytelling is a narrative process based on emotion.
Storytelling makes the product and the brand closer to its customers. This is an advantage for its added value and its notoriety. It takes advantage of the human interaction that remains essential in the marketing world. On the other hand, in order not to lose the trust of your audience, lying about your storytelling is to be avoided. It could cost you your credibility, your brand image and, therefore, your sales.
4 reasons to use storytelling in your email marketing
Stand out from the competition
What makes your brand unique? Whether it’s the design of your product or the reason you created your product, there’s a reason you’re different, and people want to know about it.
You may think it’s unnecessary, but the most important parts of your brand story are more interesting to potential buyers than you think. Don’t be afraid to communicate how your company was born, how it evolved, how you learned to do good work and chose what you stand for.
Humanize your brand
People don’t want to deal with a cold, value-free brand. By sharing your brand story in your email marketing storytelling, you make it easier for your contacts to know who you are and, most importantly, to trust you. You show that there is a human behind your e-commerce brand.
Unfortunately, many e-commerce sites in particular focus their storytelling on product features, missing a huge opportunity to make an impact. Sharing your e-commerce brand’s story is the best way to bridge this gap, demonstrate transparency, and cultivate more authentic relationships.
Communicate your values
Communicate your values. There are two ways to compete: either by value or by price.
If you choose not to undercut your prices to attract customers, you had better share your values. Why? To attract people who are like you and aligned with your e-commerce brand. People don’t buy for price alone, but for the values a brand carries.
Create a strong brand
By using storytelling in your email marketing, you present yourself as a strong brand that is not afraid to deliver. You show that you are authentic and that you have nothing to hide. Quite the contrary. And that’s what people really like: strong e-commerce brands that share their stories and connect with their audience.
3 ways to use storytelling in your email marketing campaigns
Make storytelling the heart of your email
You tell a story in your email and this story is used as a lever to sell your product. In this case, the product becomes the key to the story and what the reader needs if he wants to solve his problem.
Use storytelling sparingly
In this case, storytelling is not the core of your email, but it is used to bring elements of reassurance to your communication method.
For example, if you’re looking to sell a trail gourd, (which is a very generic product), you might explain that:
- The plastic is from recycling
- The product is made in France
- Explain the societal values of your brand
The idea here is to increase the product’s perceived value and allow your contact list to identify with your brand.
Use storytelling not in a single email, but in an overall sequence
In each email in the sequence, a different element of your overall brand story will be addressed. For example, the narrative communication in the first email will allow you to tell the story of the founder.
In a second email, how he dealt with the problems of creating his brand’s products, all the difficulties he encountered and how he got through them.
In a third, his values, related to the way he makes his products (ecological, recycled, organic, etc).
As you can see, storytelling allows your potential customers to identify with you, to educate them on their problems, but also to differentiate you from the competition while capturing attention to increase your conversions.
The last word
Using storytelling in your email marketing for your e-commerce brand allows you to create a strong brand. A brand that people can identify with, relate to, and ultimately enjoy. Don’t be afraid to go behind the scenes and reveal yourself.
Share your story, your successes, your failures, what you are working on, etc. People love it and it’s how you build strong relationships with your audience. But more importantly, it’s how you create a strong e-commerce brand.
Thanks to the content of your emails, but also to the structure of these emails and to infallible deliverability, you have all the chances on your side to make your online business a sure value for your customers.
This article was written in collaboration with Steve Toitot, expert in email marketing. With years of experience in the email marketing industry, Steve helps e-commerce stores increase sales through email creation, marketing optimization, and automation.
Find out how Steve can help you with your email marketing.
