As humans, we have a natural tendency to respond to stories. Storytelling can engage customers’ emotions to connect them to your brand. On its own, storytelling content can play an important role in building trust, but you can also work these concepts into your purchase decision content, and that can take your marketing to the next level. Whether it’s written copy, photos, video, etc., storytelling content can draw in your audience and evoke emotions to help them connect to your organization.

Here are a few things effective storytelling content can accomplish:

 * Build brand awareness

 * Engage potential home buyers

 * Highlight happy homeowners

 * Build a community of people around the brand

To create storytelling content, we can apply some of the same concepts and elements that writers use.

Character

Every story needs a protagonist or main character. That would be the company, right? Wrong! The hero of your story should be the customer. Even if you’re focused on brand awareness, think about your potential customers first when you’re creating content.

Conflict

Stories need some kind of conflict or problem. In novels, authors introduce the main character’s current situation and then what the character wants. Sounds similar to a sales discovery process, doesn’t it? Think about the issues your audience is currently facing. Finding a new home is an involved process with a lot of unknowns! We can connect with our audience by recognizing their problem and what they want.

Mood or Tone

Consider what the tone of your content should be. Take some time to figure out the heart of your company and then create something that authentically represents your brand. Inject personality into your content by knowing who you are and how you differ from your competition. If you’re a local company competing with large national builders, make sure you’re showing your connection to the community. If you’re a young up-and-coming company, show that. If you have a long history in the industry, find a way to represent that.

How will you evoke the emotions you want to inspire in your audience? The medium you’re using, the writing, the colors, the background music, the staging—all of that can help you achieve the tone you’re looking to establish. This is your opportunity to make your content engaging and aspirational.

Resolution

Every story needs an ending. Your resolution might be a call to action to the audience or an invitation to learn more. Most importantly, you needed to establish the character’s (home buyer’s) problem and what they want. Now you need to wrap things up by showing them the next step to finding their desired solution.

Creating effective storytelling content takes some intention and thought. That’s why it’s important to make time to generate content that drives purchase decisions—when you’re able to do so well, you can create some real magic and connect with your customers' emotions! 

To learn more about creating powerful marketing content, check out my book Building Certainty: Content Marketing for Home Builders.