Even if the buzzword is used too often now in the marketing industry, storytelling is an important instrument for building an image and sustainably influencing a reputation.
In principle, storytelling – as the name suggests – is nothing other than telling a story. But not telling a made-up story, fairy tale, or fable: Instead, you embed company culture, values, or future plans into an interesting story. Through storytelling you can even reach those users who don’t pay much attention to hard facts, but instead prefer the emotional form of communication. Give the information a context that excites, touches, or inspires your target audience. The use of images contributes to your storytelling’s emotional effect – ideally, you use a multimedia concept.
For reputation management, either pick up on an existing story or create a new one. It’s important, though, that you don’t run multiple different stories at the same time that dissent from one another or are markedly different in style. In the course of storytelling, you should develop a distinctive style and entirely unique type of storytelling, which you can build up as part of the ORM. The style and tonality of this story also needs to fit the style and manner with which you address your target group. This includes, for example, whether they deal with criticism rather humorously or seriously. Choose a style and approach to use with customers, and reach your target group through exciting stories.