The Power of Consumer Stories in Digital Marketing

Humans love stories. From fables to folk tales to urban legends, stories have always been a part of how we communicate, whether it be interpersonal communication or communication of legends, customs, and traditions, from generation to generation. It is uniquely human that we prefer stories rather than simple lines and words: tell a kid to not be greedy and they won't bat an eye. Tell them the tale of the dog and his reflection and some minutes of pondering later, they will have understood the concept of greed and why it is so detrimental to us. There is this very elemental concept of storytelling in communication, and as such, it is equally effective in marketing, especially digital marketing. 

You may ask, in a world of corporate, soulless digital marketing and online marketplaces, how are stories supposed to be able to help you and your digital marketing strategy? Well, for starters, as we said, stories and human narration is something that is quite basic to both humans as social creature and our language, our way of communication. But if you don’t want to take our word for it, let's look into some examples which will paint you a picture of the power of consumer stories in digital marketing. But before that, let's dig a little deeper into the title, and see what consumer stories in digital marketing are actually. 

Consumer stories in digital marketing

As humans tend to relate more to stories, theoretically, your marketing campaign for any product or service could experience a nominal increase in people subscribing to your business or responding positively to your campaign if you include aspects of a story. For instance, people are more likely to respond well to a campaign that depicts a person relating how your product or service affected their life (positively) rather than showing statistics or really any other thing. 

This is primarily because people have an instinctual need for the association; if they see a person on TV, they try to associate with them, finding out about their shared experiences or anything to establish a mental and psychological connection. Therefore, if a person (sometimes even a paid actor) is up there narrating their story, the audience will try to associate with them, and in the process, your product is highlighted. That’s how the process goes in a nutshell. 

A good example of this association would be adverts that depict real-life customers and not actors, and then try to get their opinions and instances of specific cases where a product or service helped them. These adverts are more likely to appeal to people on a broad base rather than looking into conventional marketing, and that is precisely the reason why this ‘real customers, not paid actors’ type of advertisements still goes on. This is just inherently human to relate to someone especially if you are experiencing the same issue or are looking for an answer to a common question. 

Rise of social media and the attraction of consumer stories

Companies are now more tilted towards using consumer stories to drive their message forward, especially with all the benefits social media platforms provide, what with their short videos and infographics, both of which are popularly consumed on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and many more. 

For instance, this subculture of internet influencers traces its roots back to the fact that people associate and stories help sell this association, and in turn, the product or service. So many influencers and people who use specific platforms like YouTubers start with a story, as it captivates the audience’s attention and glues them to the content, and if the story is especially hilarious or attention-binding, well, then it’s a win-win. 

Now let’s look into some real-life adverts and experiments that saw companies trying out consumer stories as the focus of the digital marketing pitch and came out as the winners. 

Ford’s experiment with consumer stories for digital marketing 

Ford Motor Company tried its hand at this and came out the winner. Let us relate to you Ford’s way of integrating consumer stories for digital marketing. 

In two instances, first in 2009 and then in 2013, Ford was struggling to find new and more innovative ways to market their small hatch, the Fiesta. With social media being used both times, Ford innovated by going the way of consumer stories; they had to do something on their part, so they loaned out 100 Fiestas to select individuals, and in return, asked them to document their six months with the fun little hatchback. 

What followed was a stream of feedback, which was used to improve and tweak the car, and much of their input was then turned into marketing material, flyers, promotions, and a whole bunch of stuff for digital marketing, with the response being described as ‘overwhelming’. 

This was primarily in part due to the fact that when people are looking to invest considerable money into something as useful as a car, they want to know everything. From boot space to dimensions (to help them park in tight city spaces) and even the flashy coloring, people wanted to know everything about the car from motorists like them, who used the car like they intended to, not some marketing people advertising a budget hatchback as a Rolls-Royce. 

So, here was the display of regular people looking for regular people for their opinion on a vehicle, which significantly altered their perception about the car and bought many people and new customers into the showrooms, looking for little Ford Fiestas to buy. Ford built brand preference and even brand loyalty out of stories of people who used their cars for some time and then gave them the marketing treatment. 

MITSloan’s experiments with BMWs

MITSloan was tasked with conducting experiments on the kind of effect storytelling had on people. Not regular storytelling, but stories painted through adverts. Advertisements of people sharing their stories on certain things, people relating personal associations with any service or product they had used. Here’s what they conducted, and later on, we’ll discuss what they found out and how it proves our point that consumer stories are powerful digital marketing tools that you can use to relate to and associate the product and the people. 

Experiment 1: If people relate to personal messages positively on social media, what about heartfelt messages? Well, this was the theme when MITSloan asked BMW enthusiast Daniel Falkenberg to express his passion for collecting vintage BMW models, especially the 3 Series sedan. This video, of Falkenberg’s monologue about why he thought older 3 Series had character and a class that no other contemporary vehicle of its time had, was recorded and then used for promotional materials for the adverts pertaining to the heritage of BMW’s historical sedans.

Experiment 2: In the second experiment utilizing personal perceptions of a product, MITSloan conducted another study with Geoff Lee. Lee’s story with BMWs was that his parents had purchased a 318i the same month that he was born, and they were both referred to as twins. The adverts and promotional materials showed Lee’s life with the 318i, which was still in his possession, and how the Beemer had been there for him during important events in his life (like graduation, first date, homecoming, etc). Again, a monologue with Lee reminiscing about his time with the car was used, and the sentimental value of the car was concretely established. 

The results

The results were significant. Across the board and on average, a 32 percent increase was noted in respondents when asked if they would prefer the brand that they had just seen the adverts for. Although we are pretty much paraphrasing it at this point, these experiments still go on to show what kind of impact consumer stories carry on digital marketing techniques, and how advantageous are consumer stories in comparison with anything else. 

How to utilize consumer stories for your digital marketing campaign

Now that we’ve seen what effect consumer stories and digital-media targeted storytelling has on campaigns, let's delve deeper into some tips on how you can use these consumer stories more effectively for your digital marketing campaigns, and ensure that the people connect with the story being released, associate with the narrator of the story and understand your product or service as being central to whatever the story is and whoever the person is. 

• Use social media for targeted consumer story acquisition

A major benefit of social media and digital marketing? You can choose to interact with whoever you want to within your customer base. Let us explain this with a little more poise. If you have social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc, there are people who comment on your posts, oftentimes in the form of a personal story. You can use them and make them and their story a part of your digital media marketing campaign. This will also show the customers that you stay in touch with your base; the people who comment and interact with your brand regularly will be seen as people who are in contact with an establishment that is in touch with its customers, cares for them and pays importance to their stories and how their lives have changed (for the better) with their product or service.  

• Use content generated by people in official marketing 

Apart from comments that people leave on your Facebook page or Twitter handle, many people will also create their own content like videos, blog posts, or other content types in support or in endorsement of your product or service. That’s another way that you can acquire and use consumer stories in your digital marketing campaigns. Essentially the free version of an influencer-led campaign, the content that the people post will then sport the perception that they have been co-authored by the official company, giving the content creator a boost, as well as your sales, figure an even better chance at connecting with the people. Start by encouraging people to share photos, video clips, and posts about how your product or service made their life better, and then ask for permission before using their content in any official manner. 

• Never compromise on quality 

Of course, content made by regular customers cannot usually match the artistic or production level of a media production house, but that doesn’t mean that you and the company have to skimp on production. Times are tough: a lot of content has to compete for a user’s attention, and only the best quality content will stand out and be worthy of any attention and subsequent action. Therefore, make sure that whatever content you produce is quality-wise a top-notch product, and any content that you sponsor or co-author also has that quality to make it look more certifiable and official. 

• Keep content concise, simple and engaging

No matter how touching the story is, if it's an hour long, nobody will listen to it or watch it. As attention spans and time decreases, you need to adapt accordingly and make sure your content isn’t too intensive or too long; short videos and even infographics can work wonders in this segment, so look into those as well when creating content based on consumer stories for your digital media marketing campaign. 

To conclude, 

Consumer stories and masterful, artful storytelling are the new and highly effective ways of running a digital marketing campaign. The effects are substantial enough for you to look into them, and invest a little time and resources into creating and distributing content based on consumer stories. The power of association and storytelling can go a long way towards giving your business a big boost from marketing it in the digital stratosphere.