Storytelling is Dead. It’s All About Story-Living.

Storytelling has been engrained into our lives. It’s how elaborate romances and thrillers, books and articles have had such drastic impacts on people’s lives. And as “eCommers”, we constantly remind marketers and business people to showcase their content as a story or create a buyer’s journey consisting of a storyline. But as business people, we have to go beyond this: we have to talk about story-living.  

What is Story-Living? What I mean when I say story-living is our ability to reintroduce marketing to humans in a way that shows how your brand can be integrated into others’ lives. I know it may seem like an abstract theory but pushing your content to the boundary (and then some) can make your customers feel like they are actually living with your brand or product.  

Why is Story-Living Effective? If we think about it, story-living humanizes businesses. While creative content is eye-catching, messaging that brings together people through lived experiences can create environments that are enticing and engaging. You know how various brick-and-mortar shops serve coffee to make the physical shopping process a fun social experience?

Well, eCommerce websites are the most challenged when it comes to connecting to people via a computer screen instead of face-to-face. This is one of the major obstacles many eCommerce retailers face: connecting with customers. This is where story-living comes in. We constantly talk about storytelling, dynamic content, personalization, and branding, but this is where it really all comes together. All these aspects of content marketing breathe life into story-living.  

How Do You Incorporate Story-Living? It may seem similar to storytelling, but story-living is pushing yourself that extra mile. So, you want to do a video to create dynamic content. Go further and try a 360-degree camera to make the virtual experience as close to a real one. Have a SaaS company? Eat your own dog food and incorporate your product in your everyday. You want to sell retail clothing? Introduce a virtual dressing room.

Thedrum.com says it the best, “Successful brands: understand the future of retail storytelling is designed around individuals, not customer types.”  

The stage has been set with storytelling, and it’s time to start living.