How Data-backed Storytelling Benefits Brands

Many brands have already embraced storytelling as an effective marketing technique. With each passing day, they are improving.

Nowadays, it is data-backed storytelling that is garnering popularity in lightning speed and shaping the future of data journalism and branding. Let’s have a look at how digging into big data makes brand storytelling more effective.

Product stories sound convincing

Seth Godin correctly said that all marketing is storytelling. In his own words “The story of your product, built into your product. The ad might be part of it, the copy might be part of it, but mostly, your product and your service and your people are all part of the story.” He advised every marketer to tell stories on purpose.

When a product’s story is backed by data, it sounds more convincing to the readers. The audience prefers stories on products over stories on brands. They connect to brands via their products. Data-backed product stories follow the structure of data-driven articles. These articles are well-researched and based on comprehensive understanding of the target audience, their assumptions and buying behaviour.

A typical buyer wants to verify a product before committing to it. Data-backed product stories allow them to verify each of the product features or benefits in detail. However, the story shouldn’t be all data and no plot, twist or substance. The blending of the two is the key.

Storytelling is the catalyst

Brands showcase data through their case studies, whitepapers and wiki pages. On the other hand, multimedia content like audios and, videos are often used for entertaining purposes. Data-backed storytelling acts as the catalyst and links both mediums.

An infographic can do more than simply entertain readers, it can also educate them through the graphical representation of key information. Brands also often use audio-visual presentations to boost engagement. User-friendly videos with informative details are called explainer videos. They add a new dimension to storytelling.

In summary, data-driven brand storytelling brings entertainment closer to information. The fusion is called infotainment. It helps brands in more ways than one. It adds power to brand/product stories and makes them persuasive.

In the video link below, Jennifer L. Aaker, professor of marketing at Stanford University, explains the difference between how people react to stories with data and stories without data.

Visual storytelling

We are living in the era of all things visual. Audience prefers visual storytelling over non-visual storytelling. Here are a couple of examples which validate the century-old aphorism – a picture is worth a thousand words.

Brands use images to connect to their audience because visuals make it easier for them to interpret complex data.

For instance, here is an infographic I used in one of my previous articles.

(Source)
Anyone can understand the data presented in the infographic because the presentation is visual.

In an article published on Search Engine Journal, Shane Jones directed our attention to two important aspects related to data-backed visual storytelling. First, a human brain is programmed to favor color and design. Second, we all love to hear stories. What follows from this is that information embedded in visual stories can draw attention in no time – something that every brand strives for.

Here are two back-to-back infographics with plenty of data that don’t bore:

Source

The first infographic has GOT characters and the second has paintings of prehistoric man. These images are bound to draw the reader’s interest and compel him to pay attention to the text.

Use of retail data

A retail POS terminal is the hotbed of data. Customers check out every day and they use credit cards, debit cards, and NFC-enabled payment options from their handheld devices. Syncing POS terminals give marketers access to a diverse set of data.

The data can then be merged with brand/product stories. Now, imagine what would have happened to POS data if not used in storytelling. Here are some possible scenarios:

Scenario 1: The data goes to waste. Retailers erase all data after a while so that the terminal can work smoothly.

Scenario 2: Brand managers get access to the data. They utilize the data to understand customer behavior.

Scenario 3: Through cutting-edge syncing apps, brands incorporate the POS data to analytics tools and get a holistic view of their campaigns.

Data-backed brand storytelling incorporates the benefits of scenario 2 and 3. Brand marketers target specific audience segments based on their product preferences and then present tailor-made stories to them.

Online retail features a buying cycle – a journey that starts from add to cart and ends with finally buying the product. This cycle spawns volumes of data. Giving customers access to such data and encouraging them to pen down stories for brands in exchange of giveaways can blend UGC (User Generated Content) with brand storytelling. Data collected from customers’ retail journey can constitute the theme of these stories.

Quite interesting as an idea! Isn’t it?

Distinguishing between data

This is an important aspect of data-rich storytelling. Not all data are of the same type. Hard data and qualitative data are different. While hard data can be the foundation of a great story, qualitative data supplement it.

In a sense, qualitative data is same as information. While raw data include who, when, and what, qualitative data prompt us to think about “what if”, “why not” and “how about.” The presence of qualitative data makes a story interactive.

Here are some brand stories with qualitative data. These stories can create a lasting impact on the audience:

1. GoPro’s story: GoPro operates in the firefighting equipment manufacturing niche. The story of a firefighter saving kitten demonstrates how their product works. The story is presented via a video.
2. Dollar Shave Club’s story: The story presented in audio-visual format features Michael Dubin. The video is simple yet full of qualitative data that addresses customers’ problems and offers solutions.

These examples confirm that qualitative data helps make better decisions. The subtle message that such data delivers makes the audience more informed about the products and reveals many of its features that quantitative data fail to deliver. And once again, the medium being storytelling, makes the delivery process smooth.

Data type determinant

Embedding data alone doesn’t make brand stories powerful. A brand needs to decide what type of data it would share with the audience. Time, depth, and focus are all important in this pursuit.

#Time: A brand may tell stories about its past achievements. Or, it may tell stories about its future plans or predictions. Alternatively, a brand may craft stories about how it outsells other brands in the present scenario. Case studies and associated data are linked to past achievements while marketing insights construct future predictions.

#Focus: If the focus of a story is on selling a product, then it’d connect itself to customer testimonials or UGC via short-duration (preferably) multimedia elements. For example, a startup publicizing itself may narrate stories of companies rising above the fold in the industry and add data to authenticate the story.

#Depth: What determines the depth of a story? It is the amount of research work done. Research indicates data. Adding qualitative data brings depth into branded stories. A story with in-depth research strikes a chord with the audience and endorses the brand in a subtle manner.

For a product story to be successful, it needs to have all the said elements.

Layering and timestamp

This is a bit complicated. As a brand, when you are presenting a story to the audience, you expect them to react to it and in the end, fall in love with your brand. To what extent the story will impress the audience depends on the layering technique you use.

What is a layering technique?

No matter how many charts, graphics, or rich media elements you add, if you fail to arrange them layer by layer, then the story would be unimpressive. You need to have the right dialogue in place so that the audience can move from one layer to another layer smoothly. A proper layering technique includes:

1. Designing the data and the story. The narrative should appear first, followed by and backed by data.
2. The audience should receive the most potent message in the end.
3. The most potent message should carry a sales pitch without being pushy.

To understand timestamp, one needs to have an introductory idea of data journalism and why it’s important. Data journalists follow a narration model that describes the events as if these are taking place in present time.

Studies have shown that people pay more attention to current happenings than past incidents and future possibilities. Since visitors tend to surf web pages in a hurry, a narration with present day timestamp on it can get the most attention.

When correctly applied, the layering technique and timestamp make data-backed brand stories more edible, finally leading to sales.

Summing up

This article shows data-backed storytelling requires the use of some crucial tactics. It benefits brands by connecting them to the right audience which they can continuously entertain with necessary information. The end result is the potential gain of loyal customers and repeated visitors.