If you’re involved in eCommerce business by anyhow, you already know how’s ecommerce is growing day by day. It’s getting crowded, and if you want to stand out in that crowd, you’ve nothing to do without positioning your eCommerce company as an eCommerce brand. You can only do that with a proper branding strategy for your eCommerce brand, storytelling & with a branded eCommerce experience. Nowadays, social media fueling most of the sales of eCommerce businesses. And we all know that there are Seven Golden Rules for being successful on social media, those are
- Listen,
- Understand,
- Engage,
- Collaborate,
- Educate,
- Communicate
- Connect.
And we think it’s all summed up with one thing what we call that is “Brand Storytelling.”
A story is much more memorable and effective than data; that is why Stories & Storytelling matters. A well-told brand story helps people understand and relate to your company or products.
Why storytelling matter for positioning your eCommerce brand.
Storytelling is one of the hottest and effective methods of marketing these days. It’s growing in popularity day by day, especially for eCommerce companies. It’s no new marketing tactic, and it’s being utilized in advertising. So why telling stories? Well, let’s face that, we as human being love stories. Think of that; we all read books or watch TV shows, what really attached to us? Obviously a good story. It’s human phycology that when we can’t ignore, it’s in our DNA. For this reason, storytelling is an excellent tool for marketing, and if you can do that right, you will grow faster and remain in the market for a very long time.
Though a few eCommerce businesses are positioning themselves as a brand and crafting stories, a very few are standing out. Why it’s happening? Because they are missing the mark and make poor brand stories around their core services or products. So what’s make a great brand story? In this article, I will show you six strategies to tell an effective story as an eCommerce brand. 🙂
6 Strategies To Tell An Effective Story As An Ecommerce Brand
Make Use of Interactive Packaging Designs
Making use of an interactive package design is an effective way to connect with your audience. When mobile technology combined with packaging design, that creates an exciting experience for the audience which boldly stands out. It is something that will enable your audience to take action with their device, such as scanning a barcode or take a move that will unlock something brand related reward.
One example of interactive packaging design and branding is the recent Coca-Cola Zero’s campaign. In that campaign, Coca-Cola collaborates with Shazam. What they did is, when someone is watching a Coke’s as they are filling a virtual coke bottle and getting a coupon, by that he/she is getting a bottle of Coke Zero. Coke not only did that with TV Ads but also with radio and print media. That campaign helped Coca-Cola to raise awareness about their new product. It was a very successful cause they interactively involved their audience. You can also do that for your eCommerce brand, for example, you can add a barcode on your packaging by scanning that the shopper will get a 5% exclusive discount on their next order.
Take Advantage of Social Media Video
As social media is fueling the majority of sales for eCommerce businesses, you should take advantage of social media’s interactive video playback thing. With instant video playback, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and others ensure that a portion of your followers will always view the content you publish. You can also use social media influencer to make awareness about your eCommerce brand.
Food and Travel Network Tastemade proves that how effective it could. According to Tastemade, more than 70% of their viewers consume content from mobile devices. When they noticed that by analyzing data, they expanded their brand presence to multiple mobile-friendly video platforms. With Snapchat recipe tutorials and exclusive How-Tos series, they have effectively built an audience base over 100 million.
Depending on your product and service, you can craft some branded video series and distribute that with social media, I am sure you will also make an audience base which will reinforce your brand.
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Make people feel a part of the experience and your company
As I have shown you above that how powerful is social media nowadays. It has allowed and empowered consumers to speak on behalf of brands and deliver the brand’s message effectively than the brand itself. We call it user-driven-content or user-generated-content. It could be a lucrative way to establish your brand.
Danijjo a jewelry brand done something which makes people part of the experience. So how do they did that? Long story short, they make a selfie booth for people to take photos of themselves, that enables their customers to participate in the experience and added a new dimension.
So how as an eCommerce brand you can do that too? Well, you can make a photo contest with your product and a branded hashtag. With that, people will post photos on social media. Ultimately they will talk about your brand and feel that they are a part of your company. There are too many ways to do that with eCommerce.
Listen & Create relevant context for them
Here is another example of how social media changing the way of branding; there is a whole new brand category, and that is Listening Brand. Let’s imagine that you have got a shoe company, how you will position that as a rising shoe brand? “Hey, I sell amazing and comfortable shoes” is not enough to tell you about that. You’ve to say to people a compelling brand story about the shoes that they will understand, relate, and connect with that. In over to stay connected with your audience and connect with them, you’ve to utilize social media where the interaction actually happens. You’ve to be careful about what they care and understand their life. Then you can connect with that context to bring up your brand message through social media conversations and in other ways.
We can name Adidas as a skillful listening brand. Adidas US brought some diverse range of topics on the International Woman’s Day, which is related to their public not necessarily with their core product – shoes. Take a closer look at the below picture where a woman celebrating the International Women’s Day with a bold statement “When extraordinary is your ordinary, it’s worth celebrating” with a dedicated hashtag and a contest for the followers to catch their attention, isn’t that easy to identify the brand?
Show the value you provide
Brand strategies are not sales pitches, catchy ads, or smart marketing campaigns. A great brand story sells a brand without even letting the audience know or realize that they are buying it. That kind of story creates an experience around the brand by communicating that’s values rather than pushing the audience to buy their products. Nike does this well, and they sell a feeling by providing and showing values to athletics. If you want me to name another one I would say, Dove, they created an educational campaign to tell all the woman that they are beautiful with a simple message “You’re more beautiful than you think.”
Collaborate with other eCommerce brands
Co-branded content partnerships are an excellent way for brands to expand their audiences and marketing resources. It also helps brands to boost their brand ethos and create a more compelling story around those brands. Today’s smartest brands are teaming up with other brands to craft sophisticated brand stories and whole new experiences for the audience.
Apple and Dr. Dre’s Beats demonstrated the power of co-branded content when they teamed up with each other. The storytelling technique helps Apple and Beats anchor their own brand stories.
Conclusion: To tell a compelling brand story that works is to take care of sending the right message which you care as much as you care to sell your product. All you’ve to do is listen, understand, care, engage, collaborate, and connect. Now you’ve read all the unexpected branding strategies for telling a better brand story, and you’re ready to kill it.
