Connect with customers. Sell your story, not your product

Tapelo Zama, digital marketing manager at 555 Media Hub

Accordingly, ad-tech marketers will have to re-evaluate sustainable alternative solutions to how they communicate with consumers and remain relevant even in the post-third-party cookie world.

The death of third-party cookies: What businesses and marketers need to know

Matthew Campbell  10 Feb 2022

Enter strategic storytelling. In a world of overflowing data, fast-moving information and short attention spans, storytelling in digital marketing remains essential in connecting with potential consumers. This, as it helps generate closeness, empathy and helps develop connections with a consumer whose way of engaging with products and services is ever-changing.

Below are three ways in which storytelling impacts digital marketing:

1. Building trust

While prevalent and somewhat successful in racking up eyeballs, cookie-cutter marketing materials do not help brands form a bond with consumers. To the contrary, these tend to be dictatorial and intrusive, if not out-right annoying for a lot of consumers.

The reality is that today’s consumers prefer marketing material that feels more personalised and intentional. As third-party data nears its end, marketers should instead focus on leveraging first-party data to create more targeted brand communications. Storytelling is comparatively more profound. It addresses consumer pain points and does not give off the cold and impersonal nature of a hard sell.

2. Connecting with your audience

The constant influx of pop-ups cluttering their screens has conditioned today’s consumers to instinctively tune out ad content they find mundane and intrusive, severely limiting the efficacy of these types of ads.

Pushy pop-ups go away, we need better user experience

Justin Glanville  22 Mar 2022

But beyond these being a pure annoyance, the imminent death of cookies also means that targeted display ads are soon to be a thing of the past, so marketers will soon be forced to move beyond this type of advertising mechanism regardless. Storytelling, coupled with impactful messaging, is what takes your brand beyond basic to catch the eye and grab the attention of the consumer.

3. Relationship-building

Beyond the death of cookies, the proliferation of ad blockers also means that-pop ups are an increasingly inefficient and outdated marketing methodology. And the ones that do get through tend to leave consumers irritated instead of hooked. Thus, the aggressive, in-your-face hard sell of pop-up ads often achieves the very opposite of what they are originally intended for.

Modern day consumers have little patience for intrusive marketing tactics, preferring brand comms that speak to them rather than at them. Your brand should therefore be engaging with consumers on a more intimate level to draw them in and keep them in.

From customer-generated and focused strategies to visually impactful data-driven storytelling, 555 Media Hub’s end-to-end campaigns empower brands to tactfully apply themselves in the business of selling messages, evoking emotions, and connecting with their target markets while providing relevant information.

Ultimately, every brand should be able to answer this question: Why is my brand on my screen? This helps your audience recognise the value of your product or service and strategic storytelling helps you do just that.