Just Do It: What Nike Can Teach Fintechs About Storytelling
Originally published here by Genuine Communications.
- We choose with emotion not logic, so tell stories to connect with customers.
- Break down complex topics into relatable narratives people can understand.
- Tech prowess means little if people are bored. Stories are more interesting.
Storytelling is part of who we all are. We tell stories to connect with one another. We tell them to make myths. And we love stories because they are our most powerful way to share truths.
Stories build people, nations, and much of what we all do and say in our daily lives.
They’re a powerful tool for businesses too. Growing international fintech companies like Wise (until recently known as TransferWise) show how storytelling can be put to use. In the recent Lives Without Borders article series, the payments technology company shares stories of people whose lives have transcended cultural or geographic borders.
It’s an example of business-to-consumer storytelling that fintechs in the business-to-business space can simply and easily aspire to.
Here are three more reasons why business-to-business fintechs should adopt a consumer storytelling approach.
1. Stories Forge Emotional Connections [As Brands Like Nike Understand]
Fintech is technical and complex. When you’re surrounded by a technically savvy team who are proud of their products’ various features, it can be easy to fall into discussing technicalities and product specs. Yes, they matter, but they may bore a potential customer, who is far more likely to respond to an emotional narrative that connects to them as a person.
Stories tug at an audience’s feelings.
Look at how Nike’s new ‘Play New’ campaign relies on stories to connect with people, by covering everything from procrastination to athletes and menstruation. One of the world’s most successful companies does this not because it just likes telling stories, but because it knows stories will sell more trainers than telling customers how comfy the sole is and how the laces were tested.
2. Most Fintechs Aren’t Telling Stories [And That’s Good News for Those That Start To]
In B2B fintech it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that you’re selling your products to other people — not just a large bank or another fintech. People buy from people.
This means stories with people like your partners, prospects, and customers can be a rich seam to mine. Talk to your customers, experts, and partners and you will inevitably find interesting stories. Interview them. Feature them in your stories.
Make the whole story about people, not your product.
Because people just like your partners, prospects, and customers are more likely to connect with such stories. Let your competitors chase after keywords, while you double down on building lasting emotional connections with the audience.
3. Storytelling Can Even Be Profitable [As an Unusual eBay Experiment Shows]
Even if your business is technically the best at what you can do, this means little unless a potential customer can be convinced to begin a genuine purchasing conversation with you.
We like to think otherwise, but decision-making is more emotional than logical.
For example, the Significant Objects project sold dollar-store items on eBay for a cumulative $8,000, by using heartfelt and purpose-written stories instead of item descriptions. If good stories can do this for eBay sellers, imagine what they can do on a much larger scale.
3 Simple Tips To Start B2B Fintech Storytelling
Readers associate the emotional experience of a story with the brand telling it, according to SocialMediaToday. Here are some brief tips to use emotion in your B2B fintech storytelling.
- Find community tales: Find stories from within the community that benefits from your service. Help people to see themselves in the story you’re telling. If you can afford to, hire a photographer to take pictures of your interviewees and include them with the story. That’s far better than stock images.
- Plan your heroes’ journey: Think about drama, tension, and redemption, and consider how they can be used to show the challenges of your stories’ heroes.
- Think of the channels: Your brand’s story will likely be told again and again via different platforms. A story should still look good whether it’s being shared via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
A brand story that tugs at people’s heartstrings is well within reach when you take these steps.
Staying Top of Mind With Stories
Some of the most successful brands owe their success to stories. As Nike celebrating the grit and determination of its athletes shows, leading brands wouldn’t be where they are today if they didn’t speak to people’s emotions through stories.
Why should ambitious B2B fintech companies be any different? Great storytelling can change a business from one that has to re-sell its products and services to every customer into a known brand that customers actively seek out.
