A Visual Storytelling Guide for Small Businesses

Did you know that 72% of customers prefer watching videos to learn about brands?

Your brand benefits more if you invest more in video production. It offers a more straightforward way of captivating your intended audience. However, as a small business, you might have a limited budget.

So, how do you make the most out of your resources?

It’s simple: use visual storytelling to compel your prospects. To do this, read our guide and learn how:

1. Think About Your Goals and Metrics

Marketing without concrete goals will only lead to losses. It applies even when you’re making storytelling content. It must have a commercial aim to make it work with your efforts.

You can integrate storytelling into any marketing strategy level. Whether it’s a single ad or a marketing campaign, it can make it more effective. You can also use it as your social network tone to narrate your brand.

Are you new to storytelling? If so, use this tool on a smaller scale. For example, use it for advertising a new product on your social media profiles.

Your goal is to increase your sales by delivering this message. It allows you to set the metrics that help measure the success of storytelling. It includes sales and social media engagement.

2. Set Your Budget

Apply visual storytelling to advertise a single product or further your brand narrative. With each option, you must allocate a specific budget. Your communication scale determines the price of the necessary tools.

A good method to master visual storytelling is to work with smaller messages. It helps you determine the most popular stories among your intended audience. It allows you to invest more in methods that work best as time passes.

Storytelling can be as simple as a static picture with captions. However, you can invest more in videos, online games, custom animations, and other forms. As a beginner, use stock images since they are affordable ways of telling a visual story.

Edit these stock images to suit your needs better. Many cheap editing tools exist in the market, especially on the internet. These enable you to make professional designs without spending years to gain experience.

3. Prioritize Emotions

Your brand’s emotional context can encompass a wide berth. Encourage your customers to look at your online catalog by making them curious. Make them want to become part of a cool group.

If you do, some of your products will become bestsellers. When people feel the euphoria of getting a long-awaited product, they’ll likely buy other items. Use emotions as the purchasing trigger for higher B2C and B2B sales.

Whether the emotion is positive or negative, you can use it to encourage customers. For example, if customers feel irritated by your competitor, they’ll turn to you. It happens when you use storytelling to make them realize you’re the superior option.

Think about the emotions your potential customers experience deep within. Is it joy, anger, or despair? Your story’s plot and visual style depend on the emotional trigger.

Adapting your story to prevalent emotions lets you capture your audience’s attention. It makes them focus on your product. As a result, it prompts them to take action.

4. Make a Hero to Save the Day

As a general rule, your hero’s narrative must be relevant to your audience. It makes them more realistic, making your audience feel more involved. The familiarity will make them feel that your story resonates with them.

It’s a wonderful thing to have a hero representing your intended audience. It can also be your product or brand. Either way, it helps the audience feel more attached to your business.

As for the antagonist, it must be something threatening to the hero. It embodies their fears. Make it more effective by making them easy to recognize by your potential customers.

Use audience research methods to learn their fears. Make an antagonist using your findings.

5. Use Conflict to Build a Storyboard

A story can’t be interesting without conflict. It starts when the hero faces various challenges. To make your stories engaging, make your hero and antagonist clash.

Your hero wins unless you make an open ending. Doing this gives you more room to make a sequel. Use this simple story structure for your first story:

  • Introduction
  • Rising action
  • Climax
  • Falling action
  • Resolution

Make your storyboard using simple images. They must reflect the idea of each story element. You can use them as content if you want to appeal to the 183 million active Facebook users in the United States.

The process won’t stop here. You must go through another step to convert your storyboard frames. It matters not whether it’s a video, a banner, or other visual materials.

6. Visualize Your Story

Consider your desired platform’s technical features while creating your story layout. For example, Instagram storytelling is best for either graphics or short videos. It’s best if these media have no text injections.

It changes when you use YouTube as a platform for storytelling. You can make a series or a long movie out of it. You can use our low-tech video production tips to maximize your limited budget.

If you’re using visual storytelling for your landing page, particularly for B2B marketing, give visitors motivation. It encourages them to follow your CTA. Determine how users interact with your story and think about the most effective style.

Some visual storytelling rules hold regardless of your intent. Highlight your story’s subject by using contrasting colors and shades. Strive for minimalism and ensure each detail matters to the story.

Arrange the elements to control where your users look. Let them guide your viewers using a consistent visual hierarchy.

Invest in Visual Storytelling Today

Learning all these tips about visual storytelling takes time. Be patient and continue improving your efforts to make a brand story. It will make your audience relate to your business and support you.

Are you looking for help? If so, contact us today, and let’s talk about making compelling business videos to tell your story. We can provide the high-quality video production you need!

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