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Storytelling offers a powerful way for any ecommerce marketing strategy. Although every business requires trust to gain and keep customers, ecommerce is especially rooted in trust.

Unlike traditional retail stores, customers do not have the perceived safety blanked of dealing with real-life staff. They cannot touch or see products in person, either. Instead, they need to go through all of the purchasing stages before making a decision. To make a purchasing decision, customers need to be sure that they can trust your Brand. One way to build trust is to make it easier for customers to relate to your store not just as a faceless brand but as a brand with real people behind it. This is where storytelling can be used to craft a more meaningful, engaging Ecommerce Marketing Strategy that puts a face to your brand.

Using Your Brand Story in Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy

Many brands use stories in different ways. Some choose to have brand spokespeople or founders serving as story-tellers, authentically representing the brand and sharing the journey that led to them starting their store. Others use emotion and empathy to portray the brand itself as a living entity rather than a bland business. To use your brand story within your ecommerce marketing strategy, consider the following:

Be true to your brand

The first, and most important, step is to be true to your brand. Trying to tell a story that does not reflect your store’s ethos, vision, goals or personality will have the opposite effect. Customers need to be able to relate to your store to feel like they can engage. Make sure that your founder or brand spokesperson is someone fully involved with the brand on some level, even as a loyal customer or influencer who frequently purchases your products. Keep your story on track and share your background, mission and dreams.

Be authentic and open

When you are true to your brand, it is much easier to be authentic and open. The entire goal of storytelling in ecommerce is to build a connection between your brand and your customers. Including made-up stories or, worse, stories that have been pinched from/inspired by other brands is never a good move. Likewise, being unwilling to show customers who you are can also be a sure-fire way to lose precious trust.

Be conversational

Stories are not about cold-hard facts. There are plenty of other pages you can use for facts. Your story is essentially your ethos, which positions you as a brand and tells customers who they are dealing with in a meaningful way. Instead of a linear page about when you started and what your store offers, create a conversational story that explains what made you want to start your store, what you stand for as a founder or brand, what personal experiences make you relatable to customers, and anything else that naturally speaks to customers.

A Meaningful Approach to Ecommerce Marketing

Everyone loves stories. In the competitive ecommerce space, stories can help your brand stand out by allowing you to connect to customers. When customers relate to you as a store and trust you, you are far more likely to see them return. This, in turn, is the best way to drive loyalty on a long-term basis through meaningful ecommerce marketing strategies designed to help you stand out.

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