Increasingly, the cultural zeitgeist is moving towards clean, minimalist aesthetics and philosophies. This trend is also displayed in website designs and in the behaviour of consumers. Websites are becoming progressively more streamlined and intrepid surfers of the web are coming to rely on AdBlockers and VPN providers to hide from ads that clutter browsing experiences.
What this means is that conventional advertising isn’t working as well as it used to. Where clickbait and flashy techniques may have worked in the past, now content creation and storytelling are taking the lead.
Visitors to a site don’t want to feel barraged by high-energy graphics which relentlessly push for them to act. Rather, visitors want to be given something by the site, to make it more of an agreeable exchange between customer and business – essentially so that whatever action they take on the site becomes an experience.
Storytelling matters
Crafting an engaging narrative is of the utmost importance. Integrate text, videos, and images to tell the story of your brand – how it developed, its identity, and where you see it going. Through using a narrative, you will be able to invite your visitors to emotionally invest in your brand and its success.
Visitors to your site will feel that by participating with the site – whether that is via signing up for newsletters, following on social media, purchasing something, etc. – they are engaging with the experience laid out in the story of the site. We all know what this feels like – consciously or subconsciously.
Just check out the difference in how you feel after reading these two stories from two small business owners and artists: this one versus this one. Probably a big difference right? Crafting a story well is especially important for small businesses.
When getting started on your storytelling, reflect on what makes your business unique, how your business developed, what your aspirations are, and what is unique about your work. Try to also emphasise how your work is always progressing and moving forwards – this will help your visitor to feel like they are also growing, changing, and advancing with you, that they are accompanying you on your journey to betterment.
Don’t neglect blogging
Creating content regularly helps to maintain a brand’s identity and keeps the brand’s story fresh. Blogs are a space for business owners to consistently send updates to their followers – updates which can also be shared on social media.
Blog posts also help with your site’s SEO ranking because they increase the number of pages on a website – this helps search engine crawlers index your site and figure out what your site is and what searches it will work best for.
Maintain Originality
More blogs also means the chance to implement more keywords. As more pages are created, more keywords can be used to promote the site’s SEO and boost its rankings. Just remember to always use unique and original content – search engines prioritise original content and penalise duplicate content. Original content will also help to make your site more appealing to your social media followers and your newsletter subscribers.
So before you head off to redraft the About Us section of your site into something truly magical, make a calendar for the blog posts you’ll be making – and stick to it! The effort you invest in regular, high quality writing will pay for itself in SEO and social media reach.
If you have any questions about SEO, social media, storytelling, or blogging, drop the digital marketing gurus at Matrix a line (or email) and find out what we can do for you!
By Jeff Sheridan