One of the important aspects of content marketing is telling a story. A lot of B2B companies don’t think that storytelling is appropriate for them, however I’m here to tell you that’s not true. B2B storytelling is important for ANY content marketer, but I feel it’s MOST important for B2B companies. Especially ones that have hard-to-define products and services.

Why Use a Story?

Stories are the great equalizer. They let you explain your product in a context that readers understand. This is especially important for those of you with hard-to-define products, like cloud computing, big data, or SaaS-type products. Depending on your market, your readers may not understand those terms and concepts, so telling a story can help you illustrate it for them.

The Power of Your Story

There’s power in your successes, so you should be telling them in case studies (aka success stories). Hearing how you saved a client $1 million dollars over the course of a year with one of your products may be just the thing a prospective client needs to hear. You’re building credibility with each story you tell, which in turn can lead to new clients coming on board. Each story you tell increases your trust factor with your prospects. Hearing how you solved an issue a competitor was having puts them on the same level as that competitor, because they’re having the same issue too. It also plays a bit on their jealousy, as they don’t want to be left behind by their competitor. Chances are, they’ll call you up for a demonstration pretty soon after reading that story.

Choosing the Right Story

Connecting with readers can be a difficult thing to do in the B2B world. You’ve got to find the right story to tell, and then find the right person to tell it (or write it, in the case of case studies). How do you find the right story? Ask yourself these questions:

• What issue did our product solve for a client?
• Did any of our clients offer unsolicited praise? Would they mind if we profiled them in a case study?
• Are a lot of prospective clients suffering from a particular issue or problem? Does our product solve it for them?
• Did any of our clients make the news online or in their area because of a success they had? Was it because of our products?
• What were the top 5 questions in our last webinar?

That’s just an example of the questions you could ask yourself to find the right story to tell, but there may be others that are more relevant to your business.

Final Thought

Telling your story to your clients and prospective clients is an important part of your content marketing. It helps illustrate your products and services to readers, increases your trust factor, and helps celebrate your successes. So get out there and [tweetherder]start your B2B storytelling today![/tweetherder]