Just because you write a business blog, doesn’t make it all business. To really connect to your blog readers, be a storyteller, too.

Share your personal experiences and observations with the readers, ideally tying into your business in some way that puts a human face on it. Stories let readers connect with the storyteller. A good story is inspiring and instills imagery and emotions in the reader.

Promote Your Brand

The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, an international research organization,
stated in a 2011 paper that storytelling is among the best marketing tools with which to promote a business brand. Stories help customers remember brand by emphasizing the spirit and concept.

A blog is a marketing tool. Using words and photos, you can market yourself, your company, and your products and services. Storytelling can bring a personal spin to all of that. Prospective customers may be uninterested in promotional material but respond well to the personal connections in a blog, which provides the business with a way to market and sell indirectly.

Connect with Readers

Use your personal experiences to highlight your topic. Talk about your personal passion for the subject. Share favorite memories; interesting trivia; trials and tribulations in trying to master a talent. Draw analogies from your personal experiences to drive a point home.

Tell stories readers can relate to. Write about common human experiences. They will surely have tales to compare.

Write in different tones. Be humorous, poignant, warm, nostalgic, moving and motivational, sometimes combining two or more in the same blog posts. Many experiences, and thus stories, have multiple layers and emotions.

Use imagery to draw readers in. If you’re writing about a beautiful lakeside campground, describe it in lush detail so they can see your experiences through your eyes.

Look back on the past, and bring the reader with you. Nostalgia sells, and not just among the elderly who remember “the good old days.” Looking back just 10 or 20 years can bring a reader back to a different time in her life. The road to advances in technology, for example, is littered to such stories. Middle-aged people will remember clunky cell phones and giant video cameras. How about dial-up Internet service? It brings back memories of 20-minute song downloads that today take seconds.

Don’t ramble. While you may have unlimited writing space, you don’t have unlimited attention. Tell your story with an economy of words. That doesn’t necessarily mean writing short. Even when you spend three paragraphs extolling the virtues of your favorite vacation spot, make sure the content is engaging and flows well.

Make a Point

Conclude your story by drawing the reader seamlessly into your topic. Tell what you learned from the story, how your experience changed the way you look at the topic or gave you greater insight. If you’re making an analogy, explain how your story relates to the topic.

Ask for comments from your readers — and reply promptly to every comment. This sends a message to the readers that you’re interested in what they have to say, which goes a long way toward creating a good feeling toward you and your business.

Laurie S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under Tips and Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.