Nicola Wohlert
Nicola Wohlert is a corporate communications project manager at news aktuell, living both professionally and privately for social media, SEO, communication, and public relations. Work-life balance is the central issue in what she does.
Storytelling has existed for thousands of years and appears in almost every culture. It is the art of telling stories that captures listeners and transports them to another world. Over the last few years, storytelling has also become an important tool in PR. There is a simple reason, and that is the excellent opportunity for communicating the messages, values and ideas companies and organizations have. A good story creates images, emotions and thoughts in the minds of readers and listeners. This makes storytelling a relevant tool for PR professionals. Yet how does storytelling work, why is it important for public relations, and what do you need to tell a good story?
Why is storytelling important for public relations?Storytelling is a good method in public relations for sharing more than experiences, values and ideas. Stories can also help portray brands, products, and the image of a company or organization. People hearing a story are plunged into the narrator's world, identifying with the characters and their experiences while getting carried away by the plot. This all happens because a good story is able to touch us emotionally. It creates images, emotions and thoughts in a listener’s mind.
This is precisely where PR storytelling comes into play. Any company, agency or organization can utilize the emotional connection to get into close contact with their target groups. Storytelling helps build and enhance a company's image and brand. A good story can also engage an audience and help them identify with the company or organization. A story that has an emotional impact on people in the audience will more likely drive them to take action or perhaps even inspire them to remain loyal to the company over the long term.
Storytelling is an important tool for grabbing attention in today's world, where so much information is out there and attention spans are getting ever shorter. A good story standing out from other content encourages the public to engage with the company or organization.
Moreover, storytelling can also help build trust and credibility. A well-told story gains trust, lets listeners embrace the message and possibly turn it into action.
What does a good story need?A story usually consists of several elements like characters, a storyline, conflict, and - let's call it - a moral. They are essential for captivating audiences and enticing them into the story. A good story should have a clear message or a goal to be achieved.
Structure is important for a good story, too. There is an introduction that presents the theme, a storyline that ideally engages the audience, and a conclusion that encapsulates the theme and conveys a message. The plotline seen in classical theater provides a good guide for storytelling (german): The introduction and presentation of the main character or conflict is followed by escalation of the conflict. It usually climaxes with an unexpected twist in the plot before a turn either for the better or worse heralds the catastrophe or happy ending.
To reach an audience, a story should always be authentic. Unless it is, the impression it leaves the impression of something fabricated or dishonest, which then makes it hard to establish a connection. A good story should have an emotional impact, which humor, drama or other emotions can accomplish.
The target group you are looking to reach plays an important role here. A story that works well for one audience may not work as well for another. PR pros should take the time to understand their target audiences and figure out the topics and approaches best for them.
Another important factor in good storytelling is its purpose. What goal is the story supposed to achieve? PR professionals need to define clearly what they want the story to accomplish. Is it to enhance the company’s image, engage the public more, or introduce a new product? Not having a clearly defined purpose makes it challenging to have the story you tell gets the results you want.
PR storytelling success factorsAn important factor in telling a PR story successfully is identifying whom you are telling the story to and the development of a strong protagonist from it. The protagonists can be people, products or even the company itself. What story is the main character telling? What conflict is the story’s main character resolving and what message is he or she supposed to convey? Your target group and readers should find the protagonist interesting. This lets them create an emotional connection with the protagonist.
Another important factor is to make the story enthralling. This requires strong characters, an interesting plot, and a clear message. The use of metaphors, analogies, facts and figures is perfectly permissible here as they get the message across in a way that is easy to understand and remember.
All storytelling is useless if no one else knows what you are telling. So you need to get your story published - and there are plenty of ways to do that. How your story is going to be distributed should be foremost in your mind, whether in a social media campaign, or perhaps even through influencers or content creators. Of course, it should have been beforehand published on the company’s website and emailed to customers. This is how your story gets to the target audience you want to reach.
Even the best storytelling can only have an impact if it “hits home” in the truest sense of the word. To do this, the story has to reach the right recipients. It should also be in a suitable format and expressed in a particularly simple way. news aktuell is a subsidiary of dpa that provides storytellers with the useful tools to achieve this.
You can have the dpa ticker publish your story directly in the appropriate sections issued by the editorial offices of daily newspapers, TV stations, radio or online magazines through the ots distribution network from news aktuell, and additionally on Presseportal.de in your own newsroom. ots gives your topics and products high reach and visibility in search engines, keeping them also findable in the long term. Publishing your press release via ots lets you automatically obtain a newsroom in news aktuell’s press portal. Because Presseportal at news aktuell is one of Germany’s widest reaching PR portals, your message will get even more traffic, higher findability on Google and so even more visibility.
Use storytelling on Google to generate higher visibility
Our distribution network, ots, increases the impact your stories can supply to media professionals, news sites and Google, generating more exposure and increased visibility.
zimpel lets you create subject-specific and topic-appropriate distribution lists from 612,000 records of media contacts, editorial teams, influencers, bloggers and podcasters. The integrated mailing tool lets you distribute your press releases in just a few steps. Moreover, you can turn to other features that let you set links, upload files, include CTA buttons in your email, choose an individualized address, schedule mailings and view the mailing history.
Identify key media quickly
zimpel, our professional media database, can take most of the work out of media research and save you time. It lets you quickly and easily seek out the most important key editors for your news. Just a few clicks and this integrated mailing tool automatically distributes your message.