You only get one chance to make a first impression, and for many businesses, that first impression starts at the website. In fact, 97 percent of consumers say that the content of a business’s website plays a role in their purchasing decision, and 38 percent say they’ll stop using a website for something as simple as poor design.
But crafting a user-friendly, fully accessible website is just the beginning. In order to capture the attention of your target audience, your website needs to tell a great story.
Storytelling is one of the most important elements of your website. Effective storytelling helps you engage your audience and create an emotional connection between your site’s visitors and your product or service.
Still not sure how effective storytelling can help your website? Keep reading for some powerful examples.
Get Noticed
Whether it’s the latest NY Times Bestseller or the hottest show on your favorite streaming service, storytelling is all around us, and the most successful stories are the ones that leave everyone talking.
Storytelling in website design is no different, except that in website design, storytelling is a broad term that includes narratives, images, and interactive components. The combination of these elements is the secret sauce that keeps your audience engaged once they arrive at your site.
Emotional Connections
Even if you sell auto parts, an emotional connection between your users and your website’s content is important. An emotional connection increases brand loyalty and engagement, boosting your conversion rates. This can in turn lead to repeat business!
An example of a website that gets it right when it comes to storytelling is the Tourism Authority of Thailand site.
This site creates an emotional connection with its users by showcasing Thailand through colorful photography and informative articles about the many visitor-friendly destinations within the country.
ThailandInsider.com shares stories about Thailand on their website
Communication
How you convey your business’s mission and values is another important factor in keeping your audience engaged. Taking on a consistent brand voice on your website is a powerful way to tell your story.
User Experience
You can’t always be in the room with your audience to walk them through your website. That’s why using storytelling to enhance the user experience of your website is so important. By using storytelling, you can effectively guide your audience logically and coherently through your website, letting your content speak for itself.
Furthermore, when you use a narrative format on your website, it allows your website designer to create an easily navigable and more enjoyable site.
Brand Personality
Keeping a consistent brand personality is another essential element to telling your brand story.
This personification of your brand should be used across all platforms, including emails, social media, and of course, your website.
An interesting example of brand personality is Twix’s clever “Left TWIX” vs. “Right TWIX” campaign.
Twix crafted its own playful story about the differences between the “left” and “right” cookie bars that you can follow along with on their website. Their website also provides a seamless user experience including CTAs, a clutter-free page, and easy-to-navigate features.
Twix shows off its brand personality and story
Improved Information Retention
Storytelling has been used for centuries to pass down traditions, history, and lore from generation to generation. Storytelling is effective because a story is often easier to remember than straight data, and it makes learning fun. Case in point, you can probably recite the premise to your favorite childhood story easier than you can recall the percentage of people mentioned above who prefer to visit a website before making a purchase!
Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
Generally speaking, your website’s overarching story should be its call to action, or CTA. Do you want your customers to buy a product, use a service, or make a donation? Storytelling can help reinforce your call to action in a way thats more meaningful and digestible than facts and figures alone.
Stand Out
A compelling story doesn’t just entertain, it helps set you apart from the competition. Anyone can build a barebones e-commerce website with no personality, but adding in some fun elements like a well-crafted story about your team or your company’s mission can help engage your audience and create a lasting impression of your business, like Calamityware does so well.
Calamityware shares the story behind its unique brand of dishware
Continued Engagement
Storytelling can help create repeat consumers by keeping them loyal to your brand. When users engage with your site, they want to return for more content, information, and user experiences.
The End
Don’t just rely on your audience to figure out what your business stands for on their own. When you use storytelling in your website design, you control the narrative for your brand, guiding the user to experience your business the way it’s intended.
At Byte DiGTL, our website design works with you to determine how to best share your brand story throughout your website, through the use of elements like visuals, content, layout, and interactive portions.
To learn more about how Byte DiGTL can help you design a website that puts your story front and center, don’t hesitate to contact the web design team at Byte DiGTL today!
