Storytelling as a way to manage print on demand business successfully

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to introduce your brand to the target audience. It personalizes products or services, thereby creating a personal connection with customers. An inspiring, creative and true narrative takes the reader on the kind of journey they crave. 

The story is evidence of a person's life and illustrates his voice. You defend your position and tell why the product is important for your customers' lives.

Storytelling is the oldest form of knowledge transfer. Remember, great gurus always tell their teachings in stories. Associations ease material memorization. Their correct interpretation allows them to emotionally perceive all those things said.    

This article focuses on emotional branding that can help you increase income and create lasting customer relationships. 

Table of contents 

Storytelling in marketing and promotion

Use of narrative in product design

Personal story of the founder

Conclusion

Storytelling in marketing and promotion

If you want to attract clients and sales, the quality product is not enough. It's important to awaken feelings or even memories in the buyers' hearts and minds. This way, through an emotional and memorable story, you can develop brand resilience, that is, its incredible profitability.

Many entrepreneurs neglect the importance of storytelling in business. They immediately think of high-budget advertising. But storytelling is the least expensive marketing strategy. The most expensive tool is your brain, which generates stories. Start your blog: use a cam or write short articles to the blog. That's all you need to tell the world about your brand. 

Here are some storytelling ideas for your business that can build customer confidence and drive conversions. 

• Create your brand story

Tell potential clients about how you started your business and the challenges you faced. 

• Conduct a case study

Let your customers share their impressions of how your product has influenced their lives. 

• Don't forget about custom content!

Social media customer experiences are a goldmine for generating sales.

• Share employees experiences

Corporate culture storytelling is an effective tool for maintaining certain qualities of the company. 

• Press releases

Details about the key players in the project and its features will most likely force the media to react. 

In print on demand marketing, your stories should cover naturally and don’t be as aggressive ads. If you post boring materials daily mixed with commercial offers, then such a strategy won't bring any results. That will lead to a negative experience for the potential client and increase his desire to unsubscribe from the mailing list.

Use of narrative in product design

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term story means "the story of incidents and events", "statement of facts", or "fictional storytelling". Good storytelling necessarily consists of a beginning, conflict, action, culmination, and upshot. Such a structure will also help create interesting brand stories. But knowing the mechanism of creation, take into account the emotional load. The effective product presentation and the emotion you want to convey in things are critical to a successful design. 

Today the audience has become very selective, especially when it comes to advertising. That means that creating even the coolest product can be a waste of resources if you don't achieve effective communication. Potential buyers will see this, but they don't care how much you spent.  

In the consumer's eyes, the best print on demand means love for the brand and the greatest pleasure from its use. That is also the main manufacturer's goal. If you start to tell a story about each product, it can turn into an everyday one. There are several ways to evoke these positive emotions, one of which is to tell a story visually. About 91% of potential customers prefer visual content over traditional formats. Let's look at three main ways to use visual content. 

• Statistics

Availability of printed materials is significant for the target audience: brochures, flyers, annual reports, and more. That is, any material that exists physically is a confirmation of the choice's correctness. You can also expand it to web format. For example, if you decide to share a large block of text with numbers with your audience, they may seem boring and dry. One of the creative ways to tell a story is infographics: charts, tables, graphs, etc. 

• Graphics and video

Okay, let's assume that you need to tell a lot of facts or details or explain the process of making a product. To convey complex and emotionally charged information, you may use video, animated graphics. By 2021, the projected flow of all video traffic will be 82%. So more and more companies build marketing strategies based on branded video content. When creating content like this, it's especially important to understand the length of the video. If the video is too long - you can lose the viewer's attention; if it’s short - there is a risk of not conveying information. One Wistia study found the interaction to last up to 2 minutes. But, depending on the purpose and audience, the duration can vary.

• Interactivity

If your audience suffers from information overload, people start leaving. Interactivity allows you to filter data based on the interests of potential customers. By using widgets, a dashboard, or a micro-version of the site, you'll greatly simplify the materials. It also allows the user to feel a connection with the brand. This is especially useful when filtering by city, state, or country. 

While visualizing, you create certain emotions. Now it's up to present the product to the audience. Selling print on demand products in a proper way is all about building a story around it. Determine the minimum info with which you can attract a potential client. After all, the goal is not to show your work but rather to get people interested in it. 

Personal story of the founder

Each print on demand company has its own success stories. For example, famous brands as Printify, Printful, Shopify, and many others tell of the main business figures' stories while positioning them as those who went to meet their dreams. Such content is inspiring because it gives business cases. But the main thing is to get information in the most convenient form.

Before telling your personal story, come up with the perfect storytelling structure. Use a simple scheme: 

1. Create a problem
2. Show its solution
3. Prove Success
4. Continue the story.

Let's take a look at the POD success stories. So, there is a problem of fast product delivery to the buyer, its originality, high cost. Resolve these issues by ordering a print on demand. Proof of the success strategy is the expansion of the global T-shirt printing market to $1996,68 million in 2021. The predicted resilience of user habits will keep the business afloat and generate multi-million dollar investments. 

Your brand story helps create a holistic picture of your business. However, it's also significant not to write the end of the story, it must continue. Best of all is to start something new!

Conclusion

For your print on demand brand to become truly successful, make customers a part of your story. After all, without their money and time investment, your brand wouldn't be able to promote. You can offer the highest quality product, but it may not resonate. And all because of an unsettled relationship with customers. 

Not every visitor will click on the “Our Story” tab. If this is the only place that talks about starting a company, then you are definitely in trouble. Do not worry - there is always a way out. Convey your brand's core values through product descriptions, marketing texts, and visual content. By the way, the latter will become especially popular this year and take up most of the web traffic. 

Finally, understand each brand history is unique in its way, even if it seems the opposite. Share your philosophy with the audience, and you'll find a response!