What story is your website telling?

The other day I was discussing with a client how they can upload new images to the slideshow of images on the home page, we discussed what we would put there right on the front page. So I got thinking about the stories my clients are trying to tell with their websites, and asked myself questions like “how do they want to be perceived?” and “what are they trying to say to their customers?”

Storytelling is one of the strongest communication devices available to man, so can it be used for organizational success? Well you tell a story for where you want the business to go in the form of a business plan. The business has a story for how it was founded and so on, you are always building a story within the business. Stories are a great way to package information that makes it easy for recipients to imagine, understand the context of facts and it always links information together, altogether forms a clearer mental picture.

Further to that, stories with easy to imagine and understand circumstances are inherently easier to believe and remember. Well told stories stories make it easier for people to feel apart of the story and imagine possible scenarios as if they were there!

It makes sense to understand the story and the effectiveness of the story that your website design is telling. It will make clients understand what you do, help them to remember key facts and to engage with your website and branding – building trust and form a mental picture of working with or becoming a customer of your business.

Effectiveness of the story

So what makes an effective story? Firstly stories need to be true, an honest open approach is best to story telling. This can be achieved by referencing real people and events. True stories are also not always full of good things, stories are easier to believe if there seems like difficult situations have arrived, your solution is where you can shine.

Telling stories via website design

Serious business are masters of telling stories, they tell tales of ideals and a new life with their products. Take for example car companies tell tales of freedom when you buy a car from them, nike tell stories of inspiration and health and coke tell stories of happiness and social bonding. And all their websites reinforce this idea over and over – this is what makes them so successful, the stories.

Here are 5 ways to tell stories on your website while keeping a high level of professionalism:

1. Slideshows – everyone loves a good slideshow, almost every website has them. Often though clients don’t understand why they have them on their website. Your slidershow should be a silent movie, you have 3-6 scenes to tell a story and grab the interest of your website viewer. Here you can introduce your brand and motivate users to continue through your website.
2. Testimonials – often the most believable story you can tell, accompanied with a face of your customer testimonials are a powerful communication and story tool. Putting a quote in context by framing the story like a mini-case study that sets the scene for how you worked together, problems overcome and some background to the relationship is such a powerful tool and seller.
3. Videos – corporate videos are great way to engage and hold your customers attention for a longer period of time, during which you can deliver a great story. I recommend doing a professional job, hire someone that knows what they are doing.
4. Company Overview – sooo many about us pages are boring and full of stale information. I think most users now skip this page because they know its going to be boring… Change this, make it stand out, have a photo of your team or yourself, be creative here.
5. Blog posts – while great for SEO, blog posts are the easiest place to deliver your customers stories. Here you can be a little more relaxed with the tone and tell some engaging stories, also accompanied by pictures is a must!

Whats next? Website Design Story Telling

Now we know the importance and power of story telling and also how to implement some story telling into our website design, its time to get out there and do it. Most businesses are paying to have a website and they often have it as a marketing tool, yet it is seldom maintained or even used, generally it is built and that is the end of it. If you are wondering why there is no traffic, inquiries or even worse your website is falling apart it is because it receives no attention. Like all things in life, anything worth doing is worth doing right furthermore it needs to be practised before it is effective and you become good at it. Set a routine to write a blog post for your website or go get those testimonials from customers, a little effort can return a lot of reward in the online world.