Getting Emotional: Bringing Customers Into Your Brand’s Story

When customers land on your website, you want them to pay attention. But what makes customers pay attention when they visit countless sites on a given day?

Two elements will play the most significant roles in convincing these visitors to trust you: the site’s visual appeal and ease of use. Not only do you want to nail these two criteria, but customers quickly determine whether or not your site meets their expectations. This can feel like a tall order.

It might sound subjective, but there is a science to engaging customers with your site. Creating a visually appealing site comes down to drawing people into your page and convincing them that your brand’s story is worth engaging. Unfortunately, you cannot use hypnosis to accomplish your goal; you need to rely on your site design. You want to use your creativity to communicate that you have the answer to their pain point.

The key to getting emotional

You want to use creativity to create visual appeal and draw in customers. At the core of this goal lies storytelling.

People are naturally attracted to good stories. As humans, our storytelling abilities are hardwired into us. Humans use stories to pass down traditions, teach lessons, and communicate key ideas.

Of course, it has to be a good story. We all know the snores that can result from your great-uncle retelling the boring Thanksgiving turkey story for what feels like the 100th time. Those are not the stories I am talking about. I am focusing on the intriguing stories that make you sit up and pay attention. Those stories that spark your interest and instantly stick in your mind.

When you bring storytelling elements into your web design, you can create powerful websites that engage your audience. When people are presented with a good story, you can build your visual draw and encourage people’s trust in your brand.

The value of storytelling in website design

Before we go further in our exploration of storytelling as a part of your site design, we want to note what storytelling is not. It is not the same as your sales pitch: that buttoned-up promotion your sales team gives in a boardroom or even over the phone to potential customers. It is also not a long-winded treatise on the history of your company or what makes your product superior to your competitors.

Instead, your story dives into the core of what your company is. It explores your mission. You want to elicit key emotions in your audience that speak to your ability to relieve their pain point.

When you tell your story effectively, you will connect with your customers. You will demonstrate that you know what drives them and brought them to your site as they look for a company to relieve their discomfort. They will understand the role you play in helping them with their struggle.

Telling stories naturally builds relationships. We can see this just by looking at vibrant cultures from around the globe. Familiar stories bind people together and transmit shared values. When appealing stories are told, they draw in people. Think of a group of campers sitting around the campfire, leaning closer to hear the next part of their camp counselor’s story. You can visualize them, can’t you? That is the impact you are aiming for when storytelling on your site. Everyone wants to hear what you have to say, and they remember the central message you want to communicate.

Building a story into your website design allows you to tap into these natural elements. Instead of drilling a message into people’s heads, you create a message they want to hear and absorb. You will start to build that critical trust that allows you to entice people to buy from you and select you over the competition.

Now that we have explored the meaningful relationship between site design and storytelling, let’s dig deeper into some elements that can help you tell your story effectively and bring about the emotional response that will help people connect to your brand.

Emotion and storytelling in design

Of course, I make it sound easy, don’t I? Create a storytelling website and your customers will crowd around you for more. You want to know how you can actually accomplish that goal.

For people to be receptive to the story you want to tell, you need to consider the elements you use and how you create your story. This includes considering the importance of convenience and reducing user frustration for your customers.

• Finger-friendly design. We all know that scrolling down the screen on a mobile device and accidentally clicking on something can be very annoying. If you try to click to access some content and can’t do so, that annoyance might even give way to frustration or anger. Customers who feel frustrated when looking at your site will experience negative emotions associated with your page, which can override the feelings you want to elicit with your story. You do not want customers to have a negative account in their minds that overwrites the one you wanted to create.
• Use clean and legible typefaces. If customers cannot easily read and engage with your textual content, you just defeated your storytelling efforts. Customers might ignore the message you wanted to send, click off the site, or even have a negative personal story written about the brand in their minds.
• Remember how different design elements tie in with other emotions. Some excellent studies have been done about how various aspects, such as colors and patterns, can help bring forth different customer responses. Do you want people to feel calm or relaxed as they look at your site? You can use colors like blues and greens. Want to inspire energy? Reds and yellows are your go-to strategy. Want people to reminisce or encourage feelings of nostalgia? Incorporate design ideas or themes from decades or even centuries ago. Think carefully about the emotions you want to bring about with your story so that you can consider the elements you will include in your storytelling. Lack of alignment here can again undermine the narrative you had initially desired to tell, making it harder for you to achieve your goals.

Connecting with the customer through content

Of course, you must also incorporate some textual content alongside your graphic elements and design to keep your story moving. Your text should also consider the central emotions and story elements you want to communicate to the customers.

Remember that you do not want to write an article about your brand’s history. If you drone on and on, it will be harder for you to convince people to listen to everything you have to say. Keep the text short, to the point, and aligned with your key message if you want to keep people’s interest.

Focus on creating content that is easy to scan, analyze, and process. If your customers can absorb your message with just a few written lines tied with excellent graphic storytelling, you will see far greater success than over-relying on your text. Storytelling works most effectively when the content is short and sweet.

Get emotional with your customers

You want to build relationships with your customers that will encourage them to connect with your core brand message and mission. I want to help you get started. It is time to get emotional with your customers and use the principles of storytelling to build visually appealing sites that will draw people in with your stories.

Contact our design team at sales@milestoneinternet.com or call us at 408-200-2211 when you are ready to take the next steps. We can help you build your brand story into your site design. It’s time to witness the power of emotion.

Outside sources

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563216307191

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/11/815573198/how-stories-connect-and-persuade-us-unleashing-the-brain-power-of-narrative

https://www.maxburst.com/the-power-of-using-storytelling-in-web-design/