In a world that has become more complex – and where people have the attention span of an agitated goldfish – digital storytelling has emerged as the optimal way to grab attention and communicate ideas. Digital stories are most often video content that uses a narrative structure to communicate an idea.
Equipped with a powerful soundtrack and relatable characters, digital stories can have a huge impact on diverse customer groups. From consumers, to B2B customers – everyone has something to gain from digital stories.
To create these compelling narratives however, companies need to use professional digital storytelling software. This special kind of software allows users to create unique narratives from source material, and deploy the finished stories in a wide range of settings.
How is digital storytelling software used?
Digital storytelling software can be used in many ways, depending on the specific type used. As a result there is considerable variety in the capabilities of different storytelling platforms and applications. For business use, companies typically employ a professional digital storytelling platform like Hyro. Students and amateur users, on the other hand, will usually start with using something more basic (there are several online tools and free apps for this user-group), to create more static, simplified stories.
Digital storytelling software is not the same thing as video editing software. Unlike video editing software, digital storytelling software is used to assemble finished digital assets (like video and music) into a cohesive story, or multiple versions of a story.
Using a professional storytelling platform, businesses also have the advantage of being able to use non-linear storytelling. This is the ability to use the storytelling elements in any chosen order – an essential skill for interaction.
Because of the many capabilities of this kind of software, digital storytelling can be used in a variety of scenarios. They can be displayed on diverse devices and hardware too. Some storytelling software can even have the ability to host complex webinars and hybrid events, depending on the package used.
Businesses often gain the most value by using storytelling software to support the complex requirements of an Executive Briefing Center or a Customer Experience Center. These setups will consist of many kinds of displays, interactive elements, and combinations of physical and virtual objects – making Briefing Centers the ideal application for digital storytelling software.
From Customer Experience Centers to making better brand stories
Executive Briefing Centers and Customer Experience Centers are dedicated spaces for demonstrating your value to the customer. However, they also present a unique opportunity to get closer to the customer and understand their needs better.
By exploring your digital stories, and interacting with them, your customers can give you a better idea of their priorities. These can be surprising. You can see which topics they find most relevant, and these can spark spontaneous conversations about their situation.
In this respect, the interactivity (that digital storytelling software enables) becomes an ‘ice-breaker’ that destroys preconceptions and helps the customer steer the direction of their visit. This is a big step-up from just ‘sitting through’ a generic PowerPoint presentation – something that your company obviously rolls out for every customer (although these also have a niche use).
Testing new narratives with digital storytelling software
An ingenious way you can use your digital storytelling software is to exploit the capability of creating distinct variations of stories. This can be something as simple as switching out a soundtrack, or changing the order of particular scenes or stories. With standard video editing software, this would be a real pain (not impossible, but time-consuming). The advantage of a professional storytelling platform is that this process can become as easy as ‘drag and drop’.
By easily creating distinct and subtle variations of stories, you can start to conduct ‘A/B testing’ to refine your message. Presenters can observe which stories or concepts each customer finds most relevant, and this can also help define optimal messaging for each customer and group. Imagine, for example, you host 3 customers from the manufacturing sector in one week; you notice that all of them found one particular issue to be highly relevant. You can respond to this feedback to make this more prominent in future events and communications. It might even define a new approach for outreach as well.
By A/B testing your messaging in this highly agile way, your company can become much more relevant and attractive to each customer group. However, there are some things to be aware of too.
First, your stories will be limited by which digital assets you already have available. This is actually a good thing, because it keeps your messaging within a predefined ‘safe zone.’ However, it does mean that your overall design should reflect this limitation, and that workflows for new content should be set up to react to customer demands.
Another consideration is that you can only gain limited, qualitative datasets from small subject groups. In many cases, each customer is truly unique – even within the same industry or sector – and this means that your personal interactions are even more important here.
For this reason, you should select a storytelling platform that is easy to control – so the presenter can stay focused on the audience.
Digital storytelling software adds agility to corporate storytelling
By creating multiple versions of your brand story, you gain the advantage of defining the most effective messaging through experimentation.
Interaction is a vital component of this, as you can gain a lot of understanding by watching how your customers react and which stories are most compelling to them.
When companies start using digital storytelling software, they find that their brand story can become more agile – without losing its fundamental DNA.
Perhaps the greatest ‘win’ though, comes from the fact that a professional storytelling platform can enable your brand story to be displayed with practically any screen or hardware setup. This means you can take your story to wherever your customer is.
