What's more riveting: a gripping novel with twists, turns, and intrigue, or your quarterly revenue report? As a financial services professional, you might say the latter (if so, no judgment) but most of your clients would probably say they prefer juicy stories.
Here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be either/or. It’s possible to bring elements of compelling storytelling into the financial field so we can create emotional connections with clients and prospects.
What if your spreadsheets could mix emotion with analysis? What if your financial projections had personality? Hold on to your calculators, because we're about to delve into the exciting world of financial storytelling, where numbers become narratives, and figures find their feelings.
What Is Financial Storytelling, and Why Does It Work?
Think of your client's financial metrics as a suspense novel, each number a clue to an unfolding story. Your role is the narrator, connecting the dots and creating a tale that educates and engages your audience.
Financial storytelling goes beyond crunching numbers — it's about revealing the hidden “why” behind the data. This process demystifies complex data, making it more accessible and digestible. And it also forges an emotional connection, bridging the gap between cold hard numbers and human impact.
By presenting data as a narrative, we engage our audience's empathy and imagination, which increases retention, improves understanding, and helps people act on the information they’re receiving.
Who wouldn't want to be a part of such a compelling tale?
Your Narrative Playbook: 5 Techniques for Powerful Financial Storytelling
Here are a few of the best ways to use storytelling to make numbers emotionally compelling:
1. Create relatable characters
We all love compelling characters. Whip up a narrative with characters navigating their way toward their financial goals. Think “John and Jane,” an everyday couple who turned into financial gladiators who sent their kids to college, sans debt. Now that's a tale to keep your clients hooked!
2. Build a narrative arc
Every epic saga has a captivating beginning, a moving middle, and a nail-biting end. Why should financial narratives be any different? Take your client on a gripping ride from the starting blocks, through the twists and turns, all the way to their financial finish line. It's like their personal financial soap opera, except these tales have promising outcomes.
3. Introduce analogies and metaphors
Ever tried visualizing a million dollars? How about a 0.01% interest rate? It's like trying to picture a dinosaur in your living room, or a speck of dust on the moon. Purely mind-boggling! But that's where our trusty sidekicks — analogies and metaphors — come in. These storytelling techniques make the incomprehensible relatable and turn big scary numbers into friendly neighborhood concepts.
4. Appeal to your clients’ emotions
Remember that time you teared up at a movie, even though you knew it was all make-believe? That's the power of emotions.
And emotions can make your numbers sing, too. By interspersing your figures with feelings — the comfort of security, the thrill of ambition, the chill of financial loss — you can turn your stats into blockbusters that hit all the right emotional notes.
This works for financial and insurance services because money isn't just money to us humans. It's hopes, dreams, fears, and everything in between. Talking to your audience in this shared emotional language isn’t just high-touch — it's pure gold. It’s the perfect way to empower your prospects and customers to make decisions.
And with Showcase Workshop, you’ll have your full range of slide decks, videos, PDF brochures, and other financial services content in one place, so you can easily tap into emotions when talking to customers.
5. Make it personal
Do you know what's more compelling than a story? A story where you're the lead. And that's precisely the script you're writing for your clients. Using their dreams and experiences, craft a tale that's not just about numbers, but about their individual needs, preferences, and desires. That’s always a page-turner!
Whether you’re teaching clients about credit scores or nudging them toward financial empowerment, it all boils down to one simple thing: creating a unique bond with personalized content and conversations. Those mass email blasts are so last decade.
Showcase Workshop enables you to design and deliver highly personalized experiences that are as unique as your clients. By understanding their character, you're not just telling a story, you're narrating their journey in a way that resonates deeply with them.
Once Upon a Number: The True Power of Financial Storytelling
Remember, the goal of storytelling in financial services isn't to distort the truth. It’s to help your clients understand the truth more clearly.
By connecting data with emotions and showing the “why” behind the numbers, your clients can make more informed decisions that align with their financial goals.
Find out more about how Showcase can help you build trusted relationships with your clients by harnessing the power of great storytelling.