Anyone who knows advertising will tell you that it’s all about the storytelling and getting the viewer to get involved in your journey. Most of the brand TVCs focus on telling the story of their brand in a compelling and eye-catching way.
Today, we have decided to help you understand how you can use the same storytelling techniques of seven story archetypes that have been a part of marketing culture for the past five decades in your affiliate marketing campaign.
We will explain the basic concepts of basic story archetypes and elaborate with relevant examples. You have to find and choose the archetype that fits your marketing style.
That archetype will be the core of your affiliate marketing plan and will allow you to have the right brand story for the rest of your campaign.
Understanding The Affiliate Marketing Process
Let us begin our discussion by developing the concept of affiliate marketing. Individuals develop most of the affiliate marketing programs and they do not think they can establish it as a proper business.
That is an inaccurate assumption; you can easily follow these steps in an affiliate marketing campaign to create your desired business.
Use Your Product
Do you know why affiliate marketing is standing tall in the modern e-commerce industry? Because people are buying more and more products online, and they need authentic reviews on the products that they are investing their money in.
If you write a long blog that tells them the same things that they already could get from the bottle cover, then your blog is not worth anything. It is better to make videos where you show them how you used the product.
Build A Narrative
The content that you are developing for your audience is where you will use the archetypal stories to gain their attention. The story that you choose will mainly depend on the type of product that you are selling.
Every niche and service has its type of archetypes, like a particular style of the story that can embellish a certain kind of product or service. You will use these stories to develop your video, audio, and written content to deliver a specific type of appeal.
The Ingenuity Of Genuineness
You should understand that your audience is using the internet for a long time now. They can see authentic content easily and are experts at ignoring content that they do not trust. That is why you must focus on having genuine content for your audience.
Always tell the truth about your products, but the archetypal characters can drive the way you phrase your content and design your graphics. You can develop a storyline to share your affiliate marketing potential and you will have their full attention.
Now we will discuss basic story archetypes and explain how businesses have developed their affiliate marketing campaigns using these storylines for themselves.
Seven Story Archetypes To Improve Your Marketing Strategy
1. Overcoming The Monster
Source: Digit’s Affiliate Marketer
This story type will mainly focus on urban issues and how you can overcome them. You will present the problem that your product will solve as a proverbial monster, and then explain how your product will solve the problem.
As the example clearly shows, your focus is on showing how much money the person can make with the help of the affiliate program. You can only develop the strategy for products that essentially generate revenue or it will be hard to create a storyline.
These are classic, good old fashion, basic story archetypes of a person beating an obstacle; we have all seen the stories—the story of immense weight loss or fighting off a disease. On lighter notes, fighting off debt, gaining back your routine through an app, and other similar everyday problem solvers are explained using this archetype.
2. Rags To Riches
Source: Young Entrepreneurs Forum
An excellent example of the storytelling archetype is the story of the starving artist or talent of any kind who gains glory and riches to become a millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire was a modern-day rag to riches story, and so was Rocky I. The central concept will focus on your product or service, enabling the user to gain their well-deserved recognition and success.
The example looks similar to our first example, but it is a broader concept. Here, you will show how a person who has talent can make money. You will not just say that they can conquer the situation but you will say that their expertise will help them achieve what they desire.
For example, Amazon discusses how small businesses and entrepreneurs can sell their products through Amazon. This archetype is famous in Silicon Valley as virtually every other app promises to change lives.
3. The Quest
Source: Rightways affiliate marketing campaign
This primary storytelling archetype is presented as ‘your companion’ in many-ways-of-life kind of advertisement. Think of it as the opposite of the Rags to Riches story. You will not be the product or service that helps the user attain the proverbial glory.
Instead, your product or service will help the user maintain the gains that they already have accumulated. The archetype is famous among banks as they like to present themselves as companions for life. It is also well advised for pharmaceuticals, vintage clothing brands, coffee brands, and lifestyle products.
The example shows how a family may lose their affluence if they do not focus on growing their wealth. The exact concept can be used in any life management service or product as the product will help you retain your lifestyle.
4. Voyage And Return
Source: Amazon
In this storytelling archetype, it is the journey of the common man to conquer the obstacles placed in their paths. From the Hobbit to the Odyssey, it is all about the voyage and the unexpected and miraculous triumph.
Though it’s a book cover, but it is an excellent example of a seller making their readers relate to story because of the complex and arduous journey the seller has taken. If you can make your users connect to the sentiment, then they will certainly believe in your product.
In urban consumerism, the archetype will play out as the Air BnB promotion, helping travelers find affordable and yet hospitable living space. Good examples are decoration services and other hospitality products and services that make everyday life easier for the user.
5. Comedy
Source: Uber Eats Affiliate Program
The archetype that provides comic relief comes in this category. The user finds himself in a situation that is tragic to the point of being hilarious. Your product will go into the picture to save the day and help the user.
In the example above, the affiliate marketer has chosen a modern and funky website, where the product is placed funnily and effectively. You are an urban dweller who can easily relate to the joke being played in the image. So now, you should be interested in the product.
The archetype is suitable for urban issue solving services like matchmaking service, electrical appliances that reduce electricity bills, Uber for travel to reduce travel issues, and virtually any product that addresses a problem that can be described with comic relief.
6. Tragedy
Source: Medical Equipment Promotion
One of the basic story archetypes, discusses Julius Ceasar, Romeo and Juliet, and other tragic tales in that realm. But the conventional tragedy-based storytelling archetype has little to do with the urban consumer perspective of tragedy elaborated in a marketing campaign.
In the urban marketing campaigns, products help relieve grief such as counselors, physical fitness helpers, psychiatrists, doctors, and other products or services. All of these products and services provide relief from pain and suffering in many ways.
In the image, a foundation is promoting itself on the simple concept of saving lives. If you are promoting their products, you will simply discuss how life-saving products work and why they are useful to your readers.
7. Rebirth
Source: Amazon Affiliate Program
Last but not least, this one is the treasure trove of the basic story archetypes for marketing specialists. Rebirth is the archetype that marketers choose when they have to sell a new product or provide a unique service in the market.
Notice how, in the image above, they just assume that you need to improve your hair. And now many people will buy the product because who does not want to improve and have long and beautiful hair.
The rebirth archetype mainly focuses on the potential for growth that the user may have been ignoring all of this time. For example, you are introducing an excellent investment advisory service in an area where no one has heard of such a thing.
These are the archetypes and some everyday examples of them being used by affiliate marketers. But the cases we have taken here are cursory, but there is a massive market here that can be tapped.
Choosing The Right Story Archetype Matters
Before you start selling a product, choose the right archetypal storyline, and you will be surprised how easy it will be to sell your product. Your product will sell itself, because if the story brings out the product as a good solution, then the product sells easily and quickly.
Always try to understand how you can develop a storyline around your product, and you will realize that selling the product is mainly about reaching the heart of your audience. You will soon be able to gain success in an affiliate marketing program that you were hoping.
We wish you the best of luck. Share your storytelling experiences with us as well.
