News Courtesy of Yoast.com:
What is storytelling?
The word storytelling pretty much speaks for itself. Storytelling is about telling stories. It is about using stories to engage your audience, or to make something more clear. Photos, pictures and film of course really help to tell a good story too.
Why use storytelling?
Using storytelling in your blog post will – if you do it the right way – make your post a more engaging one. Your blog post will become something people want to read. Stories increase the attention of your audience.
If you use stories the right way, stories will help you to make your message more clear. Stories can help you to provide proof for your argumentation. They can add clarity. My story about Alice (screenshot above) is written in order to help people understand the importance of a clean site structure. This is a rather difficult subject to grasp. A story adds clarity.
Ryan’s Take 
Using the storytelling method of producing content is actually something I’ve recently decided to implement on my niche website. It wasn’t my plan when first building the site. However, since I frequently use the products advertised, it made sense to incorporate my experiences into the brand. It’s certainly not easy putting my face out there for everyone to judge, but I do believe it will help me succeed in my ultimate goal. That goal is to earn a decent side income in addition to my web design job.
From my experience, reading testimonials that are rich with details and photos, gives more credibility to a product or service. In a way, I suppose all reviews are a form of storytelling. Although, just like reviews, these stories can’t seem too overly promotional.
It’s important that your story comes off as genuine and unbiased. In my opinion, it’s okay to discuss negative aspects. If the negatives outweigh the positives then it might be time to rethink what your branding goals are. A good way to be truthful and maintain trust with your audience is to compare pros and cons with a competitor’s story.
For example, my niche website deals with kettlebell products. There is one brand, in particular, that is more expensive than the average kettlebell. That would be a con, and not something I would hide. I make it clear about the price difference but then explain why I still prefer it over the other products. In this particular case, the quality and craftsmanship make it worth the cost.
Of course, the story you tell doesn’t necessarily have to be about yourself. Although, it should be something you’ve experienced. I’d advised against making up a story to promote your brand. Readers are usually pretty savvy when they feel like a story isn’t legitimate. Plus it may make it difficult to answer questions regarding that story.
