Every brand has a story, a path they’ve travelled leading them to where they are and who they are today. Storytelling is a powerful tool that can transform your online presence and really allow you to connect with your audience. With more and more consumers craving genuine connection and authenticity among brands, we find them looking towards small businesses and less at big companies. In such an oversaturated digital market, brands can no longer afford to be faceless.
So why is telling your own brand story important? How can it make you stand out amongst these large corporations? And how can you tell your brand narrative?
Why Your Brand Story is Important
The purpose of telling your brand’s story is to invite people to learn about the motivations behind the foundation that makes up your business. It is a way for you to connect with consumers and elicit an emotion that in turn engages them in your business. Hearing your story tells them why you do what you do and shows them that you understand their needs. It inspires trust shows them who your brand is and why they should support you. Alongside a strong marketing campaign and a solid product or service, your brand’s story is a great asset.
Now let’s dive in to how to tell your brand’s story.
Be Authentic
In such a saturated market filled with numerous competitors, people are turning their attention away from big names and focusing more on smaller businesses. What is the main reason for this? People care who they are buying from. Consumers today want to know where their products are made, who made them, what materials were used, and what a brand stands for. This is all because people appreciate authenticity.
Many big companies are trapped in a ‘quantity over quality’ mindset. They think “what is the quickest and easiest way is to make a quick buck?”, and in doing so lose their relatability and authenticity, which on the other hand is something small brands hold very dearly. Business storytelling gives a compelling reason for consumers to buy from you because you have brought back the human element to your brand.
Being authentic means being honest, which means telling your story like it really is. The struggles you faced, the doubts you had, your successes and your failures, are all part of the brand’s identity. A genuine narrative is more likely to connect with people and is a good way to find customers who aren’t simply one-time buyers. Customers who aren’t just buying a product but buying into a culture. People can relate to honesty and to the entrepreneurial struggle, and in turn it inspires them to support your brand.
Set Clear Parameters
When writing your brand narrative, it is important to have a clear goal in mind. What is it that you want consumers to take away from your story? What are the lessons learned? Your story should have a clear outcome, and an actionable point that compels your audience to connect with your brand.
It is important to think about who is telling the story, and who they are telling it to. What is your brand’s tone of voice and style of writing? Before you sit down and write your narrative these are all thing you should think about.
Setting out a clear storyline for your narrative is another important aspect to consider. Without a timeline there will be no consistency and readers will likely get lost. Your brand’s story is just like any other story. It should have a beginning, middle, conflict, resolution, and conclusion. A story where the protagonist faces a challenge is much more compelling than a steady uphill battle.
Pick the Right Details
Knowing what to include and what to leave out it is another key element when telling your brand’s story. Picking the right details can make or break your audience’s engagement.
Start by highlighting your brand’s entrepreneurship. Talk about how you came up with the idea for your business, the first steps you took, and the struggles you faced to make your vision a reality. Did you leave a traditional job to pursue your dreams? People look up to those who take risks and don’t conform to social norms. It shows resilience and determination, and put’s your audience in your shoes.
Another valuable element to include in your narrative is a way to get your audience involved. Use customers as ‘characters’ in your story. Include testimonials, reach out to your audience and include some of their own experiences, or ask them how they connected with your brand.
How to Use Your Story
Now that you’ve written your story, what do you do with it? It’s time to get some visibility! Choosing how you want to present your story will affect who sees it. Some popular methods of distribution include blog posts, infographics, website mission pages, social media ads, videos, email marketing campaigns, and even reaching out to reporters.
You’ve written your story and you’ve sent it out into the world, but your job isn’t done quite yet. Get feedback, revise, find what didn’t work and what did. Track engagement across platforms and if need be, bring in outside help. To gauge the success of your story distribution you need to track your analytics.
Remember, be authentic, consumers can tell what is fact and what is fiction. Be transparent and tell people who you are as a business. People aren’t inspired by endless success; people are inspired by the journey it takes to get there.
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