YOUR Brand Storytelling and How to do it?

 

Brand storytelling: What it is and how to do it Brand storytelling can be why customers choose your brand or why people want to work with you. But what is it and how do you start telling your brand story? Related Article: 4 Steps To YOUR Social Media Brand? "Once upon a time…" Those four little words make you lean in a little closer and pay attention because they promise something magical: a story. You're unlikely to start every piece of marketing content or sales presentation that way — if any. But you shouldn't discount the power of storytelling for your business. It's easier to connect with your audience with stories rather than plain facts and figures. Brand storytelling is a tool to help people connect with your company. It can be why customers pick you over the competition or why your job ads get 10x the applicants compared to other companies in your space. Related Article: Instagram Tips For YOUR Small Business? What Is Brand Storytelling? Brand storytelling is the process of using narrative techniques to connect with an audience, and shape and clarify a brand’s identity. “It’s everything you do, big and small,” explained Frontify’s Chief Storyteller, Karl Wikström. As an example, your brand story is expressed in your marketing, the product you deliver, the stories you share on social media,” he added. “It’s the experience you create for your customers, but also for your employees as well.” A strong brand story comes from a combination of discovery and invention. The discovery element comes from uncovering customer stories and team experiences within your organization. It’s essential for bringing authenticity to your story. Look for the consistent data points, ideas, and values that run through customer feedback and employee experiences — these are the core elements of your brand story. Related Article: Photogenic Social Media Marketing For Businesses? Brand Storytelling: What It Is And How To Do It  Brand storytelling can be why customers choose your brand or why people want to work with you. But what is it and how do you start telling your brand story? "Once upon a time…" Those four little words make you lean in a little closer and pay attention because they promise something magical: a story. You're unlikely to start every piece of marketing content or sales presentation that way — if any. But you shouldn't discount the power of storytelling for your business. It's easier to connect with your audience with stories rather than plain facts and figures. Brand storytelling is a tool to help people connect with your company. It can be why customers pick you over the competition or why your job ads get 10x the applicants compared to other companies in your space. Related Article: Kevin Hart Social Media Branding? What Is Brand Storytelling? Brand storytelling is the process of using narrative techniques to connect with an audience, and shape and clarify a brand’s identity. “It’s everything you do, big and small,” explained Frontify’s Chief Storyteller, Karl Wikström. “As an example, your brand story is expressed in your marketing, the product you deliver, the stories you share on social media,” he added. “It’s the experience you create for your customers, but also for your employees as well.” A strong brand story comes from a combination of discovery and invention. The discovery element comes from uncovering customer stories and team experiences within your organization. It’s essential for bringing authenticity to your story. Look for the consistent data points, ideas, and values that run through customer feedback and employee experiences — these are the core elements of your brand story. Then the invention element is the aspirational side of your brand story. Take those day-to-day experiences and turn them into a narrative that helps people connect with your brand and understand your brand’s purpose. Related Article: YOUR Video Content Is King? The Business Benefits of Brand Storytelling The concept of a brand story may seem a little vague to some team members. But knowing who you are, what you stand for, and being able to communicate that at all levels brings concrete benefits to your company. Greater clarity in the business A defined brand story can provide clarity within the company because the whole team has a shared understanding of what your brand means and what it stands for. Karl explained, "You have a very clear shared idea of why your brand exists, who you're for, and what you want to do better than anyone else. It's the foundation for making yourself relevant to your customers." That shared understanding helps guide decision-making because everyone's working towards the same outcome. It also helps create internal alignment around how you present to the market, because all departments can share the same narrative. Related Article: 7 Gary Vaynerchuk Social Media Tips? Helps you identify business opportunities and risks Your brand story can help you identify opportunities that will strengthen your brand, or risks that could weaken it. For example, you can use your brand story to help make decisions around things like changes to your production process, marketing campaigns, or partners to work with. For each one, consider: does this fit with the established narrative for our brand? Does it feel authentic, or will it feel like we’re departing from our brand’s ethos and purpose? Karl explained, “One way your brand story can really help is when you’re thinking about collaborating with other companies — maybe in a marketing partnership, for example. You can spot if they’re a bad fit for your brand and if partnering with them will risk angering your customers by going against your brand values.” Related Article: Should YOUR Business Advertise On Instagram? Helps you attract potential customers and employees Your brand story helps people feel connected to your brand based on shared values and belief in your company’s purpose. This can help you attract good-fit customers — Accenture found that 64% of consumers feel that “companies that actively communicate their purpose are more appealing than those that do not.” Customers connect with your brand through its narrative. That emotional connection can make them more likely to become loyal, long-term customers than if they were only attracted by your product offering. How to tell an effective brand story Your brand story can set your company apart from its competitors. But before you start seeing the benefits, you first need to develop, refine, and practice your brand story. Related Article: The Future of YOUR Social Media Platform? Follow The 7 Principles of Brand Storytelling There are lots of ways you can think about constructing your brand story. We use these principles as our starting point. 1. Purpose — Why does your brand exist? What’s your brand mission? To use a well-known example, Nike’s purpose is to “bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” 2. People — Who are you for? Who are the talent and customers you want to attract? 3. Problem — What is the core problem you are solving for those people? This will become the foundation for your marketing and sales messages, so you need to dig into this principle. 4. Promise — What is the unique value you deliver? You don't need to offer something completely unique, like a product feature or service — your competitors can easily replicate those. Instead, focus on the value you bring or the values that guide you. Related Article: Crucial Social Media Strategy For YOUR Brand? 5. Personality — How do you do things differently in a relevant, noticeable way? 6. Paradox — What tension, contradiction, or conflict are you resolving? Having something you stand against can be just as helpful as knowing what you stand for. For example, in the early years, HubSpot built its brand story by positioning itself against traditional marketing tactics used in outbound marketing. 7. Protagonist — Who’s the “main character” of your brand story? Is it your brand or your customers? What makes your brand heroic? Or how does it make your customer the hero? These seven principles aren't unique — they come from many different storytelling techniques and approaches. But used together, we've found they help you start to shape and understand your brand's story. Related Article: Social Media For YOUR Local Business? Start with Why — This was one of the first books to bring wide attention to the importance of purpose to branding. In our opinion it’s best used in conjunction with other frameworks to be practically useful. Building a Story Brand — This book by Donald Miller gives you a framework to help identify the hero, conflict, and resolution that will be a big part of your brand’s story. Working through the framework can help you clarify the core elements of your brand story and understand how to work them into your company narrative. The most important part of telling your brand story is clarity. So going through the process of putting your brand's values, purpose, and narrative into different frameworks and approaches can help you think clearly about each part of your brand. Applying these frameworks or templates can help you clarify your narrative or uncover new insights. Guest Authored By Karl Wikström. Karl's the Chief Storyteller at Frontify, and Father of many bulldogs, and his daughter  Eja. Follow Karl on X. Bring Your Brand Story to Life Your brand story is more than just a slide in a presentation or page on your website. It’s expressed through your actions every week, month, and year. You bring it to life with every customer interaction, marketing activity, and internal meeting. So when it comes to successful brand storytelling, the most important thing is to remember to practice what you preach. Post Crafted By: Fred Hansen Brand Alchemist at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Scottsdale, AZ. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)