Nowadays businesses of every size and shape battle to establish their position in an overly saturated market, and the ability to tell a great brand story has become vital. With how much business-related content the customers come across in a sitting, building a quick emotional connection is the best and the only shot businesses have at earning consideration.
Strong storytelling and branding is what sets your brand apart from others. Your target consumer’s attention is very limited so the ability to excel at brand storytelling through avenues like design and content is imperative to success.
Now, we will dive into all you need to know about brand storytelling and what wonders it can do for your business.
What Is Brand Storytelling?
Let’s kick off with a quick definition of brand storytelling.
Brand storytelling refers to the process of creating a series of plot points to build a connection between a brand and its target customers.
A brand story is a summary of your company’s mission, history, purpose, and values, with a narrative structure bringing it to life.
Why Does Brand Storytelling Matter?
Brand storytelling explains the values of your business and engages with potential customers who share them.
Psychologist Jerome Bruner found that people are 22 times more likely to remember all the details when stories communicate strong messages rather than just numbers or facts.
Customers who share your values are more likely to be loyal to your business and build a strong connection.
A study in the Harvard Business Review found that emotional connections are significant and effective drivers of brand loyalty. They are also one of the best and the most effective indicators of future customer value.
Map Out Your Brand Story keeping these things in mind
Setting your effective brand story will lay the foundations for your marketing strategy.
You can use your mapped-out brand story as a compass for communications, content and marketing campaigns.
Incorporating brand storytelling into your marketing mix is a time-consuming practice. It will help if you have proper brand guidelines so that no matter who’s telling your story, and from where, they’re conveying it consistently. Here are a few other things to keep in mind while you are doing brand storytelling as part of your marketing strategy.
Be helpful, not hype-full
Telling real, and authentic stories will resonate with your customers more than being overly promotional. Okay just consider the communication you receive from your favourite brands. Do they make false promises? Offers unattainable or unrealistic solutions? Probably not because if it sounds too good to be true then it mostly is. Find stories that communicate to your audience about how you can help them.
Incorporate your customers
Let your loyal customers tell their own stories. According to Boast, 92% of customers go through online reviews before buying. Buyers want to understand if current customers are satisfied before investing. This is true whether it is B2B or B2C brands. Possibly more for B2B brands since the time and cost investments are mostly quite significant. Incorporating case studies, quotes and review sites into your marketing strategy helps new customers feel more confident and sure when they’re making a purchasing decision.
Deliver your story consistently
Brand guidelines are one way to ensure that you’re telling a consistent and true story, but they also must be delivered consistently. Inconsistent logos, disjointed visuals and outdated content can all lead to consumer mistrust and they back off from their buying decision. Using tools like a digital asset management solution for supporting your brand guidelines and organising the brand assets used in your marketing efforts will help to ensure that the content being used is approved and easy to access. This makes it easier to tell and deliver consistent stories to the audience.
What’s next?
If you’re ready to get started with brand storytelling, use the above tips as a roadmap for your own strategy. Create a solid foundational story about who you are, what you offer, areas of expertise, identify your values and outline the real-life challenges in those spaces. Try creating stories about experiences that are meaningful to your customers. Solve their problems and try entertaining them without actually trying to sell them a product.
When you’re done, start putting your stories out into the world. Just remember, brand storytelling does not mean telling the story of your product or brand over and over again. Centre stories around the experiences of real people and use them to show your potential customers that you care about the same things as they do. Try creating an emotional connection.
