Storytelling is one of the best ways to build stronger customer connections. This is why understanding storytelling is essential for all professional marketers. By understanding storytelling, you can easily create a good strategy for your brand. In this article, we will look at how brand storytelling can help revolutionize your marketing.
What Is Brand Storytelling?
Brand storytelling is the art of creating a story that uniquely speaks to the customers so that they connect emotionally with your brand. The brand story aims to let the customers know what you stand for, where your brand comes from, and where it is going.
Why Storytelling is Important for Brand?
Here are some reasons to consider brand storytelling:
Get loyal customers
When customers relate with your why, they create a connection with your brand and are more likely to purchase your products or services. Telling powerful stories can also be a great way to penetrate new markets. Creating trust through storytelling makes getting loyal customers easier for your brand. Therefore, you should consider this method when creating a social media ad budget or advertising on TV.
Improved customer relation
Brand storytelling is essential in relation building as it helps your customers understand your business. Remember that in marketing, how other people view your brand is essential. The ability to create a well-woven story can change how your business is interpreted. Customers who feel connected to a brand are likelier to spend money on it. They also tend to recommend it to their friends easily.
Improved engagement
With storytelling marketing, you can quickly increase engagement, especially when your stories genuinely resonate with your target audience. When your team crafts high-quality stories that are relevant and easily relatable, they will likely appeal to a larger audience. In turn, you will likely receive more clicks, engagements, and purchases.
Showcasing your brand
Whether you have an official website, social media page, podcast, or YouTube channel, storytelling can be a great way of spreading the word about your social media page. This can help you to build a connection with your customers.
Stand out from the competition.
When well done, storytelling will help you stand out from the competition, especially when you use it in your website design so that it becomes part of your brand. Brands that use stories will likely get many mentions, helping them to master SEO for brand growth.
How Brand Storytelling Works
Brand storytelling explains your values to customers and enables you to engage with customers who share such stories. According to psychologists, people are 22 times more likely to remember a story than facts and numbers.
According to a study by the Harvard Business School, customers are more likely to become loyal to a brand when they have an emotional connection with it. Emotional connection is, therefore, one of the best indicators of future brand value.
Elements of a Powerful Brand Story
When writing a story for your brand, you should ensure that it has the following features:
- Empathy. Your customers should see themselves in the story.
- Attention-grabbing. Your story should have a distinct voice and personality.
- Relatable. Even if your business is in the software industry, you don’t have to create a story using industry jargon; You need to break down the story so people can relate to it.
- Authentic. You should remain honest about your values, the unique features of your company, and the current challenges.
- Consistency. You should let your audience know what they should expect from you.
- Aligns with your business goals. Ensure that your brand story aligns with your business goals. It should be integrated into different areas of your business, such as sales and internal and external communication.
- Action-provoking. Your story should provoke action and push your audience to take action.
How to Write Your Brand Story
Here are the steps you need to follow when writing your brand story:
Determine your message
Before writing your brand story, you should determine the kind of story you want to pass. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What kind of emotions am I trying to pass in my story?
- Is there a specific audience I want to appeal to?
- On which platform will I be sharing the story?
Answering these questions before you even begin writing your story will give you a better idea of the message you want to convey.
Determine your target audience.
There are several factors you need to consider when determining your story’s target audience. These are:
- The age range you are trying to reach
- Location, whether country, region, worldwide, etc.
- The income range of your target audience
- Whether to target them based on their interests and hobbies or not
Craft the storyline
Now that you have determined the audience you want to reach, you must consider a suitable storytelling method to resonate with your audience. When creating the storyline, keep your customers in mind.
Write the story
Now it’s time to write the story; here are a few things you must remember.
- Introduction. This section should help the reader familiarize with the story’s characters and ideas. Use it to grab the reader’s attention.
- Themes. The theme presents the characters and plot points presented throughout your story.
- Suspense. Look for a way in which you will hook the reader throughout the story.
- Resolution. You should show how the characters and ideas in the story solve the challenge in the story.
Brand Story Template
Here is a template you can use for your brand story.
Examples of Brands That Use Storytelling
Now that we understand brand storytelling, here are personal brand story examples:
Apple
One of the brands that use storytelling is Apple. In their “Think Different” commercial, Steve Jobs narrates that the ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do. This is the same message that Apple has continued to convey with their inventions.
Formula One Racing
The “Drive to Survive” series on Netflix follows some of the most reputed drivers on Formula One as they battle for honors. The series provides an electrifying view of the sport as it provides a preview of the drivers, iconic circuits, and teams.
Instead of focusing on product placement, Formula One has focused on storytelling. This has made it one of the most popular sports documentaries. The documentary has captured viewers in a way that traditional ads wouldn’t.
Volvo
Another brand story-telling example is Volvo, which focuses on how its 3-point belt has saved people’s lives. Instead of telling people about their latest models and luxurious features, the brand focuses on telling people the value it has added to the world.
Final Thoughts
Brand storytelling can help you easily connect with your audience. This can, in turn, result in brand loyalty. By using the steps above, it will be possible to create a brand story that your audience can resonate with. Once you implement your brand story, consider ways of sharing it, including Snapchat stories. You can then start tracking different social media metrics.
