Once upon a time…
You might think of a story as all the words in between “once upon a time” and “happily ever after”, and while this is certainly true, there’s more to a story than simply the words you say. Stories are one of the most basic forms of human communication, and a good story presents facts, feelings, emotions, and perceptions. A brand story is no different. A brand story is made up of your company’s history, products, colors, employees, values, and more. Your brand story is not one paragraph or blog post with big red letters screaming “OUR STORY”. Your brand story is visible and evident in everything that your company is, does, and produces. It should be integrated into every single aspect of your digital AND your non-digital footprint.
Now that we’ve established what a brand story is, you’re probably thinking, but why do I need one? It’s simple: It’s all about your consumers. The audience craves emotion, authenticity, and transparency—they want something to connect to. And that connection will make consumers invest in you. It’s been proven that emotion and personal connection drive action, and eventually purchase.
Alright, now that we’ve got down the what and the why down, next is the how. How do you write your brand story? What I’m about to say sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me: In order to write your brand story, you need to forget about marketing. Yeah, I know what I said. This may seem counterintuitive for all you self-proclaimed marketing gurus, but your brand story is not about you. It’s not an advertisement; it’s not a sales pitch. Stop talking about yourself, and start talking about your consumers. Talk about the value they’ll get and the experience they’ll have from choosing you over competitors.
All great stories are sharable, and yours should be no different. Today, people are relying more and more on word-of-mouth, and your story should be one that people want to tell other people. Because sometimes, the best storytelling happens when you’re not even listening. But, if you do want to be a part of the conversation, a great, easy platform to tell your story on is social media. It’s easy, relatable, and you’ll definitely get some social media street cred. After all, retweets are just the modern way of passing along a story, right?
When it comes down to it, your story is all about your purpose, your values, and your connection to your consumers. Chances are, you already have one. You just need to figure out the most effective way to tell it.
….And your brand will live happily ever after.