These days, brand storytelling is one of the most important aspects of your company’s marketing strategy. Businesses without a memorable or engaging story are easily forgotten. If your brand doesn’t have a good story, then potential customers will opt to spend their money on a brand that does. If you want to stay relevant and rise above your business’s competition, then take a look at these major aspects and benefits of brand storytelling.
What Is Brand Storytelling?
Your brand’s story is the culmination of its actual history, the values it promotes, the goals and visions of the founders, and the purposes for your brand’s existence. The story doesn’t need to be some in-depth encyclopedia article on your brand’s founding and operations. Instead, it should be just what it sounds like — a story. The purpose of this narrative is to relate to your customers, educate them with real facts about your business’s history, make them remember your brand, and help them get excited about your business’s offerings. More than anything, a good story is an appeal to emotion. You want to establish a relationship with potential customers, so you need to craft a story that is honest, relatable, and memorable for your brand to succeed.
Catch Their Attention
Your average user spends between ten and twenty seconds on a webpage. That’s a very short window of time to impress them, but if you can catch their attention quickly, then they’re much more likely to stay on your webpage. Your competitors are literally at their fingertips, and it only takes one second to type a few words into the search bar, so a good story is vital for any business that wants to retain a potential customer’s attention.
Distinguish Your Company
When a consumer wants a product, they will likely have little trouble finding it. The internet has made it easier than ever to find items, compare prices, and see other customers’ comments and appraisals. There’s a solid chance that whatever you’re selling can easily be found somewhere else. Maybe your product or service is not so easily accessible or widespread at this moment, but you’ll likely face competition in the future.
For these reasons, marketing is more important than ever. You need to make your brand stand out, and an inspiring story is a great way to make that happen. Customers are much more likely to think about your story rather than specific price points, deep technical specifications, and other minutiae.
Tailor Your Story Honestly
If your customers feel like they are being lied to, then they will surely look to spend their money elsewhere. Many of your claims can be confirmed or debunked with a quick search engine query, so try to stick to the facts. Even if your story seems a little mundane in your eyes, that’s nothing that some good writing can’t fix. Be sure to open yourself up to your marketing team’s criticisms and concerns. They know what the customer likes and dislikes, and they can steer your story in an interesting direction. Your company’s story doesn’t have to just be a mishmash of hype and fanfare to connect to your audience. People connect best to experiences that mirror their own, so try to think deeply about how elements of your story may parallel the experiences of your typical customer.
Relate to Consumers
People are far more willing to spend their money on the brands whose values align with their own. Your story is a chance to prove to potential customers that you’re cut from the same cloth as they are, and they can feel good about exchanging their hard-earned money for your goods and services. If you’ve been in business for some time, then you likely know who your customer base is. If not, then do some research and figure out your audience.
A customer base of white-collar New Englanders is going to have different values and expectations than blue-collar workers in Arizona. When determining what to include in your story, you need to consider your customers’ political affiliation, upbringing, religion, age, and so much more. While you don’t need to take any hardline or explicit political stances, it’s very important to shy away from topics that potential customers may be turned off by.
Everyone loves a good story. It’s been proven that for consumer products, the customer’s emotional state is much more important than an advertisement’s content. If you make your customers feel something, then they won’t forget about you. It’s hard enough to get a customer’s attention in the first place, so you need to do everything and everything to keep them hooked, and a good story is one of the simplest yet most effective tools at your disposal.
