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Brand storytelling is a critical component of your marketing strategy that helps get your values and mission across to your customers. You may have a brand and logo, but do you have a clear picture of the story your brand is trying to tell? Do you know your brand’s mission, message, and goals? Telling the story of your company’s history and mission and building a brand narrative can help you reach your ideal customers, foster trust with them, and help build a winning social media strategy. To hone in on your brand narrative, you must first define brand storytelling by finding good brand storytelling examples and learn why communicating this narrative can support your company’s overall health and growth.
What is Brand Storytelling?
Basically, brand storytelling involves sharing your brand’s mission and story with your target demographic and wider audience to create a narrative. You can do so through social media or by other means, such as videos, documentaries, or copy on your company’s website.
Story branding involves creating a story that your customers can connect to. You want to help them create an emotional link to your shared values and get a good idea of the integrity of your company and brand. By humanizing your brand, you can take an important step toward increasing your influence in the marketplace.
Why is a Brand Narrative Important?
Instead of tossing statistics, customer testimonials, and facts at your customer, brand storytelling gives the consumer something more meaningful to consider. That is because a brand narrative focuses on making a company’s brand thoughtful and memorable.
In turn, the customer experiences an emotional connection. Therefore, a brand narrative forges a response from the customer that leads them to come back to purchase again and again. The customer finds something more than a company’s products and services to hold and capture their interest and support. This is a subconscious form of retargeting that can be beneficial to your bottom line.
Branding is expected
In today’s marketplace, customers have learned to expect certain branding elements. Branding allows them to learn more about a company’s goals and why it stands behind its products and services. Without a story to tell, however, a business loses its connection with its customers. Since customers expect branding, businesses also need to share a message that exemplifies their brand and sets them apart from the crowd.
A brand narrative connects customers to your brand
As noted, without a brand narrative, your customer will not understand what makes your products and services unique. A narrative brings the customer closer to what you wish to convey with your brand and how you want to use it to benefit your customers. A business that incorporates its story into all that it does gains favorable interest from customers. In fact, 55% of users are more likely to buy from a business whose brand story they connect with.
Brand storytelling creates interest
To achieve that all-important emotional connection with your customer, you need to engage them. How do you do this? By telling a story!
A brand narrative tells your audience what makes your brand unique and why it stands out from the competitors. By telling a story, you foster consumer interest, as it helps a customer understand why you want to help them or how you can help them with a problem. It also enables them to see what you consider meaningful and gives them a clear insight into the purpose of your brand.
3 Ways to Use Brand Storytelling
1. Fill in the gaps
Brand storytelling allows you to seamlessly fill in the gaps between messages on your platforms and build on your existing business reputation. Telling your brand’s story will help your customer connect the dots. To do this, you need to dive deep into your brand. Therefore, you need to do three things:
- Understand where a gap exists in the picture you are painting for your customers
- Help the buyer see how your company contributes to society, their own goals, etc.
- Use this information to show the customer how you will help them find a solution personally or professionally
2. Invigorate your mission
When you fill in the gaps for your customer, you also invigorate your brand’s mission. Doing so allows you to show your customer why you stand behind the value of your products or services. By telling a story, you can help a customer understand why you are committed to your brand’s mission and purpose.
3. Give a historic background
Customers want to know what happened, historically, that caused you to create and develop your brand. Therefore, sharing your company’s history can help your customer see what led you to create your products or services (if you have one). It gives your audience a clearer insight into the values and influences that have driven your brand to its position in the marketplace.
What it takes to tell a good story–some storytelling tips
- To ensure you tell a good story, you need to have the main character – a hero with whom your audience can relate.
- Ask what your main character wants and think about how you will portray that desire. What is keeping the hero from getting what they need or want? A source of conflict will always spice up your story.
- To make the story more entertaining, you need to find a creative way for the hero to achieve what they are seeking.
- Whether it’s about the main character or the supporting cast, something must change to make the story compelling.
Remember to keep things simple and do not add too many details. Don’t cause your audience to feel overwhelmed.
Brand Storytelling Examples
Remember, when you narrate your brand’s story, it does not always have to center on the company. You can also use brand storytelling examples to understand the different ways you can approach this.
You might also center on the customer. For example, maybe a customer was able to use your product in a unique way. As you can see, you can use different techniques to convey your brand message. Therefore, to tell your brand’s story, you may want to take a survey first to find out more about the way your customers use your products or services.
The following brand storytelling examples will give you a better idea about how to share your story.
Highlight your values
In this example, the business tells a story that gives the customer a better idea about the company’s mission and values. For instance, an employee, working for a publisher, might supply large-print reading materials for homebound people who cannot afford eyeglasses. Another story might focus on a pet food employee who trains support dogs in her spare time.
Show a need
Some stories talk about how a brand’s product “saved the day.” In this dramatic scenario, the story might show how a product was used to save a person’s life. For example, a person’s Apple watch automatically calls for emergency help when the wearer falls ill.
Share what you’ve overcome
Storytelling may also include how a company hit hard times but was able to overcome them with its vision and fortitude. For instance, a business might convey how it struck bottom but came back better than ever.
To connect with your customer, you can use story branding in various ways to develop empathy. Think about what concept you can use to make the story work. Here are some relevant brand storytelling examples for you to get started:
- Use story branding to show how your company took a risk and won.
- Tell a story that connects with the customer’s less serious side and makes them laugh.
- You can also use brand storytelling to expand your image and attract a new audience.
- In some instances, a story can be developed to interrupt the status quo.
- You can also tell a story that focuses on product quality.
- Telling a time-sensitive tale associated with a current trend can be useful to stay relevant and join the conversation.
Brand Storytelling: Tell Your Story
So, how do you want to engage your audience? What will you use to make your story work?
You need to know the answers to both of these questions before you begin creating your brand narrative. To realize success with brand storytelling, you’ll need a consistent narrative that paints the picture of your company. When you do so, you build a story that grabs your audience’s attention and helps them emotionally connect with your products or services on a higher level. Your bottom line will thank you in the long run.
