Since 15,000 B.C., humans have been practising the art of storytelling to entertain, connect, and pass on important information. From our very childhood, we have learnt some of life’s most valuable lessons through hardcover tomes of fables and folklores recounted by our grandmothers. This practice of sharing and listening to stories over thousands of years has given it an unfathomable power – a power that now is being tapped into by content marketers for business brands.
2018 witnessed the steady adoption of storytelling into the content marketing space, thus making content management more about humans and less about the algorithms. Ever since a survey established how the human brain responds better to well-crafted narratives, storytelling has crept into the list of content strategy essentials. But how do you strike a personal chord with your brand story? To help you flex your creative muscle, here I am with all the fundamentals of brand storytelling.
7 SUREFIRE TIPS TO LEVERAGE YOUR BRAND VALUE VIA STORYTELLING
If your creative juices have dried off, then here is a detailed guide with illustrations to help you craft a story for your brand.
- Know Yourself
Before you weave a story that will sear your brand into the memory of your audience, you need to figure out who you are as a business brand. Identify what you believe in as an organization, what unique do you offer and what your brand tenets are. Knowing your name and logo isn’t enough.
You need to find out what does your brand stand for. So my suggestion is that you listen to your customers and look at your competition to figure out what you stand for. Based on your findings, take a clear stand on the problem your brand intends to solve, and then create your story around your goals.
- Identify Your Audience
Imagine sharing an anecdote from the early 90s with a millennial! Not only will the kid be bored to death, but he or she will barely be able to connect with the story. Again, try having a 40-year-old to transcribe the full forms of abbreviations like TBH and FML. You know the ruckus that will ensue. So before you try to connect with your customers with a story, you have to identify the crowd that you want to bond with. The solution to this is to create customer personas by collecting data about your audience through interviews, habits reflected through their social media platforms, and Google Analytics.
When you know who your audience is and what their tastes and preferences are, you can craft stories that match the needs, hopes, and desires of your audience. When you craft stories according to the needs of the readers, your customers will feel more involved with your brand emotionally.
- Narrow Your Expertise
Do not try to be a know-it-all. The outcome isn’t likely to paint a pretty picture for your business. Instead of being a Jack of all trades, narrow down on a niche that you want to serve for and be a master of it. So search for the intersection of your USP and build your story around what you offer to your audience that others don’t.
“We initially published content that dished out tips to both students as well as custom assignment. But then we realized that our audience constitutes more of students. So we changed our voice and narrowed it to solutions that only students might need. This helped our brand become an authoritative voice in the academic industry”, says Emily Eckhart, the content marketing strategist for academic brand MyAssignmenthelp.co.uk.
- Find Your Narrative
Just like a logo adds value to a brand, the writing paradigm you use adds a personal voice to your brand. The narrative of your story has the power to represent your brand and can leverage your content marketing strategy as a standalone story. Take, for instance, the unique voice of BuzzFeed. The digital media mogul founded the now-favourite format of listicles that blends information and creativity in an uncharted way. Click here to master the art of storytelling the BuzzFeed way.
To identify your narrative voice, list the artistic and cultural references that influence your audience. While you must apply the basic tenets of storytelling – drama, humour, rhetoric – you also need to leave your hallmark on the style. This way, the stories you share will act as your brand and sear your business name into your readers’ memory.
- Provide Value to Your Customers
At its core, a story is all about overcoming adversity. If you are only talking about perfection, then your account will not inspire your readers. People relate more to the struggling journey through adversity, and, overcoming it ultimately. Similarly, unless your story addresses a problem and provides a solution, your customers will not connect with your brand story.
So, focus your story of the plight to pluck at the heartstrings of people interested in your services. And, remember not to confuse your storytelling with aggressive advertising. Do not push out marketing content just for the sake of it where there is no story to wrap around.
- Be Human
Often, we forget that the stories we craft are not for search engines and machines but for humans – humans made of flesh, blood and emotions. Your brand’s story should be more about the founders and employees and the users and less about just what you offer. To make it personal, you need to think of your brand as a social actor and embrace a persona for it. Your brand should be the one to interact with other users.
Ask yourself – How would you describe the personality of your brand? Building a persona will add the humane touch and enhance the emotional value of your story. A clear brand persona will allow you to understand how your brand should behave and what story or stories to tell. Also, limit your SEO practices. Do not stuff your writing with keywords. Remember, that your audience will continue reading your story if it is compelling, with or without the keywords.
- Preach What You Believe In
Quite often, brands go out of their way to support a cause that is meaningful to their audience but something that they don’t believe in. But unless your content marketing strategy is foolproof, the consistency soon falters, and the façade comes down. Trust me; you don’t want that for your brand. So I suggest that build your story from the ground up with good intentions. Take a cue from Nike’s Equality Campaign.
This way, you will be able to practice what you preach. Don’t try to sell your brand. Instead, tell people who you are as a company. Start by being authentic. If you are taking up causes like helping the homeless or protecting the environment, then make sure that you continue to support the cause and not just endorse it.
One last thing – Time and again, we all seek out great stories that can change how we think. So, compelling storytelling is your magical wardrobe, letting you into the Narnia of people’s memories. Your brand story is how customers will remember your company. So use the above tips to forge personal bonds with your readers and users. To make it a two-way thing, you can also ask your readers to share their stories. This will build user engagement and help you develop a better brand affinity.
All the best! Here’s to weaving magic with words.
Author Bio:
Kady Smith is a creative writer and an active blogger. She is also associated with the brand MyAssignmenthelp.co.uk as an assignment expert through which she helps students brush up their creative writing skills. Besides being a voracious reader, she is also a closet poet.
Featured image courtesy: Pixabay
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