What is brand storytelling?
A large part of what we do at USDP is tell stories. We love our clients’ missions, and we help them bridge the marketing gap between where they are and where they want to be. We communicate their story to the world and help connect them to people who have been looking for a product or service like theirs.
But how do we tell compelling and effective stories?
Creating a brand’s messaging takes some deliberation and reflection. It should take into account a company’s ethos, their customers’ problems, and their unique differentiators. Good messaging tells a clean, compelling story.
Let’s talk about how storytelling works.
The brand narrative
Brand storytelling begins by distilling the essence of your brand into a clear narrative. There are many building blocks to create your brand’s narrative. A narrative needs to be all encompassing, yet to the point. It needs to communicate a lot in a finite space or a short period of time. Even though your audience is searching for a solution to a problem, they don’t have all day trying to figure out if you’re the best fit. A brand narrative should get to the point without glossing over critical details.
Wrapping up your brand’s story into a digestible yet compelling package involves a few ingredients: the ethos of your business, a clear understanding of your target audience, personal elements of the people behind the brand, striking the right voice and tone, and highlighting your differentiators. But, it shouldn’t be too wordy.
The elements of a brand narrative
Your brand’s ethos: How you position yourself
When creating your brand messaging, it’s important to investigate and clarify the most basic, foundational principles of your company. You need to create an anchor for all messaging; a positioning statement that your marketing, content creation, and sales pitches can use as the blueprint.
Your brand’s ethos is your character as a company. It defines your credibility and your authority, and it’s what drives you to do what you do. Do you help people with their financial lives? Do you manufacture products or build software to help businesses operate more efficiently? Do you raise money for humanitarian causes? Whatever it is that your business does, your ethos is the underlying framework that motivates your work.
If you don’t know what your ethos is, or you’re having trouble defining it, your customers will also struggle.
The characters: Your target audience(s)
Defining your audience is the next step.
Who are your consumers? What are the demographics, their ages, their locations, and the issues they face? It is critical to reflect on their concerns, problems, goals, questions, and fears to properly empathize and come alongside them in their customer journey.
Once you understand who they are and what they want, show them how you can provide value and guidance. Establish yourself as the north star for their problem that you will be the best at solving.
Your pathos: the story behind your company
As a business owner, the inspiration to build a company must have started somewhere. Whether your journey began last year or you’ve been building upon a century of family legacy, there are real people behind the success.
Highlighting the people behind the brand can be a great way to build connection with your audience. You’re humanizing your business, establishing trust, and making your company feel less abstract. Having an “About” section in your brand’s narrative is a great opportunity to tell your story and communicate both your years of experience or your fresh new take on an industry.
How to tell your brand story
Perfect your voice and tone
Delivery matters. Good communication can land a deal, but bad communication can sink it.
When telling your brand’s story, take some time to reflect on the voice and tone of your business. While this may seem like a subtle and inconsequential aspect, voice and tone are integral to brand storytelling.
Your voice and tone are your brand’s attitude and disposition. You are choosing how to speak to your customers and the general public when you establish a voice and tone.
For example, your brand can look and sound bold, comforting, supportive, or dependable. Your voice can inspire confidence, trust, and loyalty in your customers.
Alternatively, bad brand storytelling causes your messaging to fall flat or even backfire. With the wrong tone and voice you can risk sounding stale, outdated, immature, or untrustworthy. Your voice can turn customers away and cause them to consider other options.
Highlight your differentiators
While your business is one-of-a-kind, chances are you have a few competitors.
So, what makes you different? What can you offer that no one else can? In both big and small ways, you can stand out from the crowd through brand storytelling.
Whether it’s the customer service, the mission, or the exceptional products, every business has its own edge. Amplify your unique offerings and make them part of your brand identity. Speak to your customers’ problems by filling their gaps with your solutions.
Embrace clarity
Don’t overcomplicate your messaging. Too much text on a website or fluffy jargon in a sales pitch can lead to information overload. Your audience will be swimming in confusion or losing the point.
Clarify your message, your audience, your unique differentiators and your tone/voice. Package that into a concise and clear story. Don’t try to solve every problem for every audience. Focus on the particular problem that you can solve for your audience.
If you are ready to get started telling your brand’s story, check out the resources below or reach out to one of our experts today.