Part of owning a business is developing your brand and brand story. These details are what customers remember most about you and your company. As such, many businesses choose to use brand storytelling to create a memorable story. Below are several tips to help your business in developing a great brand story.
The first step in creating a brand story is knowing who and what your brand is. This requires a look inwards at the business and those who created it. What does the business mean to you, and what do you want the brand to mean to others. Work out what exactly you want your brand stand for, and how to show that to your audience. Consider any hardships your business has faced, and how you overcame those. Use those lessons to decide how you want to present your brand to the world. Look, listen and review what your direct competitors are doing and find a way to stand out, authentically. This is what will make you unique.
It is crucial that you define your brand mission and strategy early. These will be the foundation on which you build your brand story and marketing. Throughout your business model, your mission should drive how employees interact with customers. To truly learn what the foundation will be, consider creating 3 pillars of values and branding. These pillars will help you in developing a great brand story.
Know that you know what your business is, what your business wants to do and how to stand out, you need to know who to target. Creating a specific customer persona or avatar is a great way to find your audience. Research what age your ideal customer is by studying competitors. Learn what other industries link with yours to find potential interests. Most importantly, think of who you want to buy your products, this will be your primary demographic. Additionally, find out where your audience hangs out online, this will help with where to launch your brand story.
Once you find where and who your audience is, you need to appeal to them in a personable way. You want to build trust while connecting with your audience. Use emotions and a persona to tell your brand story. Your brand story should create a unique experience and capture the interest of the reader or listener. The story should have personality and explain the why of your business.
Keeping your story simple is possibly the most important thing to remember. To do this, ensure you have a start, middle, and end to the story. In the beginning, you should explain what problem your business is looking to solve. The middle, explains the solution or how your business is solving the problem. The end is most exciting, this is where you discuss the end result and success of your product or business. However, you want to ensure that your ending doesn’t close the door on your business. After all, your company is still growing, innovating, and exploring more possibilities.
If you can create a compelling brand story, people will be talking about your brand for years to come. Simply think of the rags to riches success of Apple. So, start developing a great brand story for your business by using the tips above.
