We are sure that you also have a favorite story from your childhood. These stories, besides being loveable, they are educative as well, they hold valuable thoughts and lessons – and we remember them for a lifetime. Often the hidden aim of these stories is to convince children to behave well, and promote creative and limitless thinking.
Just think about it! The point of marketing is the same: to convince people to choose your brand.
Storytelling is a perfect tool and opportunity for your brand/business to connect with the consumers. Doing this on the plane of human feelings and values, instead of relying on raw data and advertisements.
Why create a brand story?
Through storytelling you tell your followers about facts and data in the form of a story. It’s a great opportunity for potential customer to get to know your brand’s story and values in an interesting form.
Storytelling is not something new: our ancestors have also made cave paintings, which told different stories. They’ve shared their experiences about hunting, you must promote your brand. You are lucky because you don’t have to make cave paintings. Thanks to technology we have a vast tool kit to tell and promote our brand’s story.
Why we need a whole story for that?
Because a lot of research have proven that based on this prehistoric heritage, we remember stories much easier than simple information. You also know some rhymes, don’t you? It’s time for the great realization! Those were also passed down through oral tradition, and only later were they written down.
Let’s see, how you can use storytelling as a tool!
1. Make your brand’s origin story
This shouldn’t be a big hassle, as each brand has its own story. It’s not a problem if it’s not as exciting as a J.K. Rowling book, the important thing is that it’s yours. Introducing the origins of your brand or business helps your potential customers to get to know you better. It’s a great tool for building trust, plus you can get more personal with your audience.
You can use the introduction part of your website to share your story in a written form with some pictures or videos. It is good to talk about the hardships of the beginning for example, since honest content is important, it makes your brand more human and loveable! Your audience can relate much more to this, which leads to emotional commitment, which will lead to more purchases in the end.
2. Customer feedback and their success stories
This shows what kind of successes did your customers have with the help of your products/services. The center of attention in these stories should be them, since they are the ones who show your potential customers why YOU are the best choice! It’s good to gather a few of your previous partners who have achieved great indicators thanks to you, and write a few pages long case study about it.
Ask your former client to participate in writing a success story like this – you can even offer some kind of discount to encourage this. It is a win-win situation: you can grow the trust of your potential customers towards your brand, and the other party gets free advertisement.
What should these contain?
- a quote from a satisfied customer
- before and after pictures
Don’t forget: before publishing do consult your customer!
3. Don’t forget to share customer success stories on social media!
It’s a great marketing tool: followers like these kinds of contents much better, since it’s much more authentic than what the brand itself makes. These are short, honest monologues which help your followers relate.
4. Share the stories of your employees as well!
Show how your business works, and how your employees work! You can ask them to talk about their professional career in a video and why they like working at your company. It’s a great tool for the HR department as well, since if you want to fill an open position, these kinds of videos are great for recruiting.
5. Don’t disappear even after becoming known!
After people have gotten to know your brand, from time to time you can show some before and after pictures, success stories, and how your brand is doing climbing up that imaginary mountain to reach the top! Honesty is important, you can tell your followers about harder periods, which helped you reach where you are now. It’s good to create a special video for anniversaries, in which you show the milestones and the changes your brand, logo and business has gone through.
+1 What makes a good story?
We’ll borrow some help from Carmine Gallo world-renowned author and communications coach:
- meaningful
- personal
- authentic
- simple
- has an impact on emotions
When you are telling a story about your brand, you should use comparisons, for example: “I remember, when…”, “I have a vivid memory of…”
You are inviting your audience for an imaginary journey, this way they can relate much easily – and get closer to you at the same time.
What is the lesson?
At the end of a story everybody draws a conclusion. The lessons of today’s article should be:
be honest, and know with hard work the awaited success will come.
The same goes for storytelling: be thorough, loveable, and the consumers will remember your story the same as they remember their beloved stories from their childhood!
