The past few years should have shown business owners and leaders that connecting with your audience and building a supportive community through transparency is the best way to gain and keep loyal customers. Instead of hopping on every trend in an effort to outrank the competition, brands would do better to connect with audiences by simply sharing their values, thus creating a competitive advantage that no other brand can match. You’re probably thinking, “how can I make my brand story attention-grabbing and engaging in a successful way? How can we attain that natural captivation of our audience?” Here are 3 tips that can help you answer these questions.
Be Real
The best way to connect with consumers through your brand story is by first understanding your brand thoroughly and then simply telling your brand story. Be introspective when asking yourself, “What does my brand stand for?; – who are we as an organization?; what do we do?; who do we do this for?; why and how do we do it?”
Self-identity generally occurs during the creation of brand values. Once those values have been confirmed and communicated to internal teams and external audiences, a brand has to consistently stand on them. These values should be authentic, meaningful, and valuable to your brand and your audience. A brand’s values should also be considered when making business decisions, when speaking about certain social issues, and when deciding your business’ niche.
Be Simple
Has your mother ever said, “Quality over quantity,” or “keep it simple” to you? Well, now is the perfect time to apply mom’s advice!
Keeping your brand story as digestible as possible will allow your brand to be more “human” and will allow more people in your target audience to connect with you. It also helps to easily articulate your brand message across multiple platforms. Simple stories are far more trustworthy for consumers, as well.
Our professionals recommend brand stories that incite emotion, provide solutions and measure success. It’s easiest to format it as a short story that introduces the problem your brand aims to fix, the solution you’ve created that will work towards that fix, and, the finale, the success that the solution has produced. The end of your simple story should not be the end-all, however. It should, instead, be the end to the appetizer, leaving room for the entree and dessert. In other words, let people know that you will continue this work to solve whatever issues your brand is working to improve.
Be Transparent
Today’s consumers are not those that waste time with pushy marketing tactics. Instead, they appreciate the integrity and authenticity of the brands with whom they choose to build loyalty. Attempting to be a doppelgänger of another brand will prove to quickly fail. Audiences are quickly able to search and compare a company’s tactics using digital tools and social media.
Our professionals recommend thinking of your brand as a person in order to give it a unique angle, what does the brand look like (this will be the visual piece of your brand story used for media and digital marketing efforts)?; what does the brand sound like (this is the communications aspect – the voice and tone of the brand)?; and what is important to your brand (this helps you determine which conversations to lead or become a part of regarding political or social issues, community efforts, etc.).
While thinking through all of this, have fun but be careful not to get lost in the rabbit hole of creativity. Be sure to keep the fun ideas that will ultimately boost your brand to success. Let your audience see that while many companies are doing the same things, no company can do it like you!
