It can be challenging to promote your business to your target market because there is so much competing content for them to consume. But luckily, brand storytelling is an effective digital marketing method that can help you stand out from your competitors.
Instead of trying to drive customers with traditional sales copy, brand storytelling means that you create engaging stories with cohesive narratives that weave together the emotions and facts that your business evokes.
Below are three tips on crafting your brand’s story so that you stand out from the crowd.
1. Storytelling helps make your brand unforgettable.
The internet is a crowded place. Millions of pieces of new content are being created and shared online each day. Furthermore, companies are spending billions on digital marketing to capture a few fleeting moments of attention from their target audience, likely being bombarded with similar messages.
While the internet has made marketing more accessible in many ways, it has also made it more challenging for businesses to stand out from the pack.
It isn’t enough to have a good product or service. You need to be able to talk about your product or service in a way that differentiates you from your competitors.
That’s where brand storytelling can help.
Instead of giving your audience a bunch of facts and figures, focus on presenting your brand in a genuine, meaningful, and thoughtful way. Turn your messages into stories that engage people, simplify important information, and create an emotional response.
For instance, use a narrative to tell your brand’s history, mission and values, challenges, and successes.
No competitor will be able to copy your story.
2. Storytelling helps your brand build a following.
When crafting your story, consider what your target audience needs from your brand and its products or services. Let’s use Tesla as an example. Its eco-friendly customers feel a strong conviction to support sustainable technology—which is why they buy Tesla’s electric vehicles.
For a business to really take off, it has to become more than just its product or service.
Consider the emotions, ideas, and values you can offer your target audience:
Beyond what you might be selling, what does your company mean to them?
What kind of value do they gain each time they consume your content?
How do they feel after interacting with your brand?
Your story should provoke a meaningful emotional connection by inviting engagement, asking questions, and involving your target market in what your business does.
Essentially, your brand needs to become an experience that your audience can consume.
Then, they will be much more likely to do business with you once they know you, trust you, and like you.
In addition to converting your prospects into customers, you stand a good chance of converting them into advocates for your brand.
3. Storytelling helps your brand be more “human.”
In addition to helping you connect with your target market, differentiating yourself from your competitors, and generating sales, a brand story can impact your customers’ lives, especially when your customers share the same values as your brand.
Many socially conscious consumers choose to do business with brands that support missions aligned with their core values, like combating climate change or championing diversity. In other words, they like doing business with companies that align with their beliefs.
Storytelling can be an excellent way to demonstrate that your brand cares about helping people beyond maximizing profit. A brand story can help you make a good impression on your audience by showing them what you stand for.
Therefore, your overall marketing strategy shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger, more important story:
What makes your brand “human”?
What do you do to transform and touch people’s lives?
How are you making a positive impact on society?
Final Thoughts
Storytelling can help your audience remember your brand and how you are different from your competitors. In addition to helping you generate more sales, brand storytelling enables you to build a following by converting customers into advocates and goes a long way towards helping your brand look more “human.”
