3 Key Factors for Telling Better Brand Stories in Marketing

BrandingMarketing TipsPodcast

Jul 1

Written By brandmerry

3 Key Factors for Telling Better Brand Stories in Marketing

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

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We often think about brand storytelling as our brand story. That's typically what you see written on an ‘About Me’ page, a couple of different places on your website and your social media handles.

But a lot of brands stop here.

They've got that brand story and then they do nothing else, and they're missing out on an incredible marketing strategy by doing so.

Brand storytelling will elevate your marketing.
It will elevate your content creation.
It will elevate your customer experience when you fully embrace it.

Today, on The Brandmerry Podcast, I wanted to not only share how important brand storytelling is but also three key factors that are necessary for telling stories in business.

One of the little secret sauces that I have over here at Brandmerry is the power of storytelling.

It's in everything that I create and teach. I have been featured on multiple podcasts, talking about brand storytelling. I have been featured by HoneyBook, leading an entire workshop on brand storytelling.

My goal is to get you to think of storytelling as a powerful tool not just in your brand foundation, but also in your marketing!

IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING AND BRAND STORYTELLING

What branding focuses on the experience that you are providing your audience.

While the business side of things is very much the marketing, how you're showing up every day, the products, the services, etc...

Branding is focused on a core foundation of who you are, who your ideal customer is, strong messaging, and understanding the emotional component to create an overall experience for your ideal customer.

I've already shared how storytelling plays a role in that, but essentially storytelling allows you to identify who you are, why you're doing the work that you're doing, and the mission statement that we talked about in the first episode.

It helps you identify your brand values, which are a guiding light in the choices that you're going to make.

It helps you get deep into who do I want to work with?
Why do I want to work with them?
Who is my product for, who is my service for?
Who is this whole thing for?

Storytelling can play a major role in the branding process. It is the core foundation of everything that I teach inside of my program, You! Branded.

Inside of You Branded, we are focused on getting clear on your story, your ideal customer’s story, the story that you want to tell through your messaging, the story of your offer, your authentic voice, and ultimately the emotional brand.

Once we have that, you have got so much to get started, to move into that marketing phase, to start showing up, sharing content, and building that know, like, trust factor with your growing audience.

Once you have that, you’re ready to move into the marketing phase. This is why the branding phase is so essential - it builds the foundation and sets the tone for everything you’ll create moving forward to make money in your business.

STORYTELLING AND MARKETING IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

The marketing piece is how you're showing up, how you're attracting your ideal customers, how you are bringing in those leads and how you are leading them to the purchase.

This is the area of brand storytelling that so many people neglect, but it's so important.

Incorporating storytelling into your content and into your marketing gives you the power to increase the likelihood that your audience will actually remember it.

Your audience is 22 times more likely to remember something that you share on social media, in a blog, in an email, on a video, because you've incorporated storytelling.

Storytelling is a universal language and it does amazing things to our brains as humans and ultimately consumers.

It fires off dopamine which makes us feel good. Neural coupling is happening, which basically states that it's not about the story, it's about the art of telling a story that triggers different things in your customer's brain that attracts them to the message because they can connect it to their own story and something that's happened to them - even if it’s not identical.

That's why storytelling is incredibly powerful for bringing in your ideal customer and captivating them.

By incorporating stories into your everyday pieces of content and your marketing, you're actually giving yourself an incredible advantage on social media, on blogs, in email marketing, and when you're selling on a sales page.

HOW STORYTELLING INCREASES SALES

In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glen held an experiment that has become known in marketing as The Significant Object project and it’s a great example of how storytelling plays a role in our marketing and ultimately the purchase conversions of our services and products.

Yep, you heard that right - storytelling can increase sales!

In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn asked 100 creative writers to invent stories about $129 worth of items. They bought $129 worth of items, they hired creative writers to make up stories about each item.

They listed these products on eBay.

The result was a net profit of $3.6 million. It was a 2700% increase in the final markup!

One of the examples that's sold was a paperweight. As you know, we can get these for like a dollar. They specifically bought theirs for $1.47 and it sold for $197. It was a simple paperweight with a story that sold!

This experiment proves that we, as human beings, are drawn to and connect with stories and that we make purchase decisions based on stories and emotional connection.

It is incredibly important for you as a marketer to incorporate storytelling into your entire process!

3 KEY FACTORS FOR BRAND STORYTELLING

We’re focused on brand storytelling today, and I’m not going to sugar coat it - it’s a lot!

Inside of my free training, Build a Better Brand Method, I break down some of the key pieces of brand storytelling and you can watch it for free here.

Inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy, which is my membership community that teaches you how to market off of social media, we talk about storytelling and the different ways that you can create content around storytelling.

There is also this guide if you want to explore further.

So, please know these three factors will get you started, but there is more work to dive into and you’re in the right place at Brandmerry.

KEY FACTOR #1
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE AND WHAT IS THE VALUE

I'm laughing a little bit on the inside here because if you've worked with me or listened to any of my live videos, you know how much I stress the importance of doing ideal customer work. It's non-negotiable over here.

Do you have a content creation problem? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.

Don't know what kind of copy to write? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.

Don't know what kind of stories to tell? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.

Ideal customer research is important, and I'm not talking about just getting on the phone with people and chatting with them all day, every day. There are a lot of strategic ways to do ideal customer research through free tools online, like Answer the Public, to posting a survey, to asking questions in your Insta Stories.

Ideal customer work is something that we teach inside of module two of my course, You! Branded, and it's so important for moving forward in branding and marketing your business.

It’s imperative when it comes to brand storytelling because as business owners, we're not just telling stories to tell stories. We're not just talking about a fun thing we did today. Because that's not going to get people to invest in what we're selling.

We ultimately are using stories to build connections and make sales. So when you're thinking about the types of stories to share, you want to be super clear on the audience that you're telling those stories to.

If you were writing a speech for a TED talk, you would need to know who's in the room.

If you were being asked to speak on stage at a conference for photographers, you wouldn't go in to speak at a conference for people who sell a product. That’s a different audience and you would choose your stories accordingly.

You need to understand who your audience is at their core, so you can choose the stories that are ultimately going to connect with them because that's what running a successful business is about.

In addition to that, one of the best practices that I love to teach my clients is identifying the value before you even craft the post, or the email, or the story on a video. So not only are you sharing the story, you've run it through your checker of how it'll connect to your ideal customer and the specific value that it's providing them.

Remember, value doesn't necessarily mean five tips on this, although that's helpful. It can also be humorous, entertaining, inspirational, motivational, or educational.

Remember…
…what is the story?
…how does it connect to your ideal customer?
...what value do you provide?

And then you will know that you've got a story that is going to help move your business forward.

KEY FACTOR #2
THE 4 C’S OF STORYTELLING

The second thing that you want to keep in mind, one of the key factors in storytelling, is the four Cs. They are character, conflict, conclusion and CTA.

Let's break these down.

CHARACTER

There has to be a central focus for the story that you're telling.

If you're telling a story about something that happened to you, you might be the character.
If you're telling a story about a client testimonial, they might be the character.
If you're telling a story where you want the reader to picture themselves in the story, then it is your reader.
Your character could also be your product or service you’re selling.

The goal is to have a focus on who the story is ultimately about.

CONFLICT

The second thing you want in your story is conflict.

You can call it conflict, obstacle, or decision, and it’s anything that causes some tension in the story. This is important because we, as people, as human beings, need a resolution from conflict, so having this in your story makes it interesting!

Then we offer the conclusion or resolution after introducing the conflict.

CONCLUSION

Having both the conflict and conclusion is a great way to not only hook your audience but keep them engaged.

I was watching WandaVision, not that long ago, and every week I was like, “Oh my gosh. Man, now I have to wait 'til next week!” And I was genuinely frustrated about it, but I also made a note in the back of my mind that I cannot miss next week's episode.

This is what happens in our brain when we are introduced to some sort of conflict and need a resolution. It's called open looping.

As humans, we need resolve. So that's where the conclusion or resolve comes into play.

If you can present the character, you can showcase some sort of tension or conflict, a decision, or a question that was presented and then resolve that and share the conclusion, you're doing that full arc in your ideal customer's mind. That's where the dopamine gets released!

CALL TO ACTION

As business owners, we are not only focused on connection, but we also want to make profits.

So having some sort of call-to-action is important with your stories. That CTA doesn't have to be, “click here” or “visit my bio.”

It could be, “drop me an emoji”, “what did you think about this”, “answer yes or no”, “share this.”

Those are all CTAs. You don't want to miss that piece.

Character, conflict, conclusion, are key in all stories, everywhere. Movie scripts, sitcoms, books that we read. The CTA is that business element that we don't want to forget about.

So again, include character, conflict, conclusion, and CTA in all of your stories.

KEY FACTOR #3
PAINT A PICTURE

I often have clients who are worried about a story being too long, and as a result, they cut out crucial pieces of the story and ultimately impact the effectiveness of your storytelling.

Now, I’m not saying that you want to write something incredibly lengthy that your audience will never read, but be aware of the language you’re using to enhance the story.

Some of the things that I encourage my clients to do when it comes to painting a picture, is to be descriptive and share emotionally charged language.

If you know things about your ideal customer, about their pain, about their pleasure, things that they would say, incorporating those into your story is powerful. Being descriptive and showcasing the individual pieces.

One of the small parts of my founder’s story is a great example of this.

“I remember sitting on the couch in a postpartum fog, breastfeeding my one-month-old son. I looked up, turned to my husband and said, “I don’t want to go back to work.” He looked up, took a deep breath and said, “Ok.” That was the start of Brandmerry.”

You can see inside of this story how I’ve painted a picture for my audience. If I would have taken out the descriptive elements it would have just been, “I was sitting on the couch and I looked at my husband and I said, I want to leave my job. And he said, okay, let's do it.”

That’s pretty boring.

What I did instead was set up the scene, where I'm talking about being in a postpartum fog, I'm sitting on the couch and breastfeeding my son. You can imagine what that looks like. You might even be seeing yourself in that situation.

I talk about lifting my head, turning to my husband. I share what I said. I talk about him taking a deep breath in, letting it out, turning to me, and saying what he said.

That did not make my story incredibly long, but it enhanced the story 150% and it made it better.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to paint a picture, be descriptive, and use that strong, emotionally charged language when you're sharing your stories online. Especially on social media, because you want your stories to captivate your audience and not just sound like everyone else.

CONCLUSION

Let’s recap the three key factors for storytelling in your marketing.

Number one: Know your audience and the value the story provides.
Number two: Include the four C’s of character, conflict, conclusion, and CTA.
Number three: Paint a picture.

As I've mentioned, you can be showing up and sharing stories all of the time in your marketing.
In fact, I challenge you to incorporate a single story in every piece of content that you create moving forward.

One of the great ways to start is by going back and listening to some of the previous episodes on this podcast for ideas.

In episode one, I talked about creating a mission for your business. Write your mission, and then share various stories about your mission. Why you believe in your mission, when you wrote your mission. If you have a story about why you have a mission, share the story about that.

In episode three, we talked about brand values. Identify your brand values, and then pick out different stories that you can tell from your life that showcase those brand values.

Those are ways that you can get started right now.

You can share your founder’s story or your “About Me” story, which we're going to dive into in a future episode. That's another story that you can break down and share on social media.

So you've got what you need to get started in sharing stories online.

Don't forget to catch the free On-Demand training, the Build a Better Brand Method. You can go to betterbrandmethod.com to learn more about my signature six-part method. You're going to learn more about elevating your messaging. I've got a trick in there on doing your ideal customer research that you're not going to want to miss where I’m talking about telling your brand story.

You can also check out youbrandedcourse.com to learn more about my paid branding course. This is truly where you get the step-by-step system for building a strong brand foundation rooted in story, understanding your ideal customer and mastering your messaging.