Brand Storytelling Guide

VisibilityMarketing TipsGuides

Apr 5

Written By brandmerry

Everything you need to know about storytelling as an entrepreneur.

Let's dive into why storytelling is essential 👇

WHY STORYTELLING IS SO IMPORTANT AS AN ONLINE BUSINESS AND BRAND

I like to use the Ice Cream Sundae analogy when talking about your brand and storytelling.

Imagine for a second that your brand and story are the ice cream. The ice cream alone is delicious and something you can enjoy just as it is or you can enhance it to make it even better.

Now, let’s imagine the marketing, funnels, ads, social media platforms, etc are chocolate syrup, nuts and whipped cream. Mix those together and have them stand alone; it’s kind of just a mushy, nutty sweetness. Definitely not as good as it is with ice cream.

The point is your brand and story can stand alone and make you money. The marketing strategies can not. You need to have the entire package for those to even work.

You need the whole package.

WHY STORYTELLING WORKS IN ONLINE MARKETING

When you add storytelling to your messaging and content it is 22x more likely to be remembered

Not to mention it helps in the decision-making process. A report from Harvard University found that 90% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously and based on emotional connection. Emotional connection comes from trust and storytelling.

So you’re also more likely to convert your clients into a sale by using storytelling.

AND not to mention the average time someone spends on a website is 8-15 seconds. Yet, this is where all the information about your business is. So, how do you keep them captivated for longer? Storytelling and strong personal messaging.

That’s because storytelling makes your brand:

Captivating - pulls in your ideal customer
Memorable - at the front of their mind, even as they scroll
Trustworthy - builds an emotional connection to you and your brand

Want a Deeper dive? keep reading here

It Starts With Your Brand Identity 👇

What is Brand Identity?

Let's talk specifically about how Brand Identity helps your brand as a whole. So, brand identity is the personality of your brand. It is that experience that you are creating.

It is the combination of values, your mission, how you want people to feel, that emotional side. It's that entire experience and it's one of my favorite things to talk about.

You've actually probably heard me just refer to it as branding because to me that's truly what it is.

We have had such an evolution with what branding is and what's important when it comes to branding. From just thinking it was a logo and your colors to understanding that it really is about the human connection, values, mission, and emotional connection you’re creating.

So, I will refer to just brand identity as branding. I interchange them all the time because that's just the direction that we're heading with branding overall.

So branding is really about that experience, creating that experience and putting a personality to your brand.

When you're creating a personal brand it makes it a lot easier because you're front and center, you're sharing yourself, you're sharing your stories. So, that personality just naturally happens which is why personal branding is so powerful.

So if you want to learn a little bit more about emotional branding and all those different things, after this video make sure you definitely check out my blog. I have tons of content over there on emotional branding and just the foundational pieces of branding. I've got some YouTube videos on it as well.

And if you go to my Facebook I've got an entire folder of videos on that as well.

So when you think of Brand Identity, I want you to think about the personality behind your brand and the experience you’re creating for your audience.

What is YOUR brand story?

The first thing that you've got to do is figure out what your brand story is. So this will look different for different types of businesses. There are different ways and structures to actually create your brand story based on your personal story and based on your individual business.

But really what I want you to focus on now is stripping away the, "How do I write this on my about me page?" And, "What does this look like on my bio, on my homepage?" Strip all that away and just focus solely on the story.

In fact, when you're writing this out I want you to think about actually telling this story to someone.
Some of you might want to even record it and transcribe it. It might feel a little bit more natural to you.

Ultimately, what you want to do is highlight and share the journey that has happened that led you to the creation of your brand.

Your brand is not a product, your brand is not a service specifically, it's the whole thing.

It's that umbrella, it's the work that you're putting out into the world, it's your mission, it's who you ultimately want to impact all rolled into one. And you want to share the evolution of how that came to be.

So I want you to strip away, “How is this structured?” and “How does this flow?” and really just allow yourself to tell the story. That's where all the goodness gets to go in. And then when we format, we can pull out the unnecessary pieces and clean it up a bit.

But I want you to just deeply understand what has led you to this moment and think of really telling that story to your audience.

For example, when I talk about my brand story, one piece of that is this underlying feeling of not living a life based on other people's expectations or going against the status quo.

And I know that that's important to my audience, that's important to you, that's something that you also believe in. I share that through my storytelling and I share that through my brand story to get that message across.

You're probably already picking up on it, but your brand story is where that connection can really start for many of you. Because once we get to formatting it for an about me page, or we get to putting it out there in social media, it might be one of the first things that people see and you have an opportunity to build that connection with them right out of the gate.

Focus on taking your audience on this journey, write out your brand story and become really clear on what you ultimately want to share about your journey and what has led you to the brand that you are creating today.

how to Identify The Brand Emotions

Step two is to elevate the experience by focusing on the emotional connection.

And this is where we really take your story and spin it around to pull in your audience and build that trust.

I call these brand emotions and I encourage you to identify five brand emotions for your brand as a whole.

Don't get too obsessed with the number. It could be three, it could be six, it could be seven. Don't do 25 or something like that. I find five is the sweet spot.

But you really want to ask yourself, "How do I want my audience to feel?"

I mean, the reality is you've got eight seconds to make an impression.

That's not a lot of time to read an entire message on a piece of content. It's not a lot of time to read a bunch of stuff on your homepage.

You've got to make that first initial impression a good one and powerful, and that really comes down to that emotional connection. How do people feel when they land on your website, when they see a piece of your content?

In order to exude that, in order to allow people to feel that, you need to know what you want people to feel.

Take the time to identify those brand emotions.

I want to give you two examples, because I know sometimes you might be thinking, "What do I want people to feel, Michelle?"

I have a client who is in the mindset space, the spiritual mindset space specifically, and she supports women in moving through a very difficult period of their life. She does a lot of shadow work. Her clients are currently in a difficult time but they are moving towards the light. They want to understand how to get there, they want to feel supported through that process, and they want to do it in a way that feels good and not forced.

We know this about her audience and we also know from her brand story she's really good at it. So when we were thinking of her brand emotions we wanted to show the light. We wanted to show what was possible, the desire, and what her audience was wanting to move towards.

Because her audience didn't want to neglect where they were and that was really, really important to communicate, we played with sharing that through messaging, through story, through brand colors, showing both the dark and the light.

That's just one example but again it comes back to how do I want people to feel and ultimately what are they looking for? What are they searching for?

With my brand, I decided very early on, well actually after eight months of having a brand that was not me at all, I redid the whole thing and now it's great. But when I redid it, I got back to this core piece of storytelling and brand emotions and I asked myself, "How do I want people to feel?"

And it kept coming up for me that I wanted people to feel safe and comfortable and that they could be their authentic selves. That there was this connection between the two of us, between my brand and between them and their story. That it almost felt like we were sitting cozied up by a fire on a fall day just having a really deep conversation and chat.

I used that to motivate all of these different pieces that we're going to talk about in just a second.

Again, take the time to understand who you are and the journey that you've gone on to get to where you are, to have the brand, the mission, the values, the core beliefs and the impact that you want to make in your ideal customer's life. As well as understand how you want them to feel from the moment they come in contact with your brand, through all of those different pieces.

Now that brings us to, "Now how do we actually use this Michelle? How do we use this? This all sounds great, I love it, but how do we use it?"

Let's talk about how we use that brand story and those brand emotions to enhance and communicate and have this wonderful experience also known as brand identity.

Want a deeper dive? Keep reading here

How Often Should You Share It? 👇

The truth is you should be sharing story in every piece of content you create, but when you’re just starting out you might just have you Brand Story or Founders Story and that’s ok. Here are some suggestions on where to share it!

10 WAYS TO SHARE YOUR BRAND STORY online

Now, you’re ready! You know the power of sharing your story with the world, you’ve identified your story and now it’s time to share it.

Below, I’ve included 10 DIFFERENT places to share your Brand Story as a way to build brand awareness and community. I’ve marked the ones that can be repeated ever 30 days with an *.

On the homepage of your blog (include a small excerpt similar to a social post)
On your About Me/ My Story page (want my tips on this? Click here)
The sidebar or footer of your blog
Social Media post (includes Facebook and Instagram) *
IGTV video
Insta Stories *
As a highlight on your Instagram
Introduction in a Facebook Group *
Youtube video (tied in with your favorite tip within your niche)
Live video (Facebook) *

That’s one freaking story, imagine what you could do if you repeated this over and over again for your most important stories - the ones that share your expertise, relate to your audience and build trust.

Pretty cool stuff, right?

Want a deeper dive? Keep reading here

So, Should You Repeat Your Story? 👇

WHY REPETITION IS IMPORTANT IN MARKETING

Now, that we’ve covered how to effectively repeat stories in business, let’s dive deep into why this is so important.

Remember, the information I’m sharing here doesn’t just apply to storytelling, it applies to marketing as a whole. Think of repeating not just your stories, but your messages, offers, freebies, etc...and why it’s essential when building an online brand.

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Unfortunately, the number of contact points needed before someone becomes a customer is growing. There is just so much information online and with the algorithm changing frequently, it’s important that we’re consistently showing up for our audience if we ever want to make money online.

While there's no clear number for contact points, the standard is:

BRAND AWARENESS: 3 points of contact before someone will pay attention to your brand

SALES: 7 points of contact before someone will take action or make a purchase decision.

As you can see repetition is necessary when it comes to marketing your business, because the odds of someone seeing your content, thanks to the algorithm, and taking action after one message is very slim.

In addition to the multiple contact points needed, there is also the concept of The Frequency Illusion (or Baader-Meinhof phenomenon). It’s the illusion that we see or hear the same thing everywhere.

The best way to describe this is when you’re thinking about buying a new car and you decide on the one you want and then you see it EVERYWHERE!

This illusion is something we as marketers need to remember and use to our advantage. It’s why you see retargeting ads when you search for something on Google or visit a website.

The reason so many marketers are using this principle in business is that the more we, as consumers, start to see or hear the same message we begin to think of it as important. It heightens our awareness and moves the brand, product or service up the importance meter; essentially you’re adding importance and urgency to your offer.

You can achieve this by consistently showing up with your content so you’re top of mind, sharing your brand story so people actually know who you are and utilizing retargeting tools in advertising.

Repetition is key in not only making sure our audience sees our message and making sure it is of importance to our audience, but also because it builds brand credibility and trust.

The final thing I’ll share with you on repetition in marketing is the power of sharing your core stories and messages across all platforms. When we do this we’re creating brand affinity and brand messaging consistency and consistency builds trust.

If someone lands on your Facebook page and then heads to Instagram and maybe your website, is it the same? Does it feel like the same brand and message? If not, you’re breaking trust.

When we think of utilizing this for your Brand Story, I want you to think about posting the entire thing on your “About Me” page, then sharing a variation of that on your Homepage and Blog sidebar, Facebook, a one-liner on Instagram and so on…
...this repetition and consistency in messaging will build trust with your audience quicker.

3 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR REPETITION IN STORYTELLING

1. SWITCH UP THE EMPHASIS

As I mentioned in the beginning, it’s important that even when sharing the same story, think of your Brand story, that you switch up the way you tell it and the emphasis.

Focus on pulling different parts of the story based on your central theme or goal. If you need a refresher scroll up for my brand storytelling example.

This works wonders because the art of storytelling is about showcasing a moment in time. So when I share my Brand Story, I might focus on the moment when I realized I lost myself in the branding process because of comparisonitis. Then, I might share the story later and focus on the moment when I realized branding wasn’t about the font, colors and logo.

You can also switch it up based on what’s happening in your business or what’s timely in the world. For instance, when COVID first started I saw so many of my friends, family and community members worried about working from home with kids. So, I started sharing more of my stories and experiences of running my business and working from home with my son for four years.

You can modify stories, emphasizing different parts, and sharing them in different ways to build brand trust and affinity.

2. EMBRACE THE ART OF REPURPOSING YOUR CONTENT

Your audience needs to hear things multiple times, this is why I love repurposing to make sure my content every week is reaching my audience!

As we’ve mentioned it requires multiple touchpoints for your audience to take action, but who the heck has time to come up with new content every single day? Not me!

That’s why I shared an entire blog post on The Art of Repurposing, which you can check out here.

I can't tell you how many times I put something on my Instagram Stories, and I'll send an email, and I'll make an Instagram post and then, after all those other posts, I'll post on Facebook and someone will respond with, “Oh, I didn't even know you were offering this!”

The reality is our audience are busy living their lives, so if we’re not repeating our content and repurposing it we’re doing a major disservice to our marketing.

Just like your Brand Story, the concept of repurposing is taking your content and sharing it multiple ways on multiple platforms.

You can check out my blog on Repurposing here.

3. IDENTIFY YOUR CORE BRAND STORIES

Did you catch the plural there? The truth is there are so many types of stories we should be sharing in our business. Aside from your Brand Story or Founders Story, we also have the collection of stories that showcase your brand values, pillars or framework of your offer and your brand mission.

The more you, as a brand, can share these stories the more you’ll attract a community of people who are in alignment with your brand and brand mission and that is important.

Once you have these stories in your Story Bank, you can add additional stories and sprinkle them into your content at any time you’re posting...and yes you need a story every time you post content!

Think of it like this, you create a content calendar of posts you want to make over the next 30 days. These are timely pieces that promote your freebie, your offers, share value. Then you go through each of them and pair it with a story from your Story Bank.

Do you see how easy it is to incorporate storytelling into your business? And it’s so powerful.

Want a deeper dive? Keep reading here

What About Imperfect Stories 👇

How to Share Imperfections and ‘The Messy Middle’ in Storytelling

So now that we understand vulnerability and transparency as it applies to storytelling, let’s talk about imperfections or ‘The Messy Middle.’

How do you share stories and when do you share stories that feel raw?

I’ve got a couple of rules here that you will want to steal, so grab that notepad.

RULE #1: IS IT SACRED?

It’s important to make sure the stories you share feel aligned, so you need to ask yourself, “Does it feel good to share this story or a small part of this story?”

As I mentioned in the blog a few weeks ago, storytelling is not about a period in time, but a moment in time. If the period as a whole doesn’t feel good, can you strip it back and share a moment.

Example: When I was sharing about the birth of my son in the beginning I was still in the postpartum experience and it felt raw, but I knew it was an important part of my story as it related to my brand. So I chose the parts that felt good to share, including why I started my business and what it was like to build the business with a baby. As time went on and my brand evolved I would share more and more.

So ask yourself if what you’re wanting to share actually feels good and if it feels better to strip it back, then do that!

RULE #2: DON’T SHARE IT WHILE YOU’RE IN IT

Remember, you’re building a business not just talking to your friends on the internet, so the stories you choose need to be strategic.

As a business owner it’s important that no matter how vulnerable or transparent you are, you still need to be the guide for your ideal customer. If you’re going through something at that moment and are wondering how to share it, it’s going to be hard to be the guide or show the value.

You’ll notice in my business I don’t talk about life as it’s happening, in fact, I rarely post in real-time even while traveling. I wait till I’ve experienced something and then I weave it into my content by telling a story.

An example is in 2019 when we started traveling I had a hard time navigating this new schedule and lifestyle. That was hard and I was in it so I didn’t talk about the hard stuff openly on social media. As time went on and I got my grounding I could talk more about it and share the lessons I learned as a way to provide value to my audience.

So, remember if you’re in it don’t share it. Take the time to go through it and look back on the lessons you learned so it provides value to your audience.

RULE #3: IT MUST PROVIDE VALUE

Arguably the most important part of the storytelling process is your audience. Although the stories might be yours they aren’t for you. When you’re sharing stories as part of your brand and business you want to make sure they are of value to your audience.

When you think of these stories, run them through my 2-part question test…

“What value does this story provide my audience?”

“How does this story build trust with my audience?”

If you can’t answer these questions with clarity, no matter how authentic, transparent or vulnerable they might be then it’s not the right time to share them. Put them away in your story bank and come back to them later.

want a deeper dive? Keep reading here

Ok, Ready For Some Content Examples? 👇

5 EXAMPLES OF BRAND STORYTELLING

So many entrepreneurs never think of sharing their story outside of their Brand/ Founder Story, but that’s only a small piece of the puzzle.

You can’t share your brand story every single day on social media and every offer you create needs a little more attention than just how your business was started.

This is where different types of stories come into play.

1. THE TESTIMONIAL STORY

The stories you share in business don’t have to be your own, they can be stories from your client and community members. This is a great way to share social proof and do more than just post a 2-3 sentence testimonial on your website.

When asking for feedback or testimonials be sure to ask multiple questions about where your audience was, where they are now and what changed for them. Along with your testimonial statement, you’ll be able to use this information to tell stories on social media and in your email marketing that helps your audience make a purchase decision.

Bonus Tip: Videos are a great way to share stories. Have your client create a short video sharing their story and share it during your next launch or promotion.

2. THE TRANSFORMATION STORY

The transformation story can fall into The Testimonial story above, because who doesn’t love a great before and after. If you’re in fitness, health, wellness, products or even service-based you can use the transformation story constantly.

Here are some examples:
Fitness - Share a before and after photo of a client or yourself
Product (Skincare) - Share a before and after photo of someone using your product
Graphic Designer - Share the before and after of your client’s graphics

The possibilities are endless.

But, I’m going to encourage you to think a level deeper and share your own micro transformations. Think of the things happening daily that your audience can relate too.

Some places to start are moments of “failure,” mindset shifts, overcoming obstacle and stories of success. Seriously, I bet if you sat down with pen and paper right now you could come up with at least 20 posts.

3. THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES STORY

These are great stories to show what you do and your process in business, as well as build trust with your audience.

Human to Human or Relationship-Building Marketing is on the rise. People want to know the brand they are investing in. One of the ways to build this trust and go beyond just a product or service you sell is to invite your audience behind the curtain.

This is one of the reasons I love showing up on Instagram Stories. It’s a simple way to share my day to day, my role as a mother, my love of gardening, our travels and my business.

My audience gets to see multiple sides of my personality, which also builds Brand Affinity, and as a result, the trust is accelerated.

If you sell a product consider sharing the behind the scenes of how you make the product.

If you’re a coach, show your client calls and trainings.

Show how you manage your day-to-day, the things you love and how you take on the other roles in your life.

These stories are powerful and some of the easiest to start with.

4. THE VALUE STORY

Last week on the blog we talked about identifying your core stories early on. These core stories include:

+ Your Founder/ Brand Story
+ Your Mission and how it came to be
+ Your Why or Purpose Story
+ Your Value Story

It is important that as a brand and business owner that you create these micro-stories that show your values in action, affirm your values and share why you have these values.

For example, one of my values is authenticity. That's just not a word that I like to use for marketing, I truly believe it to my core. I share that value in my stories because I want to attract people who share the same value.

This is where Brand Affinity becomes so powerful because brand affinity is that shared mission, those shared values. It goes much deeper than someone saying, “Oh, you're cool. Oh, I like your product or your service. Let me check it out.”

It's much deeper than even trust, it’s a shared value.

Share these values to bring in the people that align with your values, the things that are important to you, and let the others drift away.

5. THE DISRUPT STORY

When it comes to the Disrupt Story, I’m slightly obsessed. I believe this story is an excellent way to share your values and your beliefs and separate you from others in your industry.

You know you have an industry-standard or common thread of beliefs in your industry. You see them in every Facebook group and on websites that all start to look the same.

Think about your own business, your superpower, your teachings and pull out the pieces that go against the grain.

For instance, last year I did an entire email series called Behind The Brand. I called out beliefs inside the industry around branding. Some examples were:

+ How the industry defines success
+ The truth about templates and how they create inauthenticity and a copy and paste culture
+ Transparency and vulnerability as a business owner

I also talk about the power of a brand and why I believe that without a brand you don’t have a business, something that goes against other mentors and coaches who “skip” branding.

These types of stories have allowed me to talk about my business, but also call my audience to speak up. When I share the disrupt stories I always attract new community members, increase my engagement and sign clients.

People want transparency, authenticity and something different. This story does that!

Here’s an example of The Disrupt in action.

Want a deeper dive? Keep reading here

Oh, And Don't Make This Mistake 👇

BRAND STORYTELLING SECRET WEAPON

When you are telling stories in business they are for your ideal customer, they are for your audience...they are not for you!

You're not buying your own stuff, so the story is not for you.

The ultimate goal is to attract your ideal customer and dream audience, build trust, build brand recognition, brand affinity and ultimately tell stories that sell.

The beautiful thing is that you can use stories at every single level of the buying process. Whether someone isn't aware of their problem.
They're aware of their problem.
They're aware of a solution to their problem.
They're aware of products but haven’t made a decision, you can incorporate stories to move them along.

So no matter where your ideal customer is in the buying process stories are an excellent marketing strategy.

You might tell a story about your situation…
You might tell a story about your transformation…
You might tell a story about your values…
But if you're not tying that to your audience, it becomes a cool-story-bro situation.
It becomes a “that's nice” situation.

Want a deeper dive? Keep reading here