Why You Should be Repeating Your Brand Story and Messages Online

VisibilityBranding

Jul 16

Do you feel like you’re always repeating yourself in business?

Specifically, with your marketing, are you afraid that you’re going to bore your audience with the same thing over and over again?

And that Brand Story, I mean how often should you share it, and won’t people get tired of hearing it if you’re sharing it on your blog, website, email, social media, and more?

The good news and I know this might sound crazy, but the odds of them even seeing your content the first time it’s posted is SUPER slim.

So, that’s the silver lining I suppose...we get to repeat ourselves in order to better market our business online.

Today, I’m sharing why repetition is important, how to modify your stories based on need and how to avoid boring the shiz out of your community.

WHAT REPETITION IN MARKETING IS NOT

It’s important to note that repetition is not saying the same thing, exactly, over and over again. I like to call this the “copy and paste” issue.

You discover something works so you copy and paste it over and over and over again, beating it into the ground rather than making small changes.

As a great marketer, you have to be obsessed with your numbers, this is why analytics are essential when running an online business. Your numbers and your analytics play a huge role in the success of your marketing.

When it comes to repetition, especially as it applies to storytelling, you can use this analytical information to make decisions on what you should and should not repeat and your business.

Let’s say you have an amazing post where you shared your brand story, and it did really, really well. You would want to put that in your Story Bank, which is essentially a log of different stories you can share and incorporate into your content.

The same works for visual storytelling. I'm obsessed with brand photography, because of the storytelling that it provides just by looking at a photo. So when you look at your analytics and see a photo does really well, you’ll want to reuse that photo later.

When you have this information on what’s working well, you want to make small adjustments and give your content a little update. For instance, maybe you could take that brand story post that did well and add a new photo to it. You could take the photo that worked well and write a new copy.

The core is repeating itself, but you’re making small changes to keep it fresh and exciting for your audience, without having to do more work on your part.

A BRAND STORYTELLING EXAMPLE:

Part of my Brand Story or Founder Story is “the eight-month struggle.”

You might have heard a variation of this story before because I’m always sharing it. But if you haven't, in short, it is that I spent eight months while working a nine to five and building this business with a baby, typically in a carrier on my back.

I spent eight months working on it, focusing my energy on picking my colors, fonts, logo design, designing my website, mapping out my programs, the whole thing.

After eight months I found myself with no community and no money to show for my efforts.

This is part of my Brand Story and I use it in variations all the freaking time.

I’ve shared a variation of this to talk about time management and the importance of dividing your time between building the backend of the business and building community.

I’ve shared this story when talking about the importance of branding or my freebies and program Brandmerry Academy. I share how I wasted time worrying about my fonts, colors, and logo missing the real purpose and foundation of branding. Now I teach entrepreneurs the right way to brand their business online.

I’ve also shared this story when talking about focus and comparison, which are important pillars of my brand. I share how I lost months worrying about what other people’s brands looked like and doubted my own ability because I didn’t focus on my mission, my purpose, and my story.

IT’S THE SAME STORY, just shared in different ways based on what I’m sharing in my business.

You can do the same in your business, making sure your Brand Story does more than just sit on your “About Me” page of your website.

The art of repetition in business is sharing the same story or collection of stories in different ways.

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 is 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 in 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 a 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, and 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.

CONCLUSION

Repetition is good for marketing. As marketers, we can't be afraid to share the things that we spend a lot of time and energy on and we know will be of value to our audience.

We can't be afraid to share these stories time and time again because the reality is our audience needs to see them time and time again.

If you’re ready to put more weight and importance on the art of storytelling, because let’s be honest it’s so important, then I’m excited to invite you to get my Tell Better Stories Workshop.

This 2.5-hour workshop replay will teach you how to become a better storyteller online. We’ll cover your Brand Story, Storytelling on Social and Storytelling to Sell.

Learn more at brandmerry.com/stories.