Storytelling is an art. Not everyone can engage their audience and make them visualize the story through their words. The same holds true for brand stories.

Your brand story should be compelling enough to make the audience believe in your brand and purchase from you. It’s an important pillar of a good content marketing strategy. To help you craft the perfect brand story, I’ve with me, Melanie Deziel. She’s the Founder of StoryFuel and an award-winning content strategist who loves the art of storytelling.

However, before we understand the process of creating a brand story, we need to understand what a brand story is first.

What is a Brand Story?

Simply put, a brand story is any communication or message sent out by a brand to its potential or existing customers. This may also include messages sent out unintentionally.

A brand story is all about content and its distribution through your website, sales representatives, or even through your customer care. Your brand story should define your core values and selling propositions. The content on your social media accounts and press releases are also a part of your brand story.

Now that it is clear that what is a brand story, let’s look into how we can create a stellar brand story and build stronger content marketing.

How to Tell Your Brand Story

Here’s how you can create branded content for your brand:

1. Know Your Target Customer

You will be able to tell a better story if you know who is listening to it. This is why you must know who your target customers are before you start marketing your business. It is impractical and a waste of your time and effort if you do not know your target audience.

Study the demographics and other qualitative data of your audience. You should know their likes and dislikes and what prompts them to buy. For this, you can conduct surveys and also observe your competition and their customers. This will help you understand your target audience better.

2. What is Your Brand Identity?

Define your brand’s identity. What does your brand stand for? Find out the problems that your brand resolves for its customers and try to understand its significance in your customer’s lives.

You should know the answers to these questions before you start working on your brand story. Develop your brand guidelines, and based on that, create your branded content. This will ensure that it reflects your brand’s identity.

Your company’s mission and vision should also align with your brand story.

3. Define Your Core Values

Your brand story should narrate your company’s core value proposition. All of the communication that is sent out to your audience should tell (or show) what your company does and what it stands for.

The story should highlight all of the points that can help you stand out from your competition and show why you’re the better choice. Define your unique selling points (USPs) and key differentiators. You should also narrate your mission and vision.

Making your target audience familiar with your principles will bring them closer to your company and may turn them into loyal customers if they share similar values.

4. Add a Personal Touch

Adding a personal touch to your branded content goes a long way in defining your relationship with your customers. You need to connect with your audience on a personal level to grow your brand effectively.

The most powerful way of adding a personal touch is by using your existing customers to narrate a brand story to your potential customer. This can create trust in the minds of your audience as they’ll know the experience other customers had with your brand.

5. Test Run Before Launching

You should consider doing a trial run with your brand story before going public with it. A great test audience for it is your employees. If your employees can relate to the brand story, then it is bound to impress your target audience.

Your sales and customer service teams should be your main target. They should truly understand and relate to your brand story. If your sales team isn’t convinced of your value proposition, they will never be able to convert your target customers through it.

Conclusion

Stories can help you establish a connection with your target audience. If you want them to relate to your brand, your brand story should create an impact on them.

Keep the narrative simple, unique, and original. It will attract your potential buyer’s attention and will differentiate your selling proposition from your competition. Make sure you add a personal touch to your brand story, ensure that it’s aligned with your brand values, and test it before going ahead.

Do you have any questions or tips about developing a brand story to add? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Shane Barker

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.