Stories evoke emotion and motivate us to take action.
Stories are central to the human experience. Stories entertain us, teach us, motivate us… Stories evoke emotion. Using story to connect to your dream customer or client eliminates the need to “sell”. When people feel understood by your company, they feel connected to your brand and are motivated to take action. Use story to make your brand relatable.
Your brand voice is part of what makes up your brand personality. And it’s in all your communication from the emails you write, to the copy on your website and marketing collateral to captions in your social posts. It’s important that your brand is consistent and cohesive. You want your voice to complement the visual aspects of your brand and work well to communicate your overall brand story.
Compelling stories start with clarity and intention
Your brand is like a person with a personality. So when conversing with your audience it’s important to have clarity and intention about who you are, what you teach, and how you want your audience to feel when they encounter your brand.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone at a party or networking event who was all over the place? Their stories made no sense and didn’t flow, or worse they talked about themself the whole time. It’s even worse when the guy at the party is super hot and then when he starts talking to you you’re totally turned off because he’s dumb as rocks and can’t stop talking about himself. Don’t be the hot, self-centered, dumb guy at the party. Find your brand voice foundation with our BRAND STORY BLUEPRINT to help ensure you are the interesting, well-spoken, wise woman at the party.
Once you have established your voice foundation, use these tips to be sure your brand isn’t like one of those annoying people at the party who repel rather than attract people to them. Download our free BRAND STORY OUTLINE WORKSHEET to help you clarify your brand story.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS of STORY in BRANDING
1. Seek first to understand
Influential author, Stephen Covey said it so well in his most popular book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “Seek first to understand then to be understood. Use empathetic listening to genuinely understand a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to be influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem-solving,” says Covey. Do you deeply understand your audience or community? Always know who you are talking to and speak their language. If you do not have crystal clear clarity around who your audience is, their pain points and struggles, and what they value, your message will be lost. Get clear on this before you write anything. If you haven’t nailed down the details of your CUSTOMER AVATAR do so now. Once you’ve completed that then grab our BRAND STORY OUTLINE and you’ll start to see it all come together.
2. Clarify your intention
What is your message? What do you teach? Why is it important? Use our BRAND STORY BLUEPRINT to outline your overall brand story so that you have a clear foundational intention moving forward. Each time you write copy, an email, a post, a comment, etc. know what your intention is. When you have a clear objective you are able to “cut the fat” and eliminate unnecessary details. Anything that does not add to the story’s point should be left out.
3.Paint a vivid picture
Show don’t tell. Use visual language that will give the story depth so your audience will form a memorable picture in their mind. Consider two descriptions of the same thing: “Today I had an amazing ice cream sundae!” vs. “Today I had the most amazing old-fashioned chocolate fudge ice cream sundae topped with a tower of whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, and a cherry on top! Which description painted a more elaborate picture in your mind?
4. Use real-life examples
Your audience will remember real stories of transformation especially if the story is relatable. I remember in high school, my jr. year history teacher, Mr. Sweeney was notorious for using dialogue when talking about historical events. He made it seem like he was there and knew the characters. To this day I remember Pearl Harbor as if I were standing on the beach watching from a secret hiding spot. Ok, Hollywood may have helped with that one, but his stories were so vivid and memorable his class is the ONLY history class I remember at all up until that point. He literally changed my mind about history being boring.
5. Open with a hook
All stories have a beginning middle and end, your marketing copy should too. As you build your brand and find your voice you will begin to build a solid formula for your stories and the way you communicate. Always open with a story loop and close it with the result of the transformation. That opening story loop is your hook. It’s what stops your audience in their tracks and hooks them with curiosity wondering the outcome. Will this problem be solved? How?
6. Don’t overwhelm with unnecessary details and don’t talk about yourself
Remember the hot guy at the party who was all over the place and liked to talk about himself but had no point except to talk about himself. He shared way too much information that added absolutely nothing to the story except an occasional eye-roll. Don’t be that guy. Your audience will run for the hills. It doesn’t matter how good your hook was, they will not stick around to close the story loop if you don’t get to the point. It comes back to having clear intention. With clear intention, you are able to keep your story short, sweet, to the point, and very effective. And you’ll be likable.
8. Don’t tell a story without a problem or challenge
If your story lacks a challenge it falls flat. It won’t really be a story. Problems are paramount. We face challenges every single day. We can relate to a challenge and if the solution in the story can also solve our own problem then we take notice. We are always looking for ways to survive and make our life easier or better.
9. Always resolve the problem
Paint the picture of transformation. How did your client or customer feel before the problem was solved? How do they feel once the problem has been solved? What does that look like? How can you show the results of the resolution?
10. Position your brand as the guide in the story, not the hero
Think of your brand as the guide in the story. Every good story has a guide leading the hero to victory. Think Yoda, in Star Wars. Your brand is Yoda. If your brand can lead your client or customer to victory they will fall in love with your brand and then spread the word. They will tell your brand’s story for you. And this my friend is called the RIPPLE EFFECT.
Use our BRAND STORY OUTLINE WORKSHEET to create your BRAND STORY OUTLINE. Take the time and focus needed to go deep with this. You’ll use this worksheet as your branding and marketing copy outline moving forward so it’s absolutely worth the effort.
