Brand Storytelling: 5 Tips for Telling Stories That Resonate
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Whether you’re a small business owner building a new brand, or in marketing at an established company, chances are you’ve been asked: “What’s the story we’re trying to tell?”
In fact, storytelling has been getting a lot of flak recently for being a bit of a corporate buzzword.
So, why are we so obsessed with telling stories? And what has it got to do with branding?
As humans, we learn through stories. It’s how our brains are wired.
It’s why we turn to fables and nursery rhymes to teach children important lessons.
It’s why PSA’s that pull at our heartstrings will garner more donations than even the most shocking of statistics.
When we hear stories, more of our brains light up. Literally – our neural activity increases five-fold when we receive information as stories, versus simple facts. Storytelling helps us process and retain information on a deeper level.
The recent (relatively speaking) advent of smartphones and social media changed how consumers engage with brands. It made it a lot faster, cheaper, and easier to publish different types of content to connect with your audiences.
But it made it faster, cheaper, and easier for your competitors, too.
Back in 2010, Eric Schmidt, the then-CEO of Google, famously said at a conference:
“There was 5 Exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days, and the pace is increasing.”
And while that figure was a bit of an exaggeration at the time, over a decade later, it appears to be true.
With so much content out there, it’s harder than ever to stand out. And that is where brand storytelling comes in.
What is Brand Storytelling? (And Why Should I Care?)
Brand storytelling is the act of using narrative stories to connect your brand with your customers. It’s when a brand tells a story. And it can be a powerful tool at all levels.
You can use it to tell the history of your brand and why you exist. You can convey your values through evocative examples. You can elicit sympathy by shining light on a cause you’re aligned with. You can zero-in on specific customers’ experiences with your products or services, to show how you fit into their lives for the better.
Really, brand storytelling is what lies at the heart of content marketing. It’s not about what story you tell, or what channel you use to tell it – it’s about connecting with your audiences on an emotional level, no matter what story you’re telling.
And done well, it can lead to some serious business benefits. Effective brand storytelling can:
Make people 22% more likely to remember what you say
Build valuable trust with your audience
Boost conversion rates by 30%
Make people more likely to buy your product and share your brand
So, how do you tell a brand story that sets you apart? We’re glad you asked…
5 Tips for Effective Brand Storytelling
In their book, The Storytelling Edge, content marketers Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow share 4 elements of great storytelling: relatability, novelty, tension, and fluency. Using their framework as a basis (plus, one additional element), we’ve got our own spin on how to master the art of brand storytelling.
Relatability: Allow Your Audience to See Themselves in Your Story
For a story to resonate, people need to have someone or something they can relate to. The Office wouldn’t work if we didn’t have Jim and Pam there to balance out the more out-there characters in the show.
That doesn’t mean you need to have a literal, human character in every story you tell. But if you want your audience to connect, you need to be able to bring them in. Other ways to make your story relatable include:
Shared language – talking how they talk
Shared values – explicitly sharing what you stand for
Shared humanity – show how you make mistakes, and learn from them
Relatability grounds your audience in the story, and lets them see how they fit in.
Novelty: Show Them Something New
Relatability lets people see how they fit in the context of your story. Novelty is what hooks them. It’s what grabs their attention.
It makes them want to keep reading (or watching, or listening).
As you’re creating your content, ask yourself: Am I saying anything new? What’s my spin on this situation? What makes this different?
According to Lazauskas and Snow, “The best stories use relatability to get us invested and then use novelty to keep us interested.”
Tension: Pique Their Curiosity
It may feel counterintuitive to bring tension into your brand story. After all, you want people to feel comforted and at ease with your brand. You want to build trust. But without tension, stories are, well, boring.
Tension is what gives the main character of any movie something to overcome. It’s what fuels the “will they won’t they” in every sitcom. And for brands, it’s an opportunity to show how you can help solve a problem, meet a need, or even how you evolve over time.
Presenting a problem, or issue, or challenge to be overcome will cause people to lean in and ask, “I wonder how they handled that?”
So don’t be afraid to show how you handle tough situations, and learn from your mistakes.
Fluency: Make It Easy for Them to Follow
The best story in the world won’t resonate if it’s written in a language you don’t understand. Too often, brands want to demonstrate their expertise, or niche passion. But getting too “into the weeds” or waxing poetic about your industry will cause you to lose your audience’s attention.
Once you know what you want to say, hone your message and say it as clearly as possible. So that the youngest, least experienced person in your audience understands it.
Make it impossible to be misunderstood.
After all, you want people to be immersed in your ideas, not the mechanics of how you communicate them.
Authenticity: Be True to Who You Are
While authenticity isn’t included in their storytelling framework, the authors talk at length about its importance elsewhere in the book. And we thought it was important enough to include here.
As they explain:
“Whereas we humans are built for story, we’re also built to discern. We look for things that are wrong. And despite all the power stories have for good, a story that deceives people is likely to backfire.”
Put another way: your audience has a really strong BS-detector. Even a perfectly crafted and engaging story will fail if it isn’t congruent with the rest of your brand identity.
From the topics you cover to the voice you use to the platforms you engage with, be sure every part of your brand story fits with your brand identity.
Need Help Finding Your Voice? We Got You!
Good brand storytelling can have a huge impact on your brand. Need help telling your story?
Reach out and let us help set you on the right course.
