No matter what industry you operate in or how big your company is, there is always a story behind it. People love reading stories about their favorite brands, businesses, and products. Brand storytelling not only humanizes your company but also brings positive PR and new customers to your doorstep.
However, it is not as simple as writing a few lines of text and publishing it as a representative image of your brand. Readers, especially online, want to see substance, emotion, and professionalism above all else. To that end, let’s take a look at several steps which can help you develop a great story about your business and the people who work in it.
Start with the Mission
Every company has a reason for existing besides the obvious need for revenue. Just look at Coca-Cola. The company made it its mission to “spread happiness”, not to sell fizzy drinks or branded toys. However, their products are infused with the mission of their company, making them much more relatable to the end-user.
Each piece of content that gets published under your brand’s name must be recognized as such in an instant. Make sure to add your visual elements, company name, and other small details to each content piece before publishing it. In the same vein, your brand’s story must start, and end, with the long-term mission of your brand. That way, people will have something abstract, but relatable, to hold on to and identify with.
Showcase Your Staff
One of the best ways to write a story about your business is to showcase the people behind it. Everyone, from your managers to staff members, should have their place in the story you are writing. This can be done in numerous ways: through images with quotes, team photos, or simple snippets of everyday office work.
It’s important that people realize that your business is a collection of likeminded people who work towards the same goal. This will humanize your brand and product, allowing a lot more people to identify with what you do. In turn, they will spread positive word of mouth about your business and occasionally convert into followers, subscribers, and customers.
Integrate Multimedia
When we talk about “writing” we often refer to plain text. However, brand storytelling requires a lot more life and versatility. Multimedia content such as photos, videos and/or audio conversations with your staff members add a lot to the story.
Brian Summers, copywriter at BestWritersCanada, spoke recently: “Written words can only do so much to illustrate a point. Adequate multimedia materials are always necessary in order to drive a point forward, both in formal writing and blogging.” You can create small bits of multimedia in-house without hiring outside assistance. What matters is that you give people an “image” to hold onto while they read your business’ story.
Implement Social Proof
Numbers are an important part of brand storytelling. The more statistical data and infographics you implement, the more proof you will have of your intentions as a brand. Readers love seeing social proof in blog posts and business stories. It helps them be at ease with a brand they don’t know and it makes their future purchase decisions easier.
Toby Heath, a marketing manager at Best writing service rating explains: “You can implement anything from the number of satisfied clients you worked with to the number of products you sold over the course of your business’ existence. Any number that positively paints a good picture of your brand is worth implementing into the story you create for your business.”
Proofread your Writing
The importance of grammar, spelling, and formatting in your brand storytelling cannot be overstated. You could write an amazing story about your business but if it is riddled with proofreading errors, people will have a hard time taking it seriously. To that end, it’s always a good idea to use platforms and tools to help your cause.
Tools like Grammarly are a great resource of spellchecking and proofreading once you have some materials already done. On the other hand, platforms such as Hemingway App can help you edit and trim down your content if you wrote a lot of content without planning in advance. More doesn’t always mean better, even in brand storytelling. Spellcheck your writing before publishing it and you will come off as much more professional and trustworthy to your readers.
Mind the Keywords
Even though you are writing a story about your brand, keywords still play a large part in your online visibility. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can effectively help you make your story more visible to search engines and subsequent readers.
Tools such as Google Adwords and SEM Rush can help you identify the best words to use in your brand’s story. All you have to do is sprinkle these words into your writing in order to make your content more relevant to search engine algorithms. That way, even people who don’t know about your brand can come across the story you created and become intrigued by your business, products, and services.
Testimonials as Abstracts
Just as multimedia is important to your writing, so are employee testimonials. Take some time to interview your staff members, colleagues, and even business partners. Ask them to give you a quote or two which can then be used in your brand storytelling efforts. This is another aspect of social proof which works wonders for people who don’t know anything about your business prior to reading the story.
Natalie Andersen, CEO of GetGoodGrade, has shared recently: “People often skim articles online and don’t have time to read long-form content. Abstracts are an amazing way to draw attention to important pieces of content.” Make sure to format your testimonials and quotes so that they are separate from the body text itself. That way, even casual onlookers will be able to read the positive comments about your business.
Place a CTA
Lastly, calls to action can help your brand’s story come to a satisfying conclusion. Even though brand storytelling is aimed at representing your brand, it’s still important for people to interact with the content. CTAs are a great way to invite people to share their opinions of your brand and offer some feedback or insight from their perspective.
It’s worth noting that CTAs should be used very sparingly in business stories, sometimes only in the conclusion of the piece itself. That way, you will be able to perfectly continue the discussion and point it towards the comment section below. Don’t passively present your brand and hope that people do something about what they just read. Ask them to do so through carefully written CTAs which will engage them on an individual level.
Business as a Family
Painting a positive image of your brand will take time. After all, online readers and customers are used to seeing businesses without any faces or story attached to them. However, with several content pieces on your website and social media pages, you will be able to create a much more presentable and professional brand image. All it takes is for you to look around the office and think of creative, human ways of presenting your work to the public.
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