How Connect to Your Target Audience With a Brand Story
What is a brand story? Most people think that it’s the history of their company’s brand, or something super intricate and hard to develop. This isn’t entirely true, nor is it completely wrong. All in all, a brand story is so much more.
A brand story is the narrative of your business. It encompasses facts, feelings, and aesthetics that showcase who you are as a company. Unlike traditional advertising, which blatantly shows and tells the customer point blank who you are, a story inspires an emotional reaction. Once you have hit the heart of your consumer, your company is more likely to stick within their mind for a longer period of time. This means more sales! The reason that customers are loyal to brand is due to its brand story. A story that’s emotional or inspirational helps customers connect with a brand on a human level, in turn, making them feel better about their purchase. Things that can influence your brand story include the products you sell, price range, history, quality, marketing, in-store experience, purpose, values, location, and most definitely how other people view your business.
Consider your own brand story for a second and ask yourself these questions:
Does it make your brand stand out?
How is it told?
Does it show personality?
If you’re lacking in any of these areas, don’t worry. We’re about to dive into how you can create a successful brand story.
YOU’RE NOT PERFECT, SO YOUR BRAND STORY SHOULDN’T BE EITHER
When you observe the brand stories of others, it’s clear to see that they try to disguise themselves as “perfect”. Ads are most always filled with words like ‘best’, ‘amazing’, ‘guaranteed’ and more. This can be reassuring for customers to look at upon a first glance, but these words will never work within your brand story. Perfection is something of a tall tale when it comes to the human experience. In order to connect on a human to human level, we have to be honest. Customers want to see your struggles, the obstacles you overcame, imperfections, and how you climbed to the top despite all of these things. The best brand stories understand that perfection is a myth and that it would be a huge mistake to pretend the main character was perfect from the beginning. Who wants to support and root for an already perfect person?
YOUR BRAND STORY ISN’T A NOVEL
A brand story is short, sweet, and easily consumed. They need to appeal to all kinds of audiences, not just experts in the field. Structure your story in a way that is informative, inspiring, and creative without making it too complex. Remember, if a customer can’t read your brand story in a matter of a few minutes, they’re not going to bother.
DON’T FORGET WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS
It’s easy to forget that our brand story isn’t just a rundown of our history as a company. It’s supposed to inspire your customer into believing and supporting you. Therefore, your story should be constructed with your target audience in mind. Think of it this way: if you were going to make a movie that only people who loved to cook would watch, it probably wouldn’t make sense to make a horror movie. Think of how your brand story might best connect to the people who are more likely to buy your product. What kind of details can you include that will make them take up the cause of your brand?
USE YOUR BRAND STORY AS A WAY TO NARRATE YOUR PURPOSE
Your brand story should demonstrate why a customer should stick with you. Don’t think about this in basic terms, think of it in a more human way. For example, a car dealership’s purpose isn’t to sell cars or make money, it’s to give you a safe way of getting from one location to another. If you can’t give your customer a reason aside from the basic aspects of your products to buy, then they are definitely going to look somewhere else.
TIE IT TOGETHER WITH PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
The last element to consider within your brand story is to put a sort of bowtie within in order to bring your customer back to what you sell. Don’t forget that your brand story’s basic purpose is to sell your product of service. You want to inspire your customer to buy.
You can do this! Contact us as Colorado Canopies to learn more on how to make a cohesive brand!