What's Your Brand Story?

By Claire Winter

The word ‘story’ conveys a lot of different meanings. When I think of a story, it usually involves characters, plots, settings, and the framework of a beginning, middle and end. But the way in which we tell stories has been revolutionised quite dramatically. Thousands of years ago, stories were painted on the walls of caves, or groups of people would congregate to hear stories that had been passed on through many generations. These days we have many more ways to communicate our stories through the content we create; a book, a website, a podcast, videos, blogs and the social media posts we share.

How we tell our story is vitally important, but before you can do that you must know what you are trying to tell others about your business. Here are some key points to consider:

IDENTIFY

The first key point consumers need to know about your business is who you are. What made you think of the idea for your business? How did you start it? How has it evolved? You may also want to think about what your consumers want to know. Who works for your business? Where are you based? The jewellery brand Pandora has a great timeline of how their journey began in 1982 from a local jeweller’s shop in Denmark, to now being one of the most identifiable jewellery brands in the world.

VISUALISE

Allowing your consumers to see how you have transformed is one way to showcase the success of your organisation so far. But what about the future? Businesses are having to adapt all the time and visualise new ways in order to stay above their competitors. What would you like your business to achieve in the future? How do you plan to do it? What is your organisation striving for? Adidas recently announced that they have used more than 50% of recycled polyester in their products for the first time. A useful fact, and it clearly shows the steps they are taking to be environmentally friendly. 

TARGET

Successful businesses know what kind of consumer to target. Think about your brand. Is it for affluent women? Teenagers? Parents? Other businesses? Looking at the target audience for your business will help you decipher how you market to your audience. Do you want to create bold, disruptive content, or something simple and to the point? To engage your audience, this is something you will need to think about.

If you are still struggling, try writing an ‘about’ section for your brand. But remember even when we write our ‘about’ section, it’s not about you, it’s about them - your customers. What do you stand for? How do you help your customers and clients? What makes you stand out from your competitors?

Getting clear on your brand story will help you create compelling content. Brands like Apple, Nike and many more have perfected the art of storytelling by keeping what they say about their brand simple and powerful. The stories you tell will connect you with your audience so they grow to love and understand what you do. Keep the stories alive and the rest will follow.

Claire Winter has been a content creator, journalist, and dedicated tea drinker for twenty years. She is a trained NCTJ journalist and started her career at ITN in radio and television. Passionate about helping business owners create content that converts via her online mastermind and 1:1 training, she loves sharing writing tips and content tips over in her own community, Cracking content.

Claire currently writes for all 41 Families magazines covering the UK and reaching 9 million parents a year. She has helped hundreds of large and small businesses with content marketing campaigns in print, online, and social media.