Brand Storytelling: What’s Your Story?

Storytelling is a vital marketing strategy to connect your audience to your brand using a curated narrative. You, as the storyteller, get to create a relevant narrative to ensure your brand resonates with your audience.

You can create characters, intrigue and familiarity for your target customers. Even if you’re just showcasing the history of your brand, storytelling can be done in several ways. Through photos, videos or even ‘just’ text, there are numerous creative ways to make your brand memorable. Choosing which technique works best for your brand will depend on what your audience engages with the most.

Research shows that, 9 times out of 10, an audience is looking for an authentic and relatable brand to connect with. Showing the faces and journey behind your brand by just being ‘yourself’ could be the final step of your journey to securing trust with your target customers.

Being authentic and accessible needn’t be overly challenging. For example, one of our favourite parts of our new Together brand is the way we’re able to incorporate every team member into our logo. Each team member is able to effectively swap the ‘O’ in ‘Together’ to make sure they’re positioned firmly within our brand’s identity. Each time a new team member joins us, they’re encouraged to sketch their own element to become part of our story. This is a fun and simple way to demonstrate that every team member you interact with at Together has their own place and influence within our brand.

Why do you need storytelling?

Humans are hard-wired to love stories; especially those with an emotional and sentimental connection. Storytelling is a great way to attract your audience and keep them interested; it allows you to personalise your brand to match your audiences’ personas. The most recognisable use of storytelling is during the festive period. Brands utilise the one ‘guaranteed’ calendar event that is synonymous with love, reflection and generosity to create compelling stories.We decided to dive into 2022’s top Christmas adverts; check out our blog where we have a rundown on the big brands’ best festive campaigns.

If you’re struggling to get started, we’ve got you covered with a quick breakdown of the top benefits storytelling can bring your brand.

Remember: ‘Build curiosity’

Most people scroll through at least dozens of posts on social media every day. A brand's social marketing aim is typically to get someone to stop scrolling and engage with their content. The average adult's attention span is now around 8 seconds so your post needs to be truly captivating to capture that interest.

Steve Jobs once said we are living in an increasingly complicated and noisy world, and many of us don’t have the chance to let our customers remember us. The winning marketing campaigns are those that dominate the “attention economy” - meaning, the more attention you generate, the more memorable you’ll be, and the more revenue you’ll likely be earning.

Stories are a great way to make someone want to know more about your brand. Unlike a regular post with a bunch of promotional information, telling a story allows you to craft a timeline that generates intrigue and excitement for ‘what comes next’. Not only are you giving context and background to your brand, you’re making them want to know more about what you have to offer. This transparency is extremely useful for helping build trust with your consumers.

One of the best ways to build curiosity is through the use of emotion-led suspense; whether your story is happy, sad or frightening, it will attract your audience's attention and allow you to deliver your core brand message in the most effective way.

Develop a relationship with your audience

Whilst your story is resonating with your audience’s personas, you can build a relationship with your audience. Bringing your brand to life gives your audience something to engage with on a ‘human level’.

Writing a story about the background and values of your brand is a great way to start building that relationship. At Together, we always consider how we can build consumer trust for our clients as it’s this personal connection that will secure brand loyalty. Creating a more human brand persona was a core focus of our exciting rebrand in 2022. By using staff-centric photography, accessible language and an occasional cheeky pun, we’ve positioned Together as a truly engaging brand. Check out our About Us page to see our story in more detail here.

Create a personality

A vital component of developing a relationship is by positioning your brand with a clear and memorable personality. The beauty of storytelling is that you can really craft your brand's personality across multiple touchpoints. A unique personality (or brand persona) is the best way you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and stand out to your audience.

As we said before, your brand needs to ‘come to life’ through your storytelling. To build a personality you first need to consider your tone and style. You need to keep consistent with these elements to guarantee clarity. You shouldn’t be chopping and changing your tone of voice or style too regularly as it can cause a disconnect between your previous persona and your audience’s current perception of your brand, thus undoing all of your hard-earned brand authenticity.

For the majority of brands, making your personality welcoming will ensure your audience perceive you as accessible, trustworthy and shareable.

Where to starT

The first thing you need to do before you begin storytelling is to extensively research your audience. Your style, your message, when and where you’re publishing should all be strategic decisions based on your audience insights.

Without an understanding of your audience, your story will not get the desired engagement or cut-through.

For example, if your audience is one that you understand need to deeply understand your product before making a purchasing decision, you might want to focus on longer-form messaging and content. In contrast, if your audience is able to make more impulse decisions, shorter-form & entertaining storytelling might resonate strongest. A true understanding of your audience, and how you want them to engage with your story will impact your marketing strategy immensely.

We always recommend keeping our client stories simple in the first instance, especially if it’s a younger brand or new to you as a member of the marketing team. The more complex your story becomes, the more confusing it can be to focus on your brand’s personality and your audience's interests. Remember - if you’re successful in building your brand’s story, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to develop additional elements to the messages you’re delivering. Generally speaking, short and simple is always our recommendation.

Beginning with your brand story should be an exciting time. The brands with the best story to support their product and team are the ones that are remembered for generations to come. As a marketeer, the opportunity to create something truly unique should be seen as a brilliant opportunity.

At Together we have spent a long time perfecting both our clients’ and our own brand stories. We try our best to communicate this across our channels, so have a look around our website that (we think) nicely shows off our identity. We’re super proud of it.

We consider industry-leading strategies, trends and techniques, alongside behavioural science, to help our clients develop their story. Creating a unique brand presence is not easy, but with the right philosophy, it’s possible, and something that can help you connect with your audience more effectively.

Like what you've seen? Get in touch to talk to us about your brand.