Using what Makes Your Brand Unique to Your Advantage
Effective marketing. It’s something that we’ve all talked about and read about. It includes marketing strategies to try that often require good execution and experience.
This experience comes from trial and error; in other words, failing until the right audience is reached and the right results are achieved.
But this experimentation can be a time and budget waster, especially for small businesses and nonprofits.
That is where storytelling can become your most powerful tool.
What is storytelling and why is it so powerful in marketing? Let’s dive in and find out!
What is Storytelling in Marketing?
Storytelling as it relates to marketing is all about making a connection between a brand and its audience. In other words, you are creating a bridge that helps the customer connect to your brand on an emotional level.
Why Is Storytelling so Powerful?
What makes this so powerful is that purchase and donation decisions are made based on emotion, not rational thinking. You can see this tactic in action in holiday campaigns and donation calls that appeal to a person’s humanity.
Further, storytelling is what makes your brand relatable; it is what makes your brand unique. Everyone has heard the “30 years in business” and “best quality” pitches and they have begun to tune them out. Being authentically you and engaged with your audience through telling your brand’s story helps break through the digital noise. Your story is what makes your brand different from your competitors and helps build deep, lasting relationships with your audience.
How to Tell Your Brand’s Story in Marketing
Now that you have learned just how powerful storytelling can be in your marketing strategy, you are probably wondering how you go about doing it. It’s not like writing a book, so here are some tips to help you plan your storytelling strategy effectively.
- Write your end message and what your audience will get as a takeaway from your story. In other words, what do you want your audience to do after reading your brand’s story? This is actually a great starting point for you to work backward to outline your story.
- Remember to not just consider the problem you are trying to solve, but instead what you can do for your audience. This is also referred to as content-rich marketing. When you focus your story on solving issues for others, you will find new opportunities to expand and scale up your audience!
- Decide which themes and values to focus on; don’t get too broad in this or you can stretch yourself thin.
- Each story, or marketing strategy, should contain a value proposition. The value proposition is the overlap between these three things: what your customer wants, what you can do to solve their problem, and what you can do better than your competitors.
- Define your storytelling style and stick to it. Choose how you want to reveal your story. Will you make it available all at once or slowly tell your story over time? Neither is wrong, but the style depends on what is right for your brand.
- Storyboarding your story. This can help you see the different chapters of your story, select the proper audience segments, and choose which channels are best to use.
- Once you select the right media and channels for your story, test sample audiences, reassess, and adjust your campaign until you get it right.
Forms of Storytelling
The way in which you tell your story won’t be the same as how other brands do. Here are some possible forms of telling your story that you can consider.
- UGC (user-generated content) involves loyal audiences in the story, which can help drive engagement, expand your reach, and build trust.
- Influencer marketing which can grow your audience. Influencers also add value by sharing their own story with your brand both on their channels and yours!
- Video is the strongest form of content. It is engaging and offers captivating visuals.
- Blogs are amazing at building trust and can be the easiest way to write out your brand’s story. Why are blogs great at building trust? People have an innate tendency to trust more of things that they can read for themselves.
Get Help from an Invested Marketing Partner
If all of this still sounds overwhelming, we get it! It can be difficult to run the day-to-day of your business and worry about crafting the perfect marketing strategy. At Attuned, our goal is to help you build a marketing strategy that reaches your goals and vision. Our holistic approach focuses on what makes each client unique and helps your brand connect with your audience on a deeper emotional level. Connect with us today to learn more about how we can help you craft a storytelling campaign.